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Mississippi Books and WritersSeptember 1996Note: Prices listed below reflect the publisher's suggested list price. They are subject to change without notice.
A Novel by Larry Brown Algonquin Books ($22.95, ISBN: 1565120140) Publication date: September 1996 Brief Review: Larry Brown is the master of the raw and the sparse
and of bringing Mississippi to the world in a language that is as stripped down
and bare as Faulkners
is dense. Brown is at his best when he writes of the tensions between one screwed-up
man and another, in this case a father and son. One has just been let out of
prison, and he shouldn’t have been. The other is drunk and disabled, and intends
on staying that way. To make things worse there is a conflict with the sheriff,
who is good and righteous, but who tried to put the moves on the parolee’s woman
while he was in prison. To tell more would be to violate Brown’s mastery of
dialogue and of that which goes unspoken in this sly story of father, son and
misery.
Fiction by Johnny Neal Smith Sunstone Press ($24.95, ISBN: 0865342474) Publication date: September 1996 Confessions of an Accidental Businessman: It Takes a Lifetime to Find Wisdom Nonfiction by James A. Autry Berrett-Koehler ($24.95, ISBN: 1576750035) Publication date: September 1996 Description: This business autobiography of a corporate executive relates the management and leadership lessons which Autry, a Fortune 500 executive, has learned on his way to the top. According to Autry, knowing what to do is only part of becoming a leader; the only part is knowing how to be. Nonfiction by Mary Carol Miller University Press of Mississippi ($35.00, ISBN: 0878058885) Publication date: September 1996
Short Stories edited by Shannon Ravenel; stories by William Faulkner, Ellen Douglas, et al. Algonquin ($10.95, ISBN: 1565121554) Publication date: September 1996 Description: Now in its 11th year, this book has become the annual anthology to watch. The stories featured here continue the tradition of excellence, presenting the work of exciting newcomers alongside that of the established masters. This year’s volume includes “Rose of Lebanon,” a new story by the colossus of Southern literatureWilliam Faulkner. Midwest Book Review: The jewel in the crown of this superlative “1996 Year’s Best” short story anthology is a new story never before published in book form by William Faulkner. The work of the other contributors measures up to the best that Faulkner had to offer in his prime. Moira Crone, Jill McCorkle, Marcia Guthridge, Robert Olen Butler, Susan Perabo, Annette Sanford, Lee Smith, Kathy Flann, Robert Morgan, Tim Gautreaux, David Gilbert, Tom Paine, J. D. Dolan, and Ellen Douglas all have one thing in common with the legendary Faulknerthey tell a story so well that the reader is caught up in the lives and events and characters from the first word to the last. New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best, 1996 is a “must” for all Faulkner fans, and will introduce readers to a galaxy of new names whose work is to be read just as enthusiastically! Roads from the Bottom: A Survival Journal for America’s Black Community Nonfiction by C.K. Chiplin and Gwen McKee Quail Ridge Press ($15.95, ISBN: 0937552739) Publication date: September 1996 Terror in the Night: The Klan’s Campaign Against the Jews Nonfiction by Jack Nelson University Press of Mississippi ($16.00, ISBN: 0878059075) Publication date: September 1996 (Reprint Edition)
Nonfiction by Colin Crawford Addison-Wesley Publishing Company ($24.00, ISBN: 020162723X) Publication date: September 1996 Brief Review: The creek of the title is in poor, mostly black
Noxubee County, Mississippi, and the uproar was over the possible siting there
of a chemical waste dump. Environmental lawyer Colin Crawford tells this cautionary,
near-tragic tale from the perspective of the leaders of each faction: Martha
Blackwell, the wealthy white woman who leads the opposition to the dump; Ike
Brown, the political boss of the black community, who favors it; and Ed Netherland,
the company man searching for a site for the dump and trying to sell it to
the citizens of Noxubee. The clash of race, environmentalist fear, greed,
and class makes for a fascinating storyand one without a happy ending.
Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier Nonfiction by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith Smithmark Publishing (Hardcover, ISBN: 0831772204) Publication date: September 1996 Description from Booklist: The rarely seen and startlingly vital black-and-white photographs in this volume capture the fortitude and pride of the clear-eyed women of the frontier, women who had to practice all the tender arts of nurturing a family under the most rugged of circumstances. Peavy and Smith cut through all the myths of frontier life in their frank and engaging commentary, getting down to the cold, gritty facts under such headings as Keeping Spirits Up, Night Fears, Warding Off Insects and Animals, and Little Ones Lost. This litany alludes to the loneliness and isolation of pioneer existence, where every act, from securing clean drinking water to making clothes, required long, hard labor, and where pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood often involved as much tragedy as joy. Little-discussed issues, such as marriages between Anglo men and Indian and Hispanic women, are examined, as are the lives of women who found employment outside the homestead as teachers, physicians, businesswomen, journalists, and even prostitutes. A book as fresh and inspiring as a bright, breezy day on the plains. Donna Seaman
Mississippi Writers
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