Tennessee Books

Very intersting. I highly recommend this book. A good "what if".

Civil War expert Dennis McIntire's Lee At Chattanooga: A Novel Of What Might Have Been is a fascinating "what if" alternate history novel about Robert E. Lee and Braxton Bragg. Lee At Chattanooga is an intriguing and imaginative exploration of the perennial question: what if it had been Lee who was involved in the Chattanooga campaign? A heavily researched and fascinatingly explored scenario unfolds in the resulting intricate chronicle, Lee at Chattanooga. Dennis McIntire's makes his characters come alive and this unusual story unfold with such compelling realism that he has created a work of historical fiction which totally engages the reader from first page to last -- and makes Lee At Chattanooga a "must read" for all dedicated Civil War buffs.

I bought this book on a whim, and boy am I glad I did. I'm not much of a fan of the Harry Turtledove stuff (I do read it, it's just that I'm not *that* impressed) wherein the author attempts to follow all aspects and angles of a particular period of "alternative" history. Here, retired FBI agent Dennis McIntire (reportedly a life-long Civil War buff) attempts less, and winds up with more of a book as a result.

The book is told in the form of a memoir. It begins, in a brief introduction, with the narrator (Jed Hotchkiss, Stonewall Jackson's Cartographer) recounting the surrender of the Confederate army in 1864, then shifts to 1867. In the latter section, Hotchkiss meets Jefferson Davis' secretary at General Lee's funeral, and recounts to him the events surrounding General Lee's participation in the battle of Chattanooga, and the results that came from these events. I will tell you no more: you should read the book yourself to find out how things get screwed up.

This book essentially turns the genre of Civil War Alternative History (so far anyway) on its head. Instead of the Confederates winning the war and living on in glory, Lee's presence at Chattanooga actually hastens the end of the war. To my mind, it's the equivalent of the David Downing novel The Moscow Option, which purports to show that even if Hitler's generals had been directing strategy in WW2 things might not have gone as well as they'd hoped. I enjoyed this book a great deal. McIntire is a good writer, and the prose is more than serviceable. The plot is interesting, and makes sense, and the characterizations of the generals involved are in line with what we know of them. I would recommend this book to all Civil War buffs, though the rest of the public would have to know something about the war and the battle to get the full import of what the book is saying.

Somewhat of a historical novel buff, I picked up McIntire's book on a whim. While the subject matter looked promising, I later wondered if I'd picked up some kind of southern "yeah, well if Lee had been at Chattanooga . . ." sour grapes drivel (even being a southerner myself doesn't make me want to read THAT). It didn't take but a few moments - his prologue in fact - to realize that what I was reading was an impartial "what if", one which just happened to pick a Civil War battle as its subject.

And McIntire chooses his battles well. The battle of Chattanooga is widely know for its gaffs and heroics (on both sides) as well as its strategic importance. The North had the opportunity to completely strangle the South, and the South desperately needed to bounce back after devastating losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

As someone who does not read textbook history well, I was pleased to find that McIntire writes both knowledgably and comfortably. The battle scenes are realistic and most characters are developed very well. Simply put, it is a good blend of history and the author's imagination, and that makes for a good read.

I picked up a copy for two reasons: I enjoy alternate history, and I'm a Chattanooga native. The more I read, the closer it brought me to the actual battlesites-which I haven't visited in over a decade. The characters were well written and seemed alive; I thoroughly enjoyed the details. A Sidewise Award Nominee for 2002. For Civil War fans I also recommend Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee and Harry Harrison's Stars and Stripes Trilogy.

I moved to KY a few years ago and wanted to garden for the first time in years. This book (and the companion one about what plants grow here) really helped. I am constantly flipping through it's mud-stained pages for reminders. I agree with another reviewer, though, that I wish it were organized by month instead of category (bulbs, annuals, etc.). However, if you only grow roses, say, the organization makes sense. I would recommend this book to any new gardener in KY or TN.

I bought this book when we moved to TN 4 years ago. I think I've used every single section except for the vegetable section, which I plan to use for next summer when I finally set up a gardening area. The climate and soil in TN are unlike any other place that I've lived at in the US and this book is worth it's weight in gold for all the wonderful advice! We now have one of the nicest yards in our neighborhood thanks to this book and our hard work!

Excellent advice for all times of the year, even in the winter months, when you might be wondering how to make yourself useful. There are chapters in all the areas involved: trees, shrubs, lawns, bulbs, etc. And of course it is specific to our area.

Honestly, I'd love to give this book more than 2 stars, because it so clearly covers material needed by gardeners in our area (especially beginning to intermediate gardeners like me). Having lived on the West Coast, where the Sunset Western Garden Book is the definitive gardener's bible, I looked high and low for an analog here in the South.

This is not it.

Don't get me wrong: this book has some good information and what's there is written in a highly readable, friendly voice.

