Tennessee Books

Like the other great American playwright Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams was not afraid of creating controversy through his work. Touching on themes of money, social status, and sexuality, Williams presents the dark side of each character. While it is hard to like any character, it is difficult not to be compelled by them.

Brick Pollitt is the favored son. Failing to recover from the death of his best friend and fight the demons that come with booze, he has no desire to gain the good graces of his dying father and inherit his wealth. His brother Gooper and his wife Mae, that "monster of fertility", are engaged in a competition for the father's favor. But even nearing a sixth child, they can not measure up to Brick. The climax comes as Big Daddy and Brick attempt to reach the resolution that Brick has no desire to attain. Accusations of homosexuality and an inability to let go of his days as an athlete are among the reasons that Big Daddy suggests for Brick's inability to settle down and expand his family. Yet the resolution is not Brick's choice.

The explosion at the end is hardly as stinging as the process of getting to the conclusion. The ultimate question is whether the cat (Margaret) will choose to stay on the hot tin roof or seek refuge. The fast paced drama moves at an unflinching pace that will make readers anticipate the direction of each page. It may be difficult for some readers to disengage from this drama.

I believe Tennesee Williams is the most versatile modern playwright who truly exemplifies the dysfuctionality of family morals. The Glass Menagerie, Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof are indeed his masterpieces. I found Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to be my most favorite. The characters were memorable (who can forget Margaret "aka Maggie The Cat," Brick, Big Daddy, and Big Mama?) and the lines truly classic ("What's the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can..."). Also, just like Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof touched upon subjects that were controversial then and just as controversial now (homosexuality, child molestation, prostitution, etc.), which makes Tenesee William's works highly relevent. His plays age well with time. Not to mention that there have also been INCREDIBLE movie adaptations of all of his famous plays. After you read Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, or Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, watch the movie as well. There is no other modern playwright (except Oscar Wild and Anthony Wilson)whose plays will truly have a place in my heart for years to come.

This play is the usual extreme histrionics that I have come to expect from Tennessee Williams. In this book set on a Southern Plantation we have the obligatory hysterical woman, an alcoholic and a homophobe. After a while one cannot help but get the impression that Mr. William's works all consisted of the same stock, cardboard characters and he only changed the settings and their names.I do give this book 5 stars because I have always liked Elizabeth Taylor who starred in the movie of this play although she is in fact a Real Life Serial Monogamist as the Sociologist would refer to her .

Tennessee Williams was a genius. This play runs the full spectrum of human emotion-desire, frustration, depression, denial, grief, longing,need, inadequacy. Its all laid right out in shocking bursts of deep naked revelation. This is my favorite play of all time.

Only Williams could have gotten away with naming his hero "Brick," as names were always his strong suit. He found comfort in names, and a wild exotic beauty, and even in his last faltering years was usually able to pull a final name out of his hat, something perfect. I remember seeing CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF on stage, with Elizabeth Ashley, some time before I read the play, so naturally my experience of the text is colored by Ashley's sizzling interpretation of Maggie the Cat, all hisses and feral screams. She was so strong I can barely remember who played Brick or Big Daddy in that production. I think it was Keir Dullea from DAVID AND LISA. Maybe Big Daddy was the man from the MUNSTERS TV show. What we, the audience, cared about was if Maggie was going to get her wway and triumph over all the mendacity and the "no neck monsters" that were swarming the plantation.

Maggie gets angry, but mostly we value her for her tenderness. Even when she knows her husband has lost his heart over a long-gone teammate, and that he's probably gay, she never gives up the ship. She knows that without her in his corner 100 per cent, he'll give up, drown in his own sorrows. He needs her to kick his ass and bring him back to the land of the awake. She wasn't going to be an enabler, she would always discourage him from drinking from the time he got up in the morning till he passed out at night, his crutches tangled up in his boxer shorts. For Brick, drinking is a way out of his tortured memories of Skipper, the boy he loved in high school and college. Taking a drink is "like a switch, clickin' off in my head. Turns the hot light off and the cool one on and all of a sudden, there's peace." Secretly the family has a plan to ship his butt off to Rainbow Hill, sort of a Betty Ford Clinic without the mercy.

We love Maggie trying to semaphor the truth into his thick skull by screaming, "Skipper is dead but I'm alive! Maggie the Cat is alive!"

Something made me pick up The Rock Orchard on the discount table of my local bookstore. Lucky me! I hit the jackpot. I love this book so much that I've given a copy to all of my girlfriends and female members, who have also all loved it. Paula Wall has become my new favorite author.

I was new to Paula Wall's work, but I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Ms. Wall's narrative is wicked fast and utterly engaging. Come to think of it, so are her characters. That said, there is no hint of shallowness or taking the easy way out. Her characters are just that...characters, true to themselves and therefore intoxicatingly easy to believe in. Their observations about life, love, sex, religion, men and women ring true and will stay with you long after you've raced through the book. I was so impressed, I ran out and paid waaay too much for her second book, Wilde Women, which is also excellent. (Hint: Buy it from amazon.com and save yourself some money, but by all means, buy it, read it and enjoy.)

This is not normally the kind of book I would choose, but it jumped from the library shelf into my arms after I opened it and read a line or two. The author cannot just write; she can paint phrases on a page that are both profound and funny enough to make you laugh aloud. To the point of tears in a few spots. Good story, many surprises, good ending. If I could write like Paula Wall I could better express how much I enjoyed her writing as well as the story she told.

I was really enjoying this book. The character development was such that I could identify with several citizens in the town of Leaper's Fork and their fascination with the Belle women. I had several good chuckles, just like the reviews had promised. I was totally there in the town watching the characters interact, into the gossip, and wondering how the main characters would solve their dilemmas when wham, bam it ended. What a train wreck of an ending.

I hate it when it seems as if an author just got tired of writing a book and wraps everything up in just a few pages. This book is 244 pages long. I would have gladly read another 100-200 pages just to have walked the path with these characters as they fulfilled their destiny. Instead, I am meandering through the town watching everyone start to find their place in life when whoosh, Paula Wall writes in an event and seven pages (some of those only half pages) later the books is over. Everything is wrapped up nice and neat, but I didn't get to take the journey with the characters. So dissatisfying, so many lost laughs and tears. Sigh.

I'm glad I read it. I just wish I had stopped seven pages before the end.

This was one of our book club books for February. We enjoyed the way Paula Wall intertwined her characters, story line and southern wisdom. This book brought forth a lively discussion on southern living, southern morals and some of the best quotes we have had in our book discussions.
We liked the way Charlotte gave advice to Mila and how it turned Mila's life around for the better. As Charlotte said, "we are what we are, until we decide to be different."

This is one of the funniest novels I have ever read. Gay captures the mindset and cadence of the backwoods community in "Provinces of Night."

The story revolves around a teen-aged boy who is finding his way in the world amongst his father who is seldom present, his Uncle Warren who has moved away, his spell-casting Uncle Brady, and his grandfather, bluesman E.F. Bloodworth, who has returned to the small Tennessee community to make amends. There isn't a strong plot driving "Provinces of Night" so much as a group of great characters that pursue their own interests to comical effect.

Along the way there are plenty of jugs of moonshine to drink, women to be pursued, and blood ties to be tested. "Provinces of Night" is more raucous like Daniel Woodrell's "Give Us a Kiss," than nostalgic like John Grisham's "A Painted House." It would be difficult for me to decide which of these three 5-star novels I enjoyed more. I can say that I believe Gay to be the best of the three writers at turning a unique phrase.

Provinces of Night is a haunting, comic, bloody novel that takes the reader into a back country, intense world. The novel does elicit comparisons to Faulkner and Wolfe in that Gay uses the book to portray a very specific time and place while exploring universal themes of family and responsibilities. These themes go back to the earliest biblical stories, yet are fresh and evocative in Gay's beautiful prose. Provinces of Night is well worth reading.

(from my amazon.co.uk review: Gay seems to be getting some attention there)

I've lived in Tennessee for almost 30 years, in the urban setting
of Knoxville. I'm a caver, and the hunting for new caves takes
me to small towns and deeply rural areas in rugged terrain, where
one can be 40 miles from the nearest supermarket. You learn that
there are places to be avoided, where strangers are not welcome.
(You can also find such places in London, Glasgow, etc., as well
as in parts of the English countryside.) The law can be far away
and not impartial in some locations. Provinces of Night deals
with small-town Tennessee rather than the deeply rural and remote
parts. The central figure, Fleming Bloodworth, is not violence-
prone, but violence is often not far away. There is humor and
tenderness, as well as violence and death, but that's often how
life can be. Tennessee is not a slaughterhouse, but it's not
unusual to see "Three Dead in Cocke County Bar Fight" on the
evening news.

