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Strong, Resilient, Independent – the Characters of Virginia Reeves – part 3 of 3
Work Like Any Other, Virginia Reeves’s debut novel, has some very memorable characters that are worth getting to know. In previous segments of this interview we have talked about resiliency in strange times and the meaning of Alabama. If you’ve read the book, you’ll enjoy this segment because we get down deeper into the characters… →
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A Border with No Country: A Review of All the Pretty Horses
“This is still good country. Yeah. I know it is. But it aint my country.… Where is your country? he said. I don’t know, said John Grady. I don’t know where it is. I don’t know what happens to country.” (299) Not counting the movies of Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men,… →
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Alabama – The Character – my interview with Virginia Reeves continues – part 2 of 3
Can place be the primary character in a book? You can make the case for that in Virginia Reeves’s debut novel, Work Like Any Other. In the previous segment of this interview, we discussed maintaining hope in strange times. In this segment we talk two great states – Alabama and Montana. Tell me about Alabama because… →
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Love, Character, and Ordinary People: A Visit with the World’s Greatest Tour Guide
“That’s where the bomb hit,” Shirley Cherry says, pointing to a nondescript spot on the porch of the old Montgomery, Alabama house. The little girl standing on that spot jumped and moved as if it all might happen again. Perhaps another bomb thrown by a racist terrorist upset about the 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott might… →
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Surviving Strange Days: My Interview with Virginia Reeves begins – part 1 of 3
One of my favorite books of this year has been Work Like Any Other, a debut novel by novelist Virginia Reeves. My review can be found here. The novel is a poignant tale of a man who is imprisoned for tapping into the new electrical lines crossing rural 1920s Alabama, an action that leads to an… →
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God and Arson: My interview with Monica Hesse concludes – part 3 of 3
In previous segments of this interview, I talked with Monica Hesse, author of American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land, about her experience of the Eastern Shore and her thoughts about what the 2012-2013 arsons have to say about rural America in general. Today we conclude with some thoughts about the religious life… →
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The Richness & The Struggle: