AMERICAN LITERATURE

I have reproduced an essay, of sorts, from Middlebrow Magazine in an attempt to take a serious look at online mags. They are a neglected area. Although the writer of this has an MA in English Literature her critiques are curiously superficial. Why, for example, no reference to the racism in Gone With the Wind? Or the poor quality of much of the prose? Did Capote, a childhood friend of Harper Lee, have a hand in writing To Kill a Mockingbird? Nevertheless, the author has introduced writers that I have not read and know little about.

When studying English literature at school in England, you could be excused for thinking that no one outside the UK has ever produced a novel/poem/play and that no one in the UK has picked up a pen since Charles Dickens was seducing his way through London.

Happily this is far from true, and to try to broaden my reading horizons I’ve dedicated my reading list for the next year to authors from around the world, starting with America.

There is such a bulk of great American literature that to produce this list, I further narrowed it down to novels set in a Southern state and written by an American, preferably Southern, author.

1. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

“Death, taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them.”

Perhaps the most epic of all Southern novels, our heroine Scarlett O’Hara survives the American Civil War, Restoration and three marriages, including one with the infamous blockade runner, Rhett Butler.

Both the novel and film adaptation have a cult following and enduring popularity that shows no sign of slowing down.

GWTW is a magnificent war novel that has no battle scenes, a romance with no happy ending and a powerful social commentary. I have never rooted for and disliked a protagonist as much as I did for Scarlett O’Hara. She is daring, brave, and charming, but also thoughtless, cruel and reckless; and you too will be swept along.

2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions… but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

Set in Alabama during the Great Depression, Scout narrates the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman and facing the death penalty. Tom is defended by the much adored character, Atticus Finch, and nearly pays a very dear price for his courage to try to give Tom a fair trial in a time of institutional racism.

Along with Anne Frank’s diary, To Kill a Mockingbird teaches us more about tolerance, kindness and justice than any other novel. I read it as a child and it has stayed with me, and I still think “what would Atticus do?” in certain situations.

Like Margaret Mitchell, Harper Lee only wrote one novel, when asked why, she replied:

“Two reasons: one, I wouldn’t go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it again.”

A must read.

3. Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns

“But to mourn, that’s different. To mourn is to be eaten alive with homesickness for the person. That day, I mourned mostly for Granny, who had lost more than any of us, but also for Grandpa, for mama and for myself. I didn’t want to visit Granny at the cemetery like Grandpa was doing. That was just her empty shell over there, whereas here I could touch things she had touched, look out on the flowering plants she had looked at and walk through her house.”

Cold Sassy Tree opens with the death of Will Tweedy’s long suffering grandmother, and quickly heats up with his grandfather’s scandalous marriage to the much younger Miss Love, three weeks after his wife’s death.

The main strength of this novel is the intricate and delicate way Burns influences family relationships through small town events, and matures Will through the drama of his grandfather’s second marriage.

One of the very best coming of age novels I have ever read.

4. Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, by Susan Gregg Gilmore

“I didn’t really think Jesus cared what I wore to Cedar Grove Baptist Church, or to see the governor for that matter, considering the fact that in every picture I ever saw of the King of Kings, He was wearing sandals and bundled up in nothing more than a big, baggy robe.”

The daughter of the local preacher in Ringgold Atlanta, population 1,923 and one traffic light, Catherine Grace Cline spends her days eating Dilly bars and dreaming of her escape to the big city.

In her haste to leave town following graduation, she breaks more than one heart and a sudden death reveals a secret long buried and painful to confront.

Gilmore depicts human fragility beautifully, and that bitter sweet feeling of leaving your home behind to follow your dreams.

5. Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistle Stop Cafe, by Fannie Flagg

“Are you a politician or does lying just run in your family?”

We begin in 1980s Birmingham, Alabama, with Evelyn Couch, a middle aged, unhappy housewife and Ninny Threadgoode, an elderly woman in a local nursing home. Over several months Ninny tells Evelyn the story of her youth in Whistle Stop, and in particular about the famous Whistle Stop Cafe her sister in law Idgie ran with Ruth during the Great Depression.