William Gay started writing at age 52. He seems to have been
strongly influenced by the novels of Cormac McCarthy, especially
those set in Tennessee (Suttree, The Orchard Keeper, Child of
God--all set in Knoxville and the surrounding counties). The
title comes from McCarthy's dark and brooding novel Child of God.
Gay's first novel, The Long Home, has a flavor similar to Child
of God, but Provinces of Night is closer to Suttree and The
Orchard Keeper. Gay's writing skills are on a par with McCarthy:
after reading Provinces of Night and The Long Home, I reread
McCarthy's novels, and took a long pause when I encountered the
phrase "provinces of night" in Child of God. I wondered in
McCarthy was writing under a pseudonym.

There's a great power and lyrical quality in Gay's writing. When
I got halfway through Provinces of Night I began to dread turning
the pages, since every page read brought me closer to the end.
So I ordered The Long Home from Amazon, taking comfort in the
knowledge that hundreds of more pages would be waiting for me.
Gay's third work, I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down, a
collection of short stories, has just been published, and it
contains some of the finest short stories I've ever read.
Gay is a great new addition to our current Southern writers.
He's the darker side to the rural South: for the lighter side
read T.R. Pearson's whimsical novel A Short History of a Small
Place.

No one writes like William Gay, period. He is an artist who paints pictures with words, and there is no one like him who is alive today. Imagine van Gogh painting a novel, and you will begin to understand William Gay.

One of the best novels I've read in the past few years, "Provinces of Night" shows the influence of Flannery O'Connor and of Cormac McCarthy, but is also highly original. The language and dialogue are what make it most enjoyable. The story is both funny and dark.

It is the big dance for the eighth-graders at Dogwood Junior High School. Each student has his or her own story to tell about the event. Some stories deal with the mundane: a boy afraid to talk to the girl he likes, next-door neighbors who have grown apart, opposites attracting, and a student who is ashamed of her poor family.

Other stories deal with more difficult topics: domestic violence, death, homosexuality, and date rape. For this one night, though, maybe these students can put aside their problems and enjoy the magic of the dance.

I liked the way these stories came together. I especially liked when different stories mentioned the same characters. As with all short stories, though, I was left wanting more detail.

Kissing Tennessee and other short stories form the Stardust Dance by Kathi Appelt is a short book of short stories. The book is about different teenagers and their different problems. One of my favorites was Rachel's Sister. In that story the author wrote about a girl named Mary Sarah. Mary Sarah shared the sad tail of her and her sister Rachel's abusive father and what they had to go through. Another great story is The Notes Between the Notes, where the author wrote of two teenagers who don't have anything in common except one thing; they both secretly have a huge crush on each other. Definitely the coolest one was In These Shoes, in that story you/the reader get to go to the dance with all the other fictional characters you/the reader just reader about! The reason I didn't rate Kissing Tennessee five stars is because it is too short, I think I could have been longer. If you like reading fun books that put you in different perspectives, then definitely read Kissing Tennessee!

it was good if you think that chili dogs are good, if not i feel sorry for you

Kathi Appelt has outdone herself. Long accomplished as a picture book writer (see her new The Alley Cat's Meow--absolutely wonderful!) she has now distinguished herself as a young adult author. This series of related stories captures the angst that junior high age teens grapple with. Appelt covers it all, from abusive parents to rape to homosexuality. And through it all, she maintains a light touch and lyrical way with words. This is delicious writing!!

Kissing Tennessee and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance by Kathi Appelt is a book of short stories about teens and some of the problems they face. These are some of the examples that the kids face in the eight stories. In Rachel's Sister, Mary Sarah struggles against memories of her and her sister escaping their abusive father. In Starbears Cub Tanner deals with his confusion about The Question, which is really many questions all rolled up into one. Why does he have such strong feelings for Trent Davis? In These Shoes, Tawny learns that you don't have to rich and have everything in the world to be happy. I gave this book four stars because these stories were fun to read and they made you think. Since the stories were so short, they made you wonder what would happen next if they kept going. I didn't want some of the stories to end. I think this is a good book for people who want to try reading a different style of writing. I really enjoyed this book and I think that all young readers should try it.

This novel, I thought, was quite good. In addition to belivable backgrounds for both the characters and the story itself, the romance was well written too. The pressures these two people are under is written in such a way as to make you truly indetify with them.

