Alabama Ink

Book review: ‘The Glass Rainbow’ by James Lee Burke
Published: Sunday, January 29, 2012, 2:51 PM
Press-Register Correspondent By Press-Register Correspondent

MOBILE, Alabama — Southern literary novels have all but disappeared in recent years, with Cormac McCarthy being perhaps the sole heir to the likes of William Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Walker Percy. The best we can hope for is a welcome cross-genre novel — a seamless blend of the literary and thriller genres that rises above the usual tripe.

Award-winning Louisiana novelist James Lee Burke has answered that challenge with his Dave Robicheaux series of cop thrillers that always match the best of modern American literature. And his latest offering, “The Glass Rainbow,” out last summer in paperback form and in summer 2010 in audio editions, may be his best yet in the series.

Deputy Sheriff Dave Robicheaux, a haunted Vietnam War veteran who fights crime in New Iberia parish, La., with the aid of his fellow ex-NOPD detective, Clete Purcel, investigates the gruesome murders of two teenage girls. The long list of suspects includes the pimp Herman Stanga, ex-convict author Robert Weingart, celebrated author (and scion of Louisiana’s plantation-owning culture) Kermit Abelard, socialite Carolyn Blachette and sociopathic ex-con Vidor Perkins. The plot is fast-moving and exciting, but it is not the sole highlight of this tour.
The Glass Rainbow
By James Lee Burke
Pocket Star, paper, $9.99;
Simon & Shuster Audio, abridged and unabridged, $29.99 and $39.99

Reviewed by JIM FRAISER
Correspondent

Burke’s crackling, realistic dialogue, heart-rending insights into the human heart and lyrical prose easily made “The Glass Rainbow” hardcover one of 2010’s best books. Stanga, the pimp, refers to the gargantuan, beer-soaked crime fighter Purcel as “Dumbo the flying beer barrel,” while Purcel responds to a diminutive thug’s dubious request for aid by quipping, “The reparation issue is off the table for pygmies.” Robicheaux describes his friend Purcel as having “the sophistication of a junkyard falling down a staircase.”

This dialogue is greatly enriched in the CD edition by Will Patton’s expert rendering. Whether speaking dead-on as pimps, cops, plantation owners, Cajuns, blacks, whites, old men or young girls, Patton proves himself to be one of America’s most versatile, entertaining book readers. He is also an actor who has appeared in many films, including “Remember the Titans” and “A Mighty Heart,” and television shows, currently portraying Capt. Dan Weaver in “Falling Skies.”

It is Burke’s descriptive genius that takes this book to its greatest heights. In his description of a Natchez building, “The ventilated storm shutters were slatted with a pink glow, as soft and filtered and cool in color as the spring sunrise can be in the Garden District.” In one scene, Stanga spies someone lurking in the shadows: “He stared at a silhouette that disconnected itself from a bottle brush tree then stood framed against the moonlight that shimmered like a white flame on the bayou.” An elderly suspect admonishes Robicheaux’s daughter, Alafair, that she should never grow old because “Age is an insatiable thief that steals the pleasures of your youth, then locks you inside your body with your desires still glowing.”

Burke’s penetrating commentary on life supremely satisfies. “The only human tragedy,” he writes, “occurs when we forget who we are and remain silent while a stranger takes up residence inside our skin.” Burke offers a familiar character description for the modern age: “They had become acolytes in a pantheon where the admission fee was the forfeiture of their souls, or at least their self respect.”

“There are times,” Robicheaux says of threats made against his daughter, “when loss is not acceptable in any circumstance.” Unfortunately, this book is primarily a study of loss, from the teenage murder victims robbed of their young lives to Alafair’s loss of innocence and, quite possibly, her life.

Even Robicheaux and Purcel face a date with their own mortality, a possibility foreshadowed throughout the novel by Burke’s use of Roman Catholic and pagan imagery and mysticism. Unlike the previous 17 Robicheaux novels, the reader discovers three-quarters of the way through this story that a very real possibility exists that this matchless series may be coming to an end.