But it is not a reference book, and it will not answer every gardening question you may have. And it may even leave you with some new questions after you try to make sense of some of the overly simple descriptions. And maybe that's OK, because it's not billed as that kind of a reference guide.

What is IS billed as, though, is a month-by-month guide to working in the garden. And it's here that it actually fails the most.

Organized into sections by different types of plants (bulbs, shrubs, trees, etc), this book is then further organized within each of those sections by month... ALPHABETICALLY! If that's not the craziest thing you've ever heard, just try to imagine actually using this book to try to understand what you need to do this weekend. You would need to flip through each section for each type of plant in your garden, and then flip around the counterintuitive listing (since when does April come before February, which comes before January?) to find the appropriate month. Lather, rinse, and repeat for each type of plant in your garden.

Why the author and publisher of this book didn't realize it would have made immeasurably more sense to group all the information together for each month and sort those months in CALENDAR order, I have no idea. But I'm here to tell you, it ain't worth it. Stick with the Southern Living Garden Book and you'll be a lot less frustrated.

This book lives up to its title. I have been gardening for years and learned quite a few new tricks. The book has editions for all parts of the country so buy the right book.
TennesseeGardener.....

I'm an avid true crime reader and sometimes get jaded but this book really grabbed me and took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. It's hard to believe that one person would be allowed to hold the power that Lanier did and hard to believe that a high court would release him the way they did. I have complete admiration for the women who stood up to this disgusting piece of "humanity", their courage is a model for all women!

I wasn't fond of the title, but as I read the back of the book and skimmed the first few pages I was hooked. I couldn't believe what these poor women went through. Lanier was so thoroughly evil and couldn't even realize it. To think that women would want what he did to them is rather typical of a lot of men I think. He acted on his sick fantasies and them held the women's children's welfare over them. What a beast. I hope he stays in prison forever and inmates give him a dose of his own medicine.

Darcy O'Brien has done an outstanding job of putting skeptics like myself in place of the victims. While I have a rather extensive library of true crime books, this one is the most riveting. As I read though, I couldn't help but make the inevitable comparison to another elected official who also appears to operate under "color of law."

As with all of Darcy O'Brien's work, the greatest aspect of this book is his gift for bringing people off the page and into your living room. Without condescension, he manages to bring dignity to the victim Vivian while maintaining professional distance. With well-chosen description and a strong sense of allowing the situations to speak for themselves, Darcy O'Brien managed to strip away years and years of filth from a typical American town and expose what those women - and without a doubt, many more women - suffer at the hands of those in power.

Power to Hurt is a very good book that might have been made even better with a little editing. At times it reads like an earnest slice-of-life novel, the type that asks the reader to spend a little more time than necessary inside the heroine's head. But she is, indeed, a heroine, and the book is quite moving at the end -- something that can't be said about many true crime stories.

The book only takes us up to the midpoint of the judge's career. It ends with the full Sixth Circuit hearing the case "en banc." Soon afterward, in a bizarre ruling, a majority of the court's members held that a judge's sexual assaults (some committed while he was literally wearing his black robe) did not constitute a civil rights violation because the US Supreme Court had never explicitly ruled that they did. That type of reasoning, needless to say, never stopped them or any other federal court from finding a civil rights violation when a cop or prison guard assaulted someone, but judges, you see, are different because, well, because the Sixth Circuit is composed of them.

The US Supreme Court reversed -- unanimously -- and sent the case back to the Sixth Circuit with instructions for it to get real. But then Judge Lanier, who'd been out on bond all this time, skipped off to San Diego where he lived under an assumed name. He eventually slipped over the border into Mexico. The Sixth Circuit ordered him to turn himself in and when he failed to do so, it dismissed his appeal, finding that by showing disrespect for the court he had forfeited his right to ask it for assistance. Just a day or two after the dismissal, the judge was arrested in Mexico and brought back to the States. (Was the timing coincidental?) To the end he had his supporters on the Sixth Circuit -- incidentally a spectacularly dysfunctional institution, with judges who aren't reluctant to go public with their mutual loathing -- but he's safely locked away now.

If it weren't for the fact that I know some nice, down to earth Episcopalians, I would have the impression from this book that the Episcopal church was for fancy highly educated people who think they're more intellectual than normal folks. The portion of the book dealing with Pelzer, SC was the most interesting, but it seems here Tickle indicts herself when she notes how the church membership in the company town fell along socio economic lines, then says she attended the Presbyterian church because it had a more charming building and a grander organ (and of course, it was the church the top status people went to). Heaven forbid she should go to a humbler building with the lower classes! I really did like the book, but two days after finishing it, the implied snobbery in it still bothers me. I wonder if Tickle was so steeped with ideas of privilege and "breeding" in her early life that she is just unaware of how her attitude comes across.

I love "search for faith" stories and am drawn to the Episcopal Church which is why I am reading this book. However, Tickle takes too many jaunts down memory lane and I find myself skimming to get to parts about her faith. Many of her tangents do not seem to move the story forward. I am half-way through and do plan to finish it, hoping I will be rewarded in the end.