The information the reader learns about the Korean War is also fantastic. For American readers some of this information will come as a shock as this war is not as well known about as the two wars that bracketed it (WW2 & Vietnam).

I wasn't going to say this, but after reading many of these reviews, I feel I must say something. I think a lot of the negative response to the relationship in this book has to do with it's specific components. Sadly it seems, too many people still can't picture an Asian male in a relationship with a Caucasian female. More's the pity.

Choi's debut novel is more engrossed in creating beautiful and artistic sentences than telling a story with believable characters and a coherent plot. I think the telling of it has great potential, but Choi never takes it to the apex of its possibilities. The story revolves around an "unlikely love affair", an interracial courtship ritual that revolves around an exasperating character escaping war torn Korea and an attractive Southern belle in the 1950s. As a reader I found it baffling how someone as dry and two-dimensional as the Korean Chang could be the subject of *anyone's* affection. He speaks little and may be endowed with existentialist fatalism but not much more. Chang is cowardly, faulty, mostly afraid, and above all, difficult to identify with, at least from this reader's point of view, making Katherine's choice to fall in love with him even more incredible, which resigns me to believe that some stories can only be told in fiction and forgotten.

This is one of those novels that grabs one's attention from the beginning. I liked Choi's matter-of-fact way of explaining her characters, but I also found I couldn't get overly involved with them. It didn't matter to me which man Katherine ended up with (and it was clear she *was* going to end up with A Man); I was merely curious to find out. The book pulls its reader along almost urgently for about 2/3 of the way. Then, alas, it snags on characters' inner thoughts as Choi tortures language to be as thorough as possible, and, yet, somehow, the characters don't come into any sharper focus. She's got a lot of talent, but perhaps needed an editing hand with some of the later exposition passages in this book. The book's worth reading because her talent is evident, and the subject makes one think.

While this novel has a lot to recommend, I felt that the two storylines (Katherine's and Chang's) didn't fit together cohesively. As one other reviewer noted, I didn't feel that there was a strong enough or believable enough reason why these two people would be so deeply attracted to each other. Thus their coming together seemed like simply a plot contrivance -- as though Choi had two really interesting storylines on different subjects that she was developing separately, but didn't have enough on each to sustain a full novel, so she awkwardly tied them together. Yes, both Chang and Katherine are outcasts, in a way, but that just wasn't enough -- particularly as Chang's story becomes increasingly grim. I could see how Katherine's attraction to Chang might have stemmed from her character (Choi makes a point of saying, in one section, that Katherine feels like love should be completely illogical, that she should fall in love with someone that no one else would approve of or understand), but I couldn't see how Chang's relationship with Katherine connected with his previous, horrifying experiences in the war, except on a superficial level. What does he need from Katherine? His life has been about guilt and betrayal; is Choi trying to stretch the point that in embracing Katherine, he is finally embracing his guilt? It's certainly possible to think up similar kinds of connections and themes, but they seemed flimsy and forced to me.

Finally, I found the writing somewhat tedious at times (even while it was intelligent and lucid throughout). The somewhat journalistic passages about the Korean War didn't bother me as much as it seems to have bothered other reviewers (in fact, I found them helpful and informative); rather, it was the long passages of exposition, wherein a character would ponder his/her thoughts and feelings in depth, that I found unnecessarily slow and overwritten.

Despite all this (overly long, I'll admit) criticism, I believe that many readers will find this book a worthwhile read. Choi writes with intelligence and a strong sense of character; I have no doubt that more fine books will come from her.

Susan Choi writes well. But alas, she doesn't know much about Korea. I quickly noticed this as I am from Korea. I think that's the most glaring flaw of this book--the war part in Korea is written so woodenly, it's almost painful to read. I could see that Choi wrote down the mere facts from what she dug up from her research. And also it goes on too long without giving the reader a clear picutre or map of the situation in general, so it was all so very vuague to me.

The best character in this book was Edison. The relationship between him and Katherine is very well depicted. In fact, come to think of it, it was almost like reading two books in one.

If Choi sticks to the world she knows mor intimately, which seems to me western rather than eastern, American rather than Korean, she would produce something wonderful with her talent.

I hardly know where to begin. This is a beautiful story of a loving family and a very special community. It is a story of a woman who finds her truest self.