“We’ve had a good run, haven’t we,” Purcel says to Robicheaux, making perhaps the understatement of the century. If you read one novel this year, or listen to one on CD, you can’t do better than “The Glass Rainbow.”

Jim Fraiser is a federal administrative law judge in Jackson, Miss., and the author of 14 books, including, forthcoming this spring, “The Garden District of New Orleans” and “The Majesty of Mobile.”

From year to year, thousands and thousands of new authors rise up in the United States, with one goal; to build a name. But in a field that requires such a great deal of talent and skill, very few authors ultimately pull through and succeed. It often comes as a surprise when people discover that the Heart of Dixie is actually home to many of the best authors across the world. That’s right; Alabama writers are some of the most well-known across the country! When people think of books by Alabama authors, the first novel that often comes to mind is the award winning “To Kill a Mockingbird”, which takes a close look at the issue of race and family in the United States. A fairly old book, but a classic nonetheless, and one that very likely motivated others from Alabama to pursue their passion for writing.

Robert McCammon is by far one of the most successful and well known Alabama writers. McCammon was born and raised in the heart of Birmingham, Alabama, and ultimately attended UAB (the University of Alabama), and at the age 59, still resides in his home state. Though McCammon boasts a number of best-selling novels, he is best known for his novel titled “Boy’s Life”, one of the most popular books by Alabama authors to ever hit stores. The novel revolves around a young boy named Cory Mackenson who lives a modest life with his family, up until everything takes a tragic and sudden turn one morning. He and his father are faced with one of the most heinous crimes; murder. Though the novel is a thriller, Mackenson does a phenomenal job of delivering comic relief from time to time. His ability to smoothly create a novel that is a thriller, yet comical at times, is no doubt the reason why this is one of the most famous books by Alabama writers. Other popular novels written by McCammon include “Baal”, “The Queen of Bedlam”, and “Blue World”.

Another world renowned author among the countless Alabama writers is Winston Groom. Groom also attended the University of Alabama alongside several other soon to be famous Alabama authors. Though Groom is popular throughout the states, he also grew famous worldwide after he wrote the best-selling “Forrest Gump”. His novel was not titled a best seller until it eventually hit the big screen in the classic Forrest Gump movie. Throughout the years, Groom has been nominated and ultimately won several awards in the field of writing. Some of his other popular novels include “A Storm in Flanders”, “The Crimson Tide”, and “As Summer Dies”.

Though many Alabama authors attend the reputable University of Alabama, author William Cobb made the decision to attend Livingston State University instead. Regardless, Cobb paved a successful path as an author for himself, ultimately writing one of the best-selling books by Alabama writers titled “A Walk Through Fire”. Cobb, though a spectacular writer, also focused greatly on creating Broadway productions, as oppose to simply writing novels. Ultimately, Cobb was successful both as an author, and as a Broadway producer. Other famous novels written by Cobs include “Wings of Morning”, The Hermit King”, and “Harry Reunited”.

Formerly a teacher, Anne George decided she wanted to pursue a different career; one as an author. This eventually proved to be a great decision by George, as she went on to become one of the greatest mystery writers. She was eventually awarded with being the greatest mystery novelist in the States. George is best known for her novel “Murder on a Girls’ Night Out”, but also wrote several novels including “Murder Gets a Life”, “This One and Magic Life”, and “Some of It Is True”. “Murder on a Girls’ Night Out”, though primarily tailored towards female readers, is said to be one of the best books by Alabama authors to ever be written. Based on the massive sales of her novels, which were in fact in the millions, it would be fair to say George is one of the most skilled and talented Alabama authors of all time.