The title of this book misled me a bit. Reading the title, "Shaping of a Life: a Spiritual Landscape", and reading the jacket blurbs about Tickle's books on prayer, I expected something along the lines of "a guide to a better prayer life".

And while prayer is an important component of this book, the book is really an autobiography. And it's an autobiography that supplies what we seek in autobiographies and biographies. I read a lot of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs -- and I'm disappointed so often that I wonder that I continue. Too often they relate events, yet the reader gains no sense of how the events affected the character.

Not so with Phyllis Tickle. She imbibed early Socrates' maxim, "The unexamined life is not worth living." She examines the events in her life, and thoughtfully identifies how they impacted her, how they molded her character, her beliefs, her actions. She is not skittish about talking about her inner life.

Besides this, Tickle is a literate and captivating writer. I couldn't put it down. I especially enjoyed reading her experiences as an undergraduate at Shorter College. She participated the "intellectual orgasm often anticipated but seldom experience.

A very satisfying read.

This is a lovely book! It isn't at all what one expected from someone religiously famous. Here is fine spiritual insight, wedded to incisive but highly courteous prose. Here is someone who leaps into God through the pages of T.S. Eliot, for Pete's sake. Someone who reads and has read widely, looking everywhere for God and finding Him. Finding Him in the mundane, unchurchy, and unpious events of her very life.

Through one woman's story, we are invited to draw closer to the One who loves us the most. The beauty of Tickle's writing is that her tone is one of invitation to a life of prayer, rather than being preachy or self-congratulatory. By turns poignant and humorous, Tickle kept my attention through the very last page. My only disappointment was that her story ended much too soon. More, please!

To be concise--this is one of the best books on the Civil War. It is accurate, informative and very easy to read.

I'm not a student of the Civil War, so I cannot comment on the merit of McMurry's main points, but as a student of the Old South I thoroughly enjoyed this book. McMurry's analysis of the two armies is very well organized and easy to read. Simply, it's a page turner. This book is at once both highly focused on a single topic and illuminate of larger Civil War issues. I really enjoyed this book and will read it every so often in the years to come. I recommend McMurry's book without reserve.

Mr. McMurry's purpose in writing this book was to try and explain why the Army of Northern Virginia was so successful, and why the Army of Tennessee so awful. Although I did not agree with some of his conclusions, he does provide some compelling evidence to support his arguments.

I found this book to be very informative, and an easy read. I recommend it for anyone looking to better understand how the South fought the war, why the two great rebel armies had such different levels of success on the battlefield, and possibly why they did not have the ability to win the war.

The title definately underscores how masterful Mr. McMurray has been in detailing the main differences between the Army of Northern Virginia and The Army of Tennessee. From the basics of command on through key strategy and deployment, both armies are beautifully dissected by McMurray's research, mirrored with an easy to understand style of writing.

This book not only discusses how important the upper command structures were to both armies but how the various infrastructures such as railroads, food supply, communication and weapons production differed from east to west.

This book can be summed up as an impressive literary study of the two great armies. It sheds light on the many differences as well as similarities and gives the reader new insight into the complex study of military history.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in an intense study of both armies.

Well done Mr. McMurray!

Richard McMurry takes a look at the two largest armies in the Confederacy in what is, as the title indicates, an extended essay. The Army of Northern Virginia, ably led by Robert E. Lee, was able to compile a large number of impressive victories during the war. The Army of Tennessee, led by various men of less than stellar ability, was only able to win at Chickamauga, and even that victory proved barren strategically. The author considers various factors that affected the two, including geography, logistical concerns, leadership on all levels (particularly among lower level officers), pre-war militia systems in Virginia and Tennessee, and even the Federals who faced each army. He concludes that in every case, the Army of Northern Virginia benefited from these factors while the Army of Tennessee was negatively affected. I have seen it stated in several places that McMurry is saying that the men of the Army of Northern Virginia were better than the men of the Army of Tennessee. I did not get this sense from my reading of the book. Instead, McMurry is stressing that the men in leadership positions in each army were very different. The vast majority of the men who had graduated from military schools such as West Point, VMI, and the Citadel were concentrated in the Army of Northern Virginia to that army's immense benefit. The Army of Tennessee started out with many men who were untrained in the art of war, and that army's problems were exacerbated as casualties started to deprive it of even the small number of leaders who had that previous military experience. In other words, McMurry believes the raw material was there to work with, but the Army of Tennessee did not have experienced men available in large enough numbers to work with this raw material.