Carolyn Jourdan was a high profile attorney who worked on Capitol Hill. She drove a Mercedes, and had a high profile circle of friends. She knew all of the important people, and they knew her.

A family emergency sent her back to the hills of Tennessee, for a few days. It wasn't easy. She missed her place in DC from almost the first moment she was away. Her best friend was there. Her life and work were there. She was somebody there...or was she.

As the days and then weeks passed, far longer than she had expected or planned, Carolyn began to see things just a little differently. She had always wanted to help others, but had seen it more as a grand scheme. Helping many at one time. Making a difference . But is is more important to make a difference to many people at one time than it is to do so one by one. That was a conundrum she had trouble solving.

I loved each and every one of the people I met in this book. There were tears in my eyes more than once. A story filled with compassion, love and faith that will have a firm place on my small self of books that are to be read again and again.

Carolyn Jourdan thought she had left her hometown of Strawberry Plains, Tenn. in her rear view mirror. When her mother has a heart attack, Jourdan leaves a job as a high profile attorney in Washington, D.C., to care for her mom and help her dad at his small medical office.

Jourdan's warm memoir, "Heart in the Right Place," chronicles her experiences at the front desk of her father's office and the adjustments she makes to life in a small town.

The book has gathered a basket full of honors, including "A Best Book Club of 2007-2008" by Book Sense, "A Best Book of 2007-2008" by The Literary Guild and "A 2008 Top Summer Read" by The New York Public Library.

Jourdan's opening chapter spotlights her quick wit and sharp sense of humor as she recounts her first day on the job.

As I unlocked the front door of the office I could hear the phone ringing. I hurried inside and stretched across the reception desk to answer it.
"Dr. Jourdan's office," I said, out of breath."
"Do y'all wash out feet?" a woman shouted.
... "Excuse me?"
"Wash out feet! Do y'all wash out feet?"
"I ... I don't know." I sent up a silent prayer that we did not.
"Well she needs her foot washed out! How much do y'all charge for that?"

Jourdan's easy writing style moves the story right along. She makes you care about her mother's rehabilitation, her father's heavy workload and the health and well-being of the patients that cross her path.

Her stories prove that people in small towns all across this country care about one another enough to make significant sacrifices. And that's a good thing.

Enjoy!

Why would a high powered Senate lawyer suddenly decide to become a country doctor's receptionist? Because her family asked her to. Carolyn Jourdan's 70 something mother who normally does the job for Carolyn's father, the small rural area's only doctor, has had a heart attack and family duty brings Carolyn to the rescue "for a few days". This delightful memoir tells us all what it's like to escape a life only to be dragged back in--and finding it much more fulfilling the second time around. Full of anecdotes about life in a country doc's office (where you can keep someone from dying AND x-ray a miniature goat in the same day) we can delight in the complicated simplicity of life East Tennessee through the eyes of one of is very own daughters. This book is hilarious, touching, and above all, honest.

You can zip through this in the bookstore. Wholly lacking in character development and spiritual depth.

A wonderful and humorous story about a daughter who returns from a high powered position in the United States Congress to be the receptionist for her father's country physician office. The cast of characters and their many illnesses, real and imagined, provide wonderful insight into the human condition. You will laugh at the antics of the country patients, friends and even the animals that Carolyn's daddy treats in his small town Smokey Mountain office. Carolyn Jourdan recounts it all with humor, pathos and spirituality. Don't miss this one!

This is an excellent book with a great storyline, realistic characters, hystrical tales and tidbits of historical data. I enjoyed reading it so much that I convinced my book club to read it. The author was gracious enough to do a book signing and discus the book with us at our meeting. We enjoyed the book and the author so much that we read his second book for our next month's meeting which he attended as well. It can be hard to find a book with good Christian values, a bit of history and a lot of a laughs but this book has all those things and I think anyone who reads it would enjoy it.

The Legend of Quito Road is an engaging story of a time most of us can no longer remember even though we live with the shadows it still casts. As complex and intricately woven as your favorite cozy sweater, it will keep you entertained from start to finish. The characters are beautifully detailed, leaving us room to pick our own favorite. An easy and entertaining read, you will not be able to put it down.

I found this book to be a quality read. I couldn't believe how many layers the storyline had and how alive the characters were. The Legend of Quito Road flowed naturally, and I couldn't put it down before long. The details that Dwight put into this novel enabled me to really know "the times" (Prohibition era in the post-slavery south). It held my attention until the very end, and I was stunned at the conclusion (you are in for serveral surprises)! This book also displays the good and evil natures living in each human being. It runs the gamut from love, betrayal, death, and hope. It truly imitates life. GREAT WORK.