One can quickly begin to see why Alabama authors are said to be some of the most talented and well known across the world. From the famous “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, to “Forrest Gump” written by Winston Groom, many of these authors are attributed with writing the most well-known books by Alabama writers of all time. It would be fair to say that Alabama may be the writer’s haven of the United States.

Leah Rawls Atkins praises Mary Ann Neeley’s Works of Matthew Blue, Montgomery’s First Historian
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 by Brian

The Works of Matthew Blue, Montgomery’s First Historian, by Mary Ann Neeley

This review originally appeared in The Alabama Review: A Quarterly Journal of Alabama History, July 2011, Vol. 64, No. 3. Review by Leah Rawls Atkins, Auburn University.

The Works of Matthew Blue: Montgomery’s First Historian. Edited by Mary Ann Neeley. Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2010. xvi, 459 pp. $45.00. ISBN 978-1-58838-031-9.

Anyone researching a nineteenth-century Alabama topic that touches Montgomery must consult Matthew Blue. Before the appearance of Mary Ann Neeley’s edition of Blue’s works, this was difficult because copies were rare and fragile. Finding who or what you were interested in without a comprehensive index, understanding all the facts and events, knowing the family and political interrelations of the people whom Blue mentioned were impossible for most researchers. Significant nuances were surely missed by those of us not familiar with the history and people of Montgomery.

Neeley’s book places this history in easy reach with an index and copious annotations and notes. Blue’s text is in boldface type, and Neeley’s annotations follow in regular type. Her notes are placed by appropriate paragraphs on the outside margin of her book, which makes the scholarship easily accessible to the reader. Neeley, now retired, was the longtime director of the capital city’s living history museum, Old Alabama Town. She spent her life studying Montgomery, its people, and events. Taking more than a decade to complete the book, Neeley used numerous primary sources, especially the Blue family papers in the Alabma Department of Archives and History.

Matthew Blue was born in a log cabin on September 24, 1824, on the hill where the Alabama capitol now stands. He died in Montgomery on December 20, 1884. In his lifetime, Blue was a mail clerk, the city’s postmaster, the publisher and part-owner of the Montgomery Advertiser, a columnist for the Montgomery Daily Post, a coroner, and secretary of the state senate. Most of all, he knew everyone, was a keen observer of people and events, and he had a sense of the importance of recorded history.

Blue wrote an early history of Montgomery and compiled a list of events in the city, both included in the 1878 City Directory of Montgomery. His essay on church history was published in 1851, and his early study of the organization of the city’s churches was privately printed in 1878. Blue’s history and genealogy of the Blue family appeared in 1886, two years after Blue died. These works, along with the unpublished diary of Ellen Blue, are included in Neeley’s work. One strength of the book is the copious illustrations and photographs, which are fully explained in captions. The large number of names and the easy index will be an asset for genealogical and family researchers.

Blue’s descriptions of many historical events in Montgomery have been the authority for much that has made its way into modern articles and books — General Lafayette’s entrance into Montgomery on April 3, 1825, and his reception “on the hill upon which the State Capitol now stands”; the fire on December 14, 1849, that destroyed the first capitol building in Montgomery; the city as capitol of the Confederacy and Montgomery during the Confederate period.

Neeley’s edited and annotated volume of Blue’s works should be in major research libraries in the nation and included in most of Alabama’s public and academic collections. Collectors of Alabamiana will welcome this volume.

The Works of Matthew Blue, Montgomery’s First Historian, by Mary Ann Neeley, is available direct from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite book retailer.