The last chapter of the book discusses the views of historians Thomas Connelly and Albert Castel on Robert E. Lee and also looks at the ways in which the Confederate government, specifically Jefferson Davis, could have prosecuted the war. McMurry sides with Castel in defending Lee from Connelly's attacks, and stresses that the Confederates were right to try to win the war in the east. With that said, the author believes the war was eventually won in the west by the Federals. I found it somewhat odd that McMurry would quote Connelly's entirely negative opinions on the western generals and agree with them while at the same time defending Lee from the same negative opinions. In a way, this did make sense, as it fits McMurry's own views on the generals of each theater. Perhaps Connelly is just a negative historian in general, however. Reading this book has increased my interest in Connelly's two volume history of the Army of Tennessee, and that set has moved much higher up my reading list as a result.

Overall, I enjoyed McMurry's short work, finishing it over one weekend in just three sittings. It really is startling to see how many trained military men ended up in the Army of Northern Virginia for various reasons at the expense of other Confederate armies. Likewise, it was illuminating to see all of the other advantages, intentional or otherwise, which were routinely provided to the Confederacy's largest army. This particular book is directed at students of these two largest Confederate armies and of Confederate grand strategy during the Civil War. I definitely recommend it to any student of the war.

History can suffer at the hands of its practitioners, but that is certainly not the case here. Lytle can write and Forrest is the beneficiary of his talent. Lytle seeks to communicate the essence of the man and his time and largely succeeds. Although a vivid portrait of Forrest the man emerges, my one word impression of Forrest after reading this book is Warrior! I found it hard to put down. But I wouldn't want to run in to him in a dark alley wearing a Yankee uniform!

Cunning as the Devil was Nathan Bedford Forrest and this book indicates just how quick and clever this military genius was. Little wonder then that Lee considered this dark knight to be his finest soldier, above even the legendary Stonewall Jackson.

Andrew Lytle was the dean of Southern writers, and in this work -- one of his earliest -- he not only brought to life America's greatest military figure, but an age and a people as well. It was Lytle's aim to make the times of Nathan Bedford Forrest come alive for the reader. He devoted himself to intensive research of the Tennessee where Forrest was born and the Mississippi where he lived.

In reading this book we not only learn about the marvellous -- indeed, often incredible -- feats of a military genius, but we learn at the same time about the people, the places, the morals, the values, and the way of life of a people long gone now. (Lytle's subsequent book, A Wake for the Living, deals more pointedly with how much of the good of those days we have lost.)

This book, although a worthy history, reads like a novel. It truly is one that is hard to put down once you get started.

I never fully appreciated the intellect of Forrest until I finished this book. It peels away the myths about the man, and tells about what he was really like. I loved it, and often flip around in it from time to time. A must for Civil War buffs!

In terms of his impact on modern warfare, no general of the Civil War had more than Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Not Grant, not Lee, not Longstreet or Sherman. This is the man. No less a general than Erwin Rommel studied Forrest's tactics and implemented them with modern weaponry when his Afrika Korps marched all over Libya and Egypt in World War II.

The reason I say this book isn't for the "politically correct" is that it was written some 70 years ago, by a man of the old South who obviously idolized Forrest and everything he stood for. As you know already, not everything Forrest stood for was good. He was 100 years ahead of his time as a soldier, but stuck in 1860 in his personal beliefs.

But...getting into the book. He was a brilliant commander who never had enough men under his command to turn the war in the South's favor. Still, he was a hero to the people of the Tennessee river valley where he won most of his victories, with good reason. When the Union troops overran these areas and placed them under military rule, Forrest made sure they treated the citizens decently. Once he even saved a group of innocent men from a flaming death at the hands of vengeful Union soldiers whom he was defeating in battle. Reading these and other stories makes you understand why he was such a hero to the author, who would have heard first-hand accounts of Forrest's exploits.

Lytle believes that the South would have won the war if Forrest had been placed in command of the main Confederate army in the west, and he's probably right. Forrest was an extraordinary individual who had more impact on the 20th century than any other Civil War general.

"It had its Broadway premiere on March 19,1953, at the Martin Beck Theatre. The production was directed by Elia Kazan, with the assitance of Anna Sokolow."

Yes, perhaps I'm biased, because I was in this play at my university and so the characters were all too real for me because my friends were playing them, but I really loved this story. The symbolism is just great and there's a lot of food for thought. Many people who came to see our production didn't understand the work, and I must admit, it is obscure and fairly difficult to understand. Don't let that get in your way. This is a must read, if only because of those cooky and creepy street cleaners, and a bunch of cameos by some very famous characters.

all i have to say is:

make voyages, attempt them, there's nothing else

Anyone expecting Camino Real to be anything like the other plays Tennessee Williams wrote during the same period, such as Summer and Smoke or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, will be puzzled. This is unlike anything else Williams wrote; it's nonlinear, overtly symbolic, lacking a conventional plot, and filled with images that don't make literal sense even as they speak directly to the subconscious. I think it could be Williams' most brilliant work, but others will prefer his more accessible plays and I don't dispute that. "Camino Real" is unusual and will not be for everyone.