Loved this look into this piece of our past... A work of fiction with a lot of truth to it... Read the book on our family vacation over 4th of July week... Some of the events in the book take place over that same week... Great look at relationships between blacks and whites, and small town life; how tangled up people can be; how some people are not who they think they are... Insight also into what some men then were up against - working hard for pennies, for someone who's sleeping with your girl, and taking zero responsibility for the children who come... Loved the way the book was tied to God's lesson for us in Galatian 6:7.

This book was so great. I love historical fiction. Dwight brings the community of Lucy alive. I couldn't stop reading it. I teach school in Lucy.
I have driven down Quito road many times. All in all, I highly recommend this book.

Shot whiskey is the type that so strong and just plain nasty that throwing it down your throat in a (hopefully) single swallow is the only way to imbibe it and survive. Sippin' whiskey, on the other hand, while still packing a punch, is more artfully crafted, with all sorts of artful nuances there to savor - you want to take your time with it, so you can more fully appreciate the care with which it was made. William Gay's prose is sippin' whiskey - there's a strength within that will leave you reeling, but there are so many subtleties to be found as well.

His characters are vivid and believable, and he brings them to life slowly, rather than burying the reader in a swamp of description. We get to know them as we would a person in our day-to-day lives, through their actions, conversations, and what thoughts they might care to share with us - it's an experience that makes reading this novel all the more precious and amazing. The descriptions that occur within these pages are subtle as well - his vocabulary is astonishing, and when he can't find a suitable word already in general usage, he constructs one (always to good advantage). Time after time, reading this incredible novel, I found myself going over a passage again and again, to make sure that I wasn't imagining the creative powers at work here.

Gay's literary gifts are amazing - but he never uses them in such a way as to overpower his characters. The novel is set in rural Tennessee in the 1940s - and that time and place is firmly established within the first few pages. I felt transported as I read it. Gay lives in Hohenwald, Tennessee - and his knowledge of the area and the people, and his obvious empathy toward them, give his fiction a sense of reality that is both gentle and ferocious.

Dirt farmers, laborers, bootleggers, lawmen (both honest and crooked), women and men old before their time, young people aching for something - anything - more than what they see around them, what they see as their future if they remain where they are. The story here is basically an old one - that of an evil presence in the midst of normalcy, ignored or tolerated by most of the citizens in the area, that slowly establishes itself as a power not to be questioned without dire retribution. What's the old saying? `Absolute power corrupts absolutely' - the mighty tend to fall mighty hard, and they seldom see it coming. The evil character in this novel - one Dallas Hardin, bootlegger, honkytonk operator, would-be pimp and many more unsavory occupations - is one of the most memorable baddies I've come across in some time. The evil within him is made palpable - you can feel it in the air, it will make your skin crawl - by William Gay's skill.

I've already started reading his second novel, and I've got my eye on his collected short stories as well. Gay's work was recommended to me by another author - and it's a recommendation for which I'll be grateful for a long, long time. This is high magick.

The Long Home, William Gay's 1999 debut novel is set in the deeply rural Tennessee of the 1940s, a time when most of its inhabitants were still isolated by a lack of automobiles and telephones. Amidst this isolation they often learned the hard way that local law enforcement officers were on the payroll of the highest bidder and that it was always best for a person to simply mind his own business and get on with his life rather than to try to right wrongs done to others. There could have been no more perfect an environment, of course, for someone with the nerve and the will to do whatever it took to profit at the expense of his neighbors.

Into this perfect environment appeared one Dallas Hardin, a man who would let nothing stand between him and what he wanted, even if what he wanted was another man's wife, home and business. He simply took those things and dared you to do anything about it. Those tempted to try to do something about Hardin knew that they would likely end up dead and that life would just go on without them. As a result, the evil that Hardin was continued to grow stronger by the year.

That is not to say that everyone closed their eyes when it came to Dallas Hardin and what he represented. Some, like old William Tell Oliver who lived nearby Hardin's dancehall, could hardly help observing some of the things that went on there when no one else was around, including vicious beatings and even murder. One or two, like young Nathan Winer whose father had his own run-in with Hardin, were willing to stand up to Hardin - up to a point.