Visit New South Books

Wayne Greenhaw
As one of the most noted writers who chronicled the civil rights movement in the South, Wayne Greenhaw
saw and wrote about the early maelstrom of race relations and the gradual emergence of the Republican
Party in Alabama. Born in 1940, Wayne Greenhaw grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He attended
Tuscaloosa High School and studied writing under famed creative writing professor, Hudson Strode at
the University of Alabama. As an infant, Wayne Greenhaw had contracted polio and at fourteen had
corrective surgery for the curvature of his spine which resulted from the illness. Forced in a body cast
for six month Wayne Greenhaw took the period of convalescence to devote a great deal reading William
Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway.
The stories of Alabama came to Wayne Greenhaw as a young boy, shared to him by his grandfather,
and personally experienced and observed when he went on the road with his father. Seeing the land and
the people of his state, Wayne Greenhaw’s work as a man of the pen began to take on more than just
a creative role but also an increasingly historical one, taking into account the flurry of change sweeping
across Alabama. As the civil rights movement pressed on in the American South, Wayne Greenhaw
found himself at the center of a repressed population’s fight for equality and their calls to outlaw racial
discrimination against African Americans. Wayne Greenhaw is best noted for chronicling the stories of
civil resistance and the fight of African Americans against the Ku Klux Klan. He documented the politics
during that period of unrest.
Yet, when Wayne Greenhaw was a budding journalist, he had worked on smaller assignments as a
sports reporter for Tuscaloosa News and eventually, a sports columnist for the Graphics Weekly. Pretty
soon, however, Greenhaw found himself writing for The Montgomery Journal where he broke the news
on the indictment of William Calley for murder, and completed his first novel, The Golfer, by 1969.
Nevertheless, his most important works found their gravity centered on the social issues of the time.
Wayne Greenhaw’s editorial exposing the white supremacist Asa Carter (who had been involved with the
Ku Klax Clan) as the author behind the book ‘The Education of the Little Tree’ and his article on My Lai
Massacre, proved to be the highlights of his writing career. The latter earned Wayne Greenhaw a Nieman
Fellowship from Harvard University in 1972, complete his graduate studies at the said university.
Wayne Greenhaw’s passing last May took everyone by surprise. Caught in the center of social and
political turmoil, Wayne Greenhaw’s clear voice and journalistic instinct provided truthful and moving
accounts of the people’s story. And like most journalists, he was brave enough to ask the questions that
mattered. Wayne Greenhaw’s unique place in history is certainly incorporated in his legacy, a legacy
that saw him with several published works that are culturally significant and eye-opening not only to
Alabamans but Americans in general.

Link – Most Luxurious

Rick Bragg – All Over But the Shoutin

Rick Bragg is another one of The Cotton State’s many literary sons. As well as being a Pulitzer prizewinning journalist for the New York Times, he’s written several award winning non-fiction books.
His most famous, and the best received, is the incredibly powerful, heart wrenching memoir “All Over But the Shoutin’”. It tells the harrowing story of Bragg’s hard childhood growing up in poverty in Alabama, and his subsequent glorious rise to journalistic acclaim. It’s a collection of poignant moments, and each one is recounted in such a wonderfully simple way.

Bragg has a gift. He can put you in his shoes (or to be more accurate, his bare seven year old feet) whether he’s telling a tale of hardship from his youth, or inviting you to witness his glory as he picked up his well-deserved Pulitzer.

Memoirs that deal with childhood hardships are often mawkish and overly emotional, but Bragg can tug at the heartstrings without being sickeningly sentimental. His experiences are presented with an evocative ring of truth that avoids cheap emotional appeals and the insipid, hackneyed slush that characterizes the genre.

According to Bragg, his poverty as a child was crushing and absolute. He doesn’t state this though; he lets the reader feel it through simply stating the truth of the matter, in an idiosyncratic southern way. He speaks eloquently with a child’s voice, telling harrowing stories of how his father was abusive and eventually abandoned the family, stealing everything he could on his way out.
His mother is portrayed as the hero of the tale, and Bragg explains how his mother showed almost superhuman strength at the hardships they had to endure. He paints a wonderful portrait of a quiet, humble southern woman, alternately bristling with pride and burning with shame. It’s a wonderful emotional characterization of a fine woman, and it’s clear that Bragg owes a lot to his mother.