In the play Williams deals with end-of-life issues in a very stark way; he also explores how a person's own fears can keep him or her from moving beyond the comfort of the familiar into unknown territory. I have to confess: I read the play after seeing it and being bowled over by the production (at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington), and the question may be whether those who haven't seen it will find it equally powerful just to read it. This is a case where I think they may; the plays' symbols and images come alive in the imagination. Even if you don't like it, you'll find it thoughtful and challenging.

Its surrealistic "dream within a dream" stylings makes "Camino Real" (pronounced "Kam-uh-no Reel") one of Tennessee Williams' more difficult plays to read (e.g., Don Quixote and Lord Byron both pass through the Camino Real - a weigh station for lost souls). However, this play (which I first encountered in a college literature class when I was 24), more so than any of his other works, offers us the biggest glimpse into Williams's soul.

For my money, the theme of this play is coming to terms with the thought of growing older and possibly becoming irrelevant/obsolete. For Williams, such concepts terrified him on both professional and personal levels: (a) he wrote this play at a time when his "star" had already fallen, and he was no longer the "golden boy" of Broadway; (b) additionally, Williams was an aging member of the homosexual community (which emphasizes youth and beauty to a fault). Thus, as he explores such themes, Williams (whether intentional or not) offers us a ringside view into his fears and emotions as he wrestles with such inevitabilities and resolves to look for reasons to remain positive about life regardless.

Side note: on a lyrical level, the play is filled with dialogue that is at times poetic (e.g., "Make voyages!- Attempt them! - there is nothing else.")

Not necessarily easy reading, but definitely worth reading!

Wow!!! What a powerful, inspiring piece of work. I had the pleasure of meeting Lucas Johnson and Mr. Montgomery while touring Alex Haley's museum approximately 3 years ago and words could never express the emotions I felt being a part of history in the home of Alex Haley. Prior to the tour, I had been briefed of a great guy named Lucas who wrote a book about Alex Haley; however I had not been given the full story (or I may not have been listening carefully). The moment I entered Alex's home and met Mr. Montgomery (and Lucas), I began to cry uncontrollably for reasons at the time that I could not explain. I was speechless, breathless, and moved by all around me including Lucas. After taking the tour and fully understanding Mr. Montgomery, Alex Haley, and Lucas' role in this entire project, I began to "Find The Great" in all they had done to make this world a better place. Throughout the book, Lucas passionately touches on many things: Challenges of overcoming racism, slavery, the power of faith (God) and love, education, the importance of family and friends, strength, courage, and Finding the Good. Lucas not only speaks to the challenges Mr. Montgomery faced growing up as the son of a sharecropper, but he also speaks truthfully about his own challenges. One of the greatest take-a-ways that Lucas demonstrates in the book is that "Nothing is too big" and we must "Find the Good" in EVERYTHING including ourselves. Outstanding work on your part Lucas and I am forever grateful and blessed to have met such an inspiring, focused, and determined person like you. Thanks for sharing your stories, but most importantly, thanks for continuing to focus on the things that matter most that impact our lives and our communities. Thanks for being YOU!

I picked up this volume thinking it wasn't really "my kind of book," but I was pleasantly surprised by the author's genuine account of Fred Montgomery, the son of a sharecropper, who went on to become mayor of Henning, Tennessee. Along the way he also inserts vignettes from his own life. The parallels are effective in helping the book appeal to readers of several generations.

In Montgomery's days, a big challenge was overcoming the oppression of racism. He also went through the pain of losing a child, and some other relatives through a couple of accidents. He battled depression for a time and even attempted suicide twice. Gen-X Johnson had to deal with a rough neighborhood, where drugs and crime were commonplace. He also describes a college pregnancy scare and the substance abuse rampant in his own family.

At times, the writing borders on the cusp of preachy, with frequent Bible quotes, but because the author is so forthcoming, direct, and unabashedly optimistic, he largely avoids that fate. Montgomery, who was a contemporary of Roots author Alex Haley, has a universal and inspiring life story. Besides, it's hard to come up with too much criticism of a book called Finding the Good.

What can I say but that this work is magnificant. Mr. Johnson not only writes candidly and truthfully, but compassionatly/passionately about the relationship shared with Mr. Montgomery. Readers can not help but be wrapped up in the warmth and tenderness of his words and sentiment. Not only does Mr. Johnson tell us of a story about the transforming power of faith and love, but he tells us a story rich with history and culture. Bravo to you Mr. Johnson. I look forward to reading your next powerful and motivating novel.

This was definitely a different kind of book for me. Part biography part cathartic journey for both the writer AND the reader.

I'm the grandson of a sharecropper and I enjoyed the glimpse into the similar lifestyle that I'm sure were aspects of my grandfather's life. That life was tough enough for him without the additional struggles of 20th century racial injustices that Fred Montgomery had to deal with.