An excellent small town tale with marriages, a murder trial and some excellent barbeque; food is so important in this novel that recipes are included as an appendix.

The hugely successful film adaptation, (Fried Green Tomatoes, 1991), with Kathy Bates and Mary Louise Parker portrayed Idgie and Ruth as friends rather than lovers, and something very fine was lost in the process.

6. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt

“If you go to Atlanta, the first question people ask you is, “What’s your business?” In Macon they ask, “Where do you go to church?” In Augusta they ask your grandmother’s maiden name. But in Savannah the first question people ask you is “What would you like to drink?”

Jim Williams, antique dealer, was trialled no less than four times for the murder of Danny Hansford, a local prostitute in Savannah in the 1980s; and this non-fiction novel is incredibly atmospheric and Southern Gothic in tone.

John Berendt met Jim and a range of other Savannah characters during his regular trips down South, after realising that a flight costed as much as dinner out in New York and found himself befriending a whole bunch of unconventional characters.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is an excellent non-fiction novel that was on the New York Times Bestseller list for no less than 216 weeks.

7. The Colour Purple, by Alice Walker

“I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way…I can’t apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to… We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful…We realize that we are as ourselves unlimited and our experiences valid. It is for the rest of the world to recognize this, if they choose.”

Like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Colour Purple has been banned a number of times, mainly for its sexual violence and cursing; but those who banned it were clearly missing the point.

Set in rural Georgia, in the 1930s, Celie, our protagonist, is a poor fourteen year old black girl who after her mother’s death begins writing letters to God for her stepfather to stop beating and raping her. Two adopted children later, her life continues to go downhill after she marries the abusive Mr. Johnson and for a while it seems her life will never improve. Her fate changes when she meets her husband’s mistress, Shug, and their relationship is Celie’s salvation.

The violence and oppression Celie experiences make this difficult reading, but it is well worth investing the time in.

8. Wise Blood, by Flannery O’Connor

“There are all kinds of truth … but behind all of them there is only one truth and that is that there’s no truth.”

Deeply influenced by her Catholic faith, O’Connor’s writing centres on morality and ethics and she uses regional setting, grotesque characters and her own blend of Southern Gothic to shock her readers.

The grandson of a travelling preacher, Motes grows up with doubts concerning faith and the nature of sin and following being discharged by the army after WW2, he launches an anti-religious ministry in an eccentric southern town with the help of a blind preacher, a mummified dwarf, and a crazy landlady.

A bizarre, but intriguing read.

Her short stories are even better.

9. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

“Jim said that bees won’t sting idiots, but I didn’t believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn’t sting me.”

An all time American classic, that deals with the themes of race and identity through the very charming voice of Huckleberry Finn.

To escape his violent drunk of a father, Huck fakes his own death with the help of a pig and a fire and sets off on an adventure with escaped slave Jim. Together they travel down the Missouri river and run into the lost dauphin, feuding families, and a whole lot of trouble along the way.

Worth reading for the incredible vernacular English Twain employs and his own special brand of satire.

10. Interview with a Vampire, by Ann Rice

“Evil is a point of view. We are immortal. And what we have before us are the rich feasts that conscience cannot appreciate and mortal men cannot know without regret. God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately He takes the richest and the poorest, and so shall we; for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him as ourselves, dark angels not confined to the stinking limits of hell but wandering His earth and all its kingdoms.”

Interview with a Vampire began as a short story, and it took Ann Rice only five weeks to turn it into a 336 page novel that would prove be a huge commercial success and lead to a long list of prequels and sequels.

Rice’s writing is intensely atmospheric and she brings eighteenth century New Orleans to life with an intensity that few writers can achieve.*

Louis de Pointe du Lac, a 200 year old vampire, tells the story of his life to reporter Daniel Molloy, beginning in 1791 when he was a young plantation owner near New Orleans and his story quickly picks up speed as he meets the seductive vampire Lestat.

Rice’s Louis has become is the archetype for the modern vampire with a soul and this novel helped make fantasy novels mainstream.

*For those looking for more novels set in 19th century New Orleans, I would heartily recommend the Benjamin January series by Barbara Hambly.