The second half of the book deals with Bragg’s life after he found considerable success as a journalist. However, this doesn’t mean the painful part is over. Possibly due to his own experiences, Bragg found himself drawn to the most brutal stories he could cover. With his innate emotional eloquence, he describes his coverage of the Miami riots, the Haitian Massacre, and the chilling case of the child murderer Susan Smith.

In “All Over But the Shoutin’”, Bragg compels us to not only witness his colorful life, but to almost live it with him. He not only brilliantly describes how it felt to grow up poor in Alabama, but how it feels to be a celebrated journalist. Even when describing these two turbulent, yet wildly different periods of his life, his calm and honest journalistic tone never leaves him.

“All Over But the Shoutin’” is a eloquent commentary on a colourful life. It has a universal appeal, and will engage not only those who are interested in journalism, or what it is to grow up poor in Alabama, but those who are interested in what it is to be human.
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Alabama writers and their books
Located in U.S., the state of Alabama consists of 460 incorporated cities and towns. It is also the home of quite a number of famous authors. This article will help you acquaint with some of these authors and their works. At this point, it would be wise to understand that many of the authors listed below have their own website and you can check out the same for detailed information about their details.

Beverly Barton is one of the renowned Alabama authors. She had a fantastic time in 2010 with her Zebra romantic suspense novel, `Dead by Midnight,’ exceeding all expectations. This was one of the books by Alabama writers that remained on the bestseller lists for several weeks. According to this author, this particular book is part of a trilogy. One of the other two books in the trilogy, `Dead by Morning’ is slated for release on April 26 2011, whereas the last one, `Dead by Nightfall’, is scheduled to be released on December 2011. Those interested in books by Alabama authors can also join her on Facebook.

Giselle Carmichael is yet another of the numerous Alabama writers. Her novel, `Stilettos and Handcuffs,’ was a runaway success. It is also available in the form of an ebook. This author has had a military upbringing and this helped introduce her to different cultures and people. Her first manuscript was `Magnolia Sunset.’ These two novels apart, she has also authored `The Politics of Love,’ `Lace, I’ll be your Shelter,’ and `Forever Mine.’

`Warrior or Wife’ is yet another novel that has a place of pride amongst other books by Alabama writers. Authored by Lyn Randal, one of the popular Alabama authors, this novel depicts a romance set in the Roman era. Randal is soon going to publish another novel, `Tempted by Innocence,’ expected to be published in the near future. The boredom faced during the long summers and the little social life in the place she grew up led her to love books. It also helped to develop her creative imagination.

If you like romance novels, then you should check out books by Alabama authors like `Bonnie Gardner.’ According to her, she grew up on overseas military places during the 60s and that books were her only connection with the outside world. Her current titles include `The Sergeant’s Baby’ in which an air force technical sergeant finds to his amazement that his instructor is none other than his former flame. Some of the other books written by her include `Priceless Marriage’ and `The Sergeant’s Secret Son.’

Alabama native and author Mark Childress back with novel ‘Georgia Bottoms’

Mark Childress may possibly have moved away to Costa Rica and New Orleans and New York and now Crucial West, but Alabama has clung to him — and he to it — like the fuzz on a Chilton County peach.

And this week and subsequent, the Monroeville native is all more than Alabama, as he reads from and indicators copies of his seventh novel, “Georgia Bottoms, ” at bookstores all through the state.

It is constantly good to be back house, Childress mentioned on the eve of his book tour earlier this week.

“Fannie Flagg and I were talking about how lucky we are to be from Alabama since there is this whole public of readers who really, enthusiastically, assistance the homegrown authors, ” he stated. “And I do not think that’s the expertise of people from Idaho or Wisconsin.

“So I just feel actually lucky that when I show up in Alabama, men and women really turn out. It’s so great. ”

The Alabama leg of the tour began in Fairhope on Thursday and took Childress back to Monroeville on Friday, exactly where he signed copies of “Georgia Bottoms” at Beehive Coffee &amp Books on the town square.