I'm glad that invoking the memory of Alex Haley was not overly done, because Fred Montgomery's story deserved the attention that was given here. Fred was "coincidentally" a contemporary of Haley's. Haley was wise enough to recognize the "every-man" quality of Montgomery AND the Providential actions in Fred's life.

The spiritual side of Fred's story at times seemed Job-like but with shades of justice ala Dickens' "Great Expectations".

That generation's faith is sadly hard to find in my own.

Now the literary device used by Johnson (let me be honest here...I work with him) to insert his own journey at the end of each chapter was interesting...because it had the effect of causing me to compare my own life with Fred's accomplishments.

That was a mistake, Fred's pretty accomplished, most folks would come off pretty poor as I did. (Successful Farmer, Hunter, Husband, Father, Plumber, Mayor, & Museum Curator)

A nice legacy for Fred Montgomery would be putting this book into the hands of a young 12 or 13 year old at risk kid, IF you can't make the drive to Henning and talk to the man yourself.

I appreciated the biography of Malcolm X. I believe Finding the Good to be of importance to not only Alex Haley fans, but to anyone who has a sense of passion for making this world a better place. I loved Finding the Good simply because it is genuine; nothing is fake or contrived. Lucas Johnson's writing flows, and through his art, there shouts spirituality and love. I am neither religious nor Black, yet Mr. Johnson's book succeeds because I came to care warts and all about Fred Montgomery, a "twentieth-century slave" and childhood friend of Mr. Haley; I felt Mr. Montgomery's pain, anger, and joy. I'd like to think that I am better for having read Finding the Good. Kudos, Mr. Johnson.

Tennessee Williams is so well-known for other plays like "The Glass Menagerie" and "Streetcar Named Desire" that one like me not terribly familiar with him, except via his reputation for overwrought Southern Gothic drama, approaches this collection of Williams' lesser-known plays from his major period with trepidation.

"Four Plays" is pretty Gothic, and sometimes overwrought, but it makes for a pretty immersive read, not to mention a tough-love rollercoaster for the human condition.

Up first is "Summer And Smoke" (1948), a tale of a raucous young medical student and the girl next door who has pined for him since childhood. Right away you get that you are in the hands of an unusual playwright in Williams, who gives very detailed instructions on dressing the set, including which constellations should be projected on the overhead cyclorama during evening scenes and what colors the actors should wear.

Williams is just as controlling with his characterizations. Alma is a sincere, spiritually-inclined woman who tries to bring order to her household, hostage to a crazy mama who spitefully embarrasses Alma and her minister father. John also teases Alma, with talk of sex, yet a curious qualm holds him back from the ravishment he knows could be his at his pleasure: "Many's the time I've looked across at the Rectory and wondered if it would be worth trying, you and me..." That yard's worth of distance is the substance and the tragedy of this curious, arresting play.

The other three plays develop similar dialogues between intimacy and loss. Nowhere in this book does that come out more hot and heavy than "Orpheus Descending" (1957), a play which Williams in an introduction explains was a decades-long labor of love which he never gave up on. In a small southern town, gossip travels quickly, especially when a mysterious man takes a job at a general store owned by a dying man and his wife, who suspects her husband had something to do with the long-ago murder of her father. It all boils up rather quickly and unconvincingly, even for Williams where a certain suspension of disbelief is helpful. Still, you keep reading.

"Suddenly Last Summer" (1958) is the most recognized title, though more for me from the Motels' hit song in 1983. It's a more subtle but just as ripping dramatic piece as "Orpheus". A batty rich widow tries to have her niece lobotomized to destroy her memory of how the widow's son died in Mexico. "My son, Sebastian, was chaste," she declares. "I was the only one in his life who satisfied the demands he made of people."

Sebastian wasn't exactly Ivory Snow-pure, of course, and in the widow's many daiquiri-fueled discursions there's both poignancy and hilarity. Definitely surreal, "Suddenly Last Summer" probably plays better on the page than the stage, as the major plot comes entirely in eyewitness narrative.

"Period Of Adjustment" (1960), the final and last-written of these plays, is my favorite in the crowd, a Christmas tale of domestic dysfunction that plays out as a subdued comedy of manners. A newlywed couple shows up at the door of the groom's Air Force buddy. The honeymoon, it turns out, was over before it started.

Williams sets up a rich satire of middle-class life. The groom fantasizes about raising Texas longhorn cattle, not for beef, but for herding on television. His pal is on the outs with his own wife for a variety of reasons, including the fact he fears she is raising their son to be a sissy by buying him dolls. Williams plays against his M.O. by showcasing a talent for lower-register exposition, realistic dialogue instead of soliloquy, and gentle, effective comedy throughout.

There may not really be a Williams M.O. Sure, there's neurotic women and beefy satyr-like men on display here, but reading these four plays reveals a master of multiple facets, too virtuosic for easy stereotyping. Flawed as they may be, "Four Plays" presents a pretty strong argument for people like me to take Tennessee more seriously.