A classic battle of good vs. evil was bound to happen when someone brave enough to take on Dallas Hardin finally had enough of his ways. Little did Nathan Winer think that by falling in love with Hardin's "stepdaughter" that he would be the one to trigger that confrontation or that he and old man Oliver would find themselves locked with Hardin in a fight to the finish.

William Gay's writing is like Cormac McCarthy's in that it deals with people who are trying to scratch a living from the land, dirt farmers, small ranchers, day laborers, bootleggers, and the women who have to depend on them. Gay's world is often bloody and violent, and like McCarthy, he goes where his story leads and does not soften or hide that violence by quickly moving on to the next scene. That willingness to face violence head-on is part of the makeup of Gay's characters and his readers should be prepared to do the same because this is one of the roughest coming-of-age novels that they are likely ever to encounter.

Since 1999 Gay has followed The Long House with two more novels and a collection of short stories. His work is firmly in the Southern Gothic mode, almost always set in the South of the 1940s and 1950s, and has drawn favorable comparisons to the work of McCarthy, Faulkner, O'Connor and Caldwell. Fans of that illustrious group might want to check out the work of William Gay to see what they have been missing.

I read this book twice. First time was a couple years ago and I am glad I had the foresight to put it on my "do not lend" shelf. Having forgotten the story, I picked it up again last weekend and re-read it. I savored every word and found myself re-reading passages as the descriptions evoked every emotion from laughing out loud to pensive reflection. It was a gift, this writing, this story, these characters. Brilliant. Thank you William Gay.

The battle of good versus evil is woven through three-dimensional characters, young and elderly. Remorseless murderer Dallas Hardin worsens with age, stealing another's wife and trying to prostitute her daughter. Young Nathan Winer, whose father Hardin killed when the boy was very young, violently objects. Elderly William Tell Oliver knows secrets and knows exactly how to help Winer. The unhurried climax literally tightened my nerves until the most satisfying end. --Roy L. Fish, author of short stories and the suspense novel, ICEMAN.

A southern novel has never pulled me in like this before. I needed something to read and I was at a friend's house. I asked her what her favorite book on her bookshelf was and she gave me this one. I'm glad she did. The writing is so powerful, and so lyrical, that I could not put it down. Beyond that, the sentences are so rich, bursting with information, that no pages could be skipped. This is a story about the deep south, before everyone had telephones and automobiles, set in a remote area of Tennessee, a place with its own history and its own rules. You will not regret reading this book.

I'm an impatient reader, and a book doesn't get many pages to persuade me to stay. I was sold by the first page, and it just bundled me up and carried me along. Sweet, but not sappy. Tragic, but not maudlin. Just ... lovely.

The lives of the parents were so intreguing. But I wondered about the child. I know it doesn't make a difference, but I was left curious.

Mary

I got this book as a gift. Nothing I would probably have chosen for myself, but once I started it I couldn't put it down. You get so involved with the characters in the story you can't wait to turn the page. Marianne Wiggins does a wonderful job of putting you right there wherever the characters may go. You are truly immersed in their lives. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a well written story. Was sorry to see it end.

I don't know what my fellow reviewers here have been reading, but the language here is NOT poetic. It is clunky and puts an extraordinary strain on the reader. The exception to this is where the character "Flash" holds forth - But, sadly, these passages are few and far between - But this brings me to another problem with the book: All these silly, yes SILLY, tropes on light in the characters' names: "Flash", "Fos", "Ray " "Lightfoot" lend an air of the ridiculous to the book. The most ridiculous part is the recurrent reference to Moby Dick the, ahem, "white" whale. Whatever this book is, subtle it is not. Nevertheless, the novel does tug at the heartstrings, as the reviewers here are ever so keen to comment on. But it tugs at the heartstrings in the way a Disney movie, say, does. You know the movie is silly and sentimental and the characters not terribly realistic, nevertheless you find tears trickling down your cheeks. This is best way I know to describe the book to the potential reader. [...]

The novel is, in short, a tear-jerker, which may be your cup of tea. I'm sure Oprah would love it! But it's not good writing. It's not poetic. It's not literature. It just isn't!

This is a great story with rich language. My book group chose this book, and everyone enjoyed it. I rarely choose pages to mark, but marked two for the language. Others in our group earmarked many pages. Heed the warning about the back of the book. It gives away too much of the story. Pleasant reading.