“I’m really excited this time simply because they have a bookstore there now, ” he said. “And I’ve in no way been there since this bookstore was up and running. The lady (who owns it) is so sweet. She just wrote and stated, ‘Any way you could come? ’”

The book tour, which also contains stops in Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and Huntsville, brings Childress to the Alabama Booksmith in Homewood on Monday.

Born in “The Literary Capital of Alabama, ” as Monroeville is otherwise known, and educated at the University of Alabama, Childress has written about his home state in the Southern gothic “A World Made of Fire, ” the Globe War II adventure “V for Victor” and in his most renowned book, “Crazy in Alabama, ” a wild ride about an eccentric Alabama housewife who chops off her husband’s head, puts it in a Tupperware bowl and high-tails it to Hollywood.

Childress mines his home state for much more wealthy materials and colorful characters in “Georgia Bottoms” — Georgia, in this situation, becoming a particular person, not a location — which requires place in the fictitious town of Six Points, Ala.

The title character is a 34-year-old, unmarried, tiny-town belle with six — count ‘em, six — gentleman callers, none of whom understands about the other five.

Tuesday evening is the bank president. Wednesday the town doctor. Thursday the newspaper publisher. Friday the sheriff. Saturday the Baptist preacher. And Sunday the judge.

Georgia requires Mondays off.

“A number of reviewers have compared her to Scarlett, and, of course, she type of uses Scarlett as a role model, but I feel in some methods she’s a little bit warmer than Scarlett, perhaps, ” Childress said. “She really, truly cares about her mother and her brother. ”

“I feel Scarlett is the purest instance of pure selfishness in the world. Georgia tries to be that cold and heartless, but she just can’t. She cares too significantly. ”

‘Not dissing anybody’

In Six Points, Childress has produced a location so far off the map, so removed from the rest of civilization, that there is no cable Television, no McDonald’s, not even a Walmart.

“In a way, it’s a small great, a small fabulous to try to envision a town that’s that remote these days, ” he mentioned. “I type of needed that feeling of a little bit of a fairy tale.

“Picture a town that’s so remote nobody even has a cell telephone. I imply, is there such a town?

“It would be tough to locate 1 now, but I grew up in and about small towns like that. ”

Although the setting is Alabama, the inspiration for Six Points came to Childress during the eight years he spent living in the fishing village of Quepos, Costa Rica, “the littlest town I ever lived in, ” the author stated.

“It sort of gave me the notion that, ‘OK, what if a small town like this was deep in Alabama? ’” he said. “But yeah, it is genuinely sort of an imaginary little town, so I don’t want any individuals in any small town to feel I’m dissing their specific town. I’m not dissing anybody. ”

‘I’m a writer’

Childress started writing “Georgia Bottoms” right after he moved to New York City, but completed it following he moved again to Essential West in 2009.

“I loved New York, but I was just prepared to be outside a lot more, ” he stated. “Obtaining lived in Costa Rica, I got really, really spoiled by tropical weather, and I like gardening and stuff like that, so Crucial West seemed like a great compromise.

“I’m far from the first writer that ever found it conducive there, ” he added. “It is sort of funny. You go to the bank to apply for a residence loan and you say, ‘I’m a writer. ’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, OK. ’

“Anyplace else in the nation, they would go, ‘You’re a writer? ’ And in Important West, it’s, ‘Oh, yeah, you and everyone else. ’”

They could say the identical factor in Monroeville, whose literary family tree also includes Harper Lee, Truman Capote and syndicated columnist Cynthia Tucker.

Childress, who was born in Monroeville in 1957 but whose family members moved away when he was about a year old, is flattered that the townspeople have adopted him as one particular of their personal.

“They’re really sweet that they claim me, ” he stated. “I attempt not to trade too hard on that connection due to the fact I only lived there when I was a baby, but they are so nice to me. ”