How beautiful is Tennessee Williams? Consider his affections for his characters. Consider his appreciative and sensuous representations of his Southerness. Consider his status as a male writer whose female characters are the ambitions of American actresses. Arthur Miller, David Mamet and Sam Shepard, all members of the select American Giants Canon, cannot say so much. Edward Albee and Eugene O'Neill also gift wonderful women's parts, but nobody shares the trauma of fagility in a bruising world like Tennessee Williams.
This collection of some of his lesser known works serves as a wonderful entrée to his milieu and brilliance.
Summer and Smoke is a classic of his lesser known plays; a lifetime's changes for Alma and John takes place over a year, where the longings and passions of two people diametrically driven by the spirit and the flesh are danced about: bad timing, self-hatred, the tasks of responsibilities to one's parents, all serve as a foil for something marvelous, and in so doing illuminate the simple and monumental difficulties of love and hope.
Orpheus Descending is the tale of Val Xavier's perilous trip into the fiery heart of a Southern small town, where outsiders are not welcome and sexuality will be burned by the fears of a violent community. Val's stimulation of the hatred and passion inside Lady and the sensuous inspiration of Carol spark the town's leading "citizens" to attack and subdue the whimsy of youth and the hopefulness of true connections. Highlighted by a very expressionistic set design, Williams offers his characters up as martyrs to the truth and the risk of emotional attachment.
Suddenly Last Summer is a shorter piece, a long lone-act that proves a swift example of everything Williamsian. Essentially an expositional exercise in suspense, its tale is of a young doctor's visit to the estate of a wealthy Southern matron (Aunt Venable), who wants to endow the doctor's experiments with lobotomies. Her niece has been acting out and spreading a horrible story about Aunt Venable's son Sebastian and the trauma of the tale is enough to propose a lobotomy for Catherine, her erratic niece. Ultimately the horrific story is revealed, and presents Williams' penchant for extreme people in extreme circumstances and the volatility of being openly and actively indifferent to society's norms and codes of silence.
Period of Adjustment is an odd piece, even for Williams. Of all the plays of his I've read (which is not all of them), it's the only full length piece that has a happy ending. Ironic too as it is about two married couples (never a sub-cultural group to fare well in his work) and the crossing dialogues of a husband from one and a wife from another, frequently about the loathing they feel for their mates. It is subtitled ;or, High Point over a Cavern, no doubt a metaphor for the nature of romance and relationships, marriage and fidelity. It would be a treat to see this performed, as it features a smaller cast than a usual Williams play and has an air of mild charm infused with the banter of tense marriages, and doesn't have the frequent emotionally broken, clipped-wing dreamers associated with the mighty Tennessee.
This publication's plays are not necessarily the same as the Dramatists Plays or Samuel French series, as those represent productions scripts, are usually cut and feature stage directions and set designs that may be specific to that rendering.
Also included in the collection are essays on Summer and Smoke's evolution from Eccentricities of a Nightingale to it's final version. There is also an essay on Williams and another on Battle of Angels becoming Orpheus Descending.
Essential reading for actors, directors and lover of great American literature. Williams is a giant and needs to be read, if one cannot see his art live on stage.

Although I bought this book just for a quick read of Suddenly Last Summer but found all of the other plays in this volume to be delights in their own respect. Each has their ups and downs, but all are undeniably in the style of Tennessee Williams. I think this book is a must read for any true Tennessee fan as it give any reader a fuller look into the style that is Tennessee.

Of the plays that I read, I found them all to have real life aplications. One of the suprising things was that his works were written several years ago but there are still points that he raises that are aplicable to today. Honestly I could not go to bed until I found out how he resolved his conflicts. I will have to read more of his work. He is not that bad for being an english paper topic.

Tennesse Williams has become of my favorite authors, partially due to this book. I have long been a fan of the movie adaptations of his work, but they come nowhere near to the superb quality of the written word. In all of his plays you can get a sense of what the characters are feeling. In most cases those feelings are angst and despair. "Suddenly Last Summer" is by far the best play in this book, but the others are not far behind. The characters in these plays are easy to "see", thanks to Williams' wonderful development. As with every Williams' play, these have surprising twists and revelations throughout. I highly recommend these, and all other Tennessee Williams plays.

Abraham Verghese may know how to turn a good phrase; unfortunately they often seem to be little more than that. The book plods along the winding path of his experiences treating AIDS patients in rural Tennessee. His stories are occasionally interesting and enlightening, particularly when they focus on how the patients and their families deal with the disease.

Unfortunately, the book suffers from self-centered myopia. Far too much time is spent by the author discussing himself. Despite all this meandering introspection, he never manages to effectively question his own convictions. He certainly never examines his own beliefs with the same scrutiny and condescension he applies to others'.

In the end, I felt like the book had few redeeming qualities. The author's I-know-all tone and hollow, jaded affect detracted significantly from what could have been a powerful collection of stories.