Aramis Black returns in this gripping new installment from Eric Wilson. Aramis, owner of Black's Espresso Shop in downtown Nashville, finds himself once again neck deep in a mystery that is tied to his family's dark past. Wilson wastes no time in getting started, as Aramis finds his brother, Johnny Ray, unconscious and strung up on a statue in Music Row. The letters "AX" have been crudely carved into his back. As Aramis hunts for Johnny Ray's attacker, he soon learns he is dealing with a madman that is orchestrating a deadly game. Aramis must play the game in order to protect his loved ones and unlock a vital family secret. As Aramis searches for the truth he must battle with his own dark past that is full of vengeance and rage.

We first met Aramis Black in The Best of Evil, where Wilson turned a coffee shop owner into a rich and engaging character that readers can't help but love. In A Shred of Truth, Wilson takes us deeper into Aramis' life, and what a ride it is. All of the great elements of storytelling are here: engaging dialogue, perfectly executed plot development, fascinating characters, not to mention a classic "whodunit" element that will keep reader's guessing until the end. Wilson also does a superb job of bringing the city of Nashville to life, making it familiar to readers who have never been there. This is Eric Wilson at the top of his game.

Eric Wilson continues to churn out quality fiction that effectively explores man's struggle between light and the darkness that threatens to consume. From his Five Senses novels to the Aramis Black series, Wilson continues to excel at his craft. Recently he has signed on with Thomas Nelson, who will be publishing his highly anticipated Jerusalem's Undead Trilogy due out in fall 2008. Wilson's next project is the novelization of the film, Facing the Giants, which will be available in September.

Armchair Interviews says: Dust off your bookshelf and make some room for one of the best up and coming writing talents out there.

After reading the first in the series, "Best of Evil," I had high expectations for this most recent installment in the saga of Aramis Black. I was very pleased to find the edgy, immersive tempo was not at all diluted, yet as with the series' introduction, the world of Aramis Black stands in stark contrast to most fiction in that the world it presents is difficult to distinguish from our own.

I hesitate to ever visit Nashville for fear of it not living up to the glamor of the ever noir perspective of Aramis--or worse; to discover no espresso shop on Elliston Place.

Many authors toil in attempts to suspend belief, but somehow Eric Wilson has managed to do the opposite and create belief due to immensely compelling character development with interaction that is very true-to-life. Many suspense tales pass their peak with weak or forced plot devices which weakly flutter toward the climax, and I confess I was fearful that may have been the case--that Eric Wilson had out-done himself--and anticipated a dismal and disappointing ending. But I was wrong. Few authors are able to dupe me, but I would be remiss to say I saw the ending coming. The plot is truly a masterful crescendo of twists and turns.

Very seldom am I captivated by the simple if gripping telling of a mundane story as I am an action movie buff, and honestly I am often annoyed by first-person mystery yarns, but the raw and gritty vitality of this tale extends beyond the reader's imagination into the daily perception of truth itself. Or at least a shred of it.

With so many novels flooding the market on a weekly basis, it's hard to decide where to spend your money. Fortunately, you can't go wrong with anything Eric Wilson writes. Aramis Black, the tattooed hero from "The Best of Evil" is back and tougher than ever in "A Shred of Truth".

This novel really grabbed me from the opening because of the violent attack on one of my favorite characters from the first book. I don't want to give anything away, but let me say this sets the tone for the story. No one in Black's life is safe, and the enemy he faces this time has no mercy. The suspense is ratcheted up several notches and you can really see how Wilson has grown as a writer with each novel.

Easily placing as one of my top ten favorite thrillers of the year, "A Shred of Truth" is a great story that will keep you pulled in until the last page.

I was fortunate to come upon an Eric Wilson book on vacation and was doubly fortunate finding it to be his first! I have been hooked on his writing since then and A SHRED OF TRUTH shows that he can keep it coming.

His characters become old friends and one wants to read more about them; they are also fallible but hold on to beliefs through the trials they must walk to get to the truth.

Even his sociopath is believely evil. And, Eric Wilson always has clues added to his stories to spice it up even more!

I work in a library and am always on the look out for 'new good' talent and Wilson is a consistant author. An author of whom you want his next book, next series, next and next and next. Keep writing Eric!

Sequal to The Best of Evil, A Shred of Truth continues the story of Aramis Black. Black is one of the most relateable (and honest) characters in Christian fiction today. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a lover of fiction.