The child of Indian expatriates, himself an immigrant, Dr. Abraham Verghese found a home among the country people of Tennessee and an extended family among this Bible Belt's first AIDS victims.

Verghese, who began his residency in Johnson City, Tenn. in 1980, gives two reasons for specializing in infectious diseases (ID). One, his mentor convinced him it was the only specialty where cure was common. Two, as it was not a glamor field, a foreign ID doctor had a better shot at training at a top university hospital.

Simple, sensitive and scrupulously honest, Verghese's book is alive to the ironies, tragedies and heroism of the first days of the AIDS epidemic.

After training in Boston, where he saw his first AIDS patient, Verghese and his wife returned to idyllic Appalachia in 1985, expecting their first child. Aware of his outsider status, Verghese sets about finding, and making, his place. His rounds encompass two hospitals, the Mountain Home VA, a residence where he sees elderly vets and a lot of lung cancer, and the modern Johnson City Medical Center, the "Miracle Center." The contrast is vivid.

Although Johnson City has no AIDS patients and its single experience with a New Yorker who didn't quite make it home to die is "suppressed like a shameful memory," Verghese sets out to educate the population, to prevent AIDS here if he can.

His first visit to a gay bar to show an educational video is fraught with discomfort on numerous levels. The stiff self-consciousness of his early encounters with gay men in Boston is being consciously replaced with curiosity. "There was an obvious parallel: society considered them alien and much of their life was spent faking conformity." Still, it's a small town and Verghese is a foreigner with a reputation to build.

But his educational efforts bring in his first cases. He is excited, on the cutting edge of medicine. The HIV virus has been identified and a cure is surely just around the bend. He makes house calls, gives patients as much of his time as they need, and in a zealous spirit of medical documentation, friendship and plain human curiosity, elicits histories so personal it's difficult to imagine them spoken aloud.

As his AIDS practice grows, Verghese encounters bigotry and anger among his colleagues and community. But more profound is the bravery and generosity of spirit the disease arouses among the most unlikely people - the poor, the uneducated, the sick. He is touched, humbled, uplifted by the friends and relatives of his patients and often by the patients themselves.

But the hideousness of AIDS cuts a nasty swath. The bravest face a horrible, lingering and disfiguring death, usually in the prime of life. Verghese's descriptions of disease are unflinching.

As his case load grows to 80 and death becomes a commonplace, Verghese is beset by nightmares of infection and feelings of helplessness. His wife, frightened and resentful, withdraws from him. Similar attitudes in the medical community arouse furious bitterness. All around him, his new friends, his self-made family, are dying. After five years his endurance snaps. Plagued by guilt and relief, Verghese leaves Johnson City.

"My Own Country" is an important, passionate book which cannot be recommended highly enough. Verghese's prose draws the reader directly into the complex beauty and brutality of the human heart. It's a cry for our times.

I read first this book shortly after its initial publication. The impact was enormous. I even went to a signing event an hour away from where I lived. What made this book great was that not only it talked about the real tragedy in rural, little educated America, that AIDS wrought there, but it was finely written, with feeling, and instructive. Such a rare blend in this type of litterture. This was not a report from the front, it was also the journey of a man whose whole life principles are challenged, and changed in front of other people's tragedy. Today, as I read it again, it has already that flavor of historical witnessing, but its emotion is still fresh. For those of us that are blase about too many tragedies in our lifes, we could read this book again to regain some of the compassion that we might have misplaced as our everyday life demanded our atention.

Dr. Verghese beautifully captures the Appalachian essence of innocence and trust, and the clash that happens when a feared viral intruder puts its mark on relatives and neighbors. The exposure and initiation of a foreigner to country ways and mindset makes for some comical moments. The text is very creative, expressive and easy to read

"My Own Country" combines medical fact with compelling personal history in a way that reveals the true nature of human understanding for what is "foreign" to us all. Dr. Abraham Verghese comes to rural Tennessee as the foreign graduate of a foreign medical school; rural Tennessee being one of the few areas that will allow him to practice in the United States. At the time of his arrival, the AIDS epidemic arrives as well. Dr. Verghese relates the stories of the victims and their families in the setting of his own acceptance among these bewildered people. Through careful detail, Dr. Verghese is accepted among the citizens of Johnson City, Tennessee, just as they slowly come to accept the reality of the AIDS virus and its consequences in their lives. Told in language easily understood by non-medically trained readers, this story becomes a history of our people and their ability to adapt to difficult and heart-rending life experiences. Dr. Verghese celebrates the ability of the human spirit to accept disease and its consequences while he uses his keen sense of observation to show his own acceptance among these "new people." Dr. Verghese's ability for insight into the pain and suffering of patients families and the ultimate triumph of our compasionate nature is beautifully rendered. This book cannot be recommended highly enough for the many areas in which it succeeds. Ultimately, the book becomes a history of AIDS, medicine and the way both interact with victims who little understand the disease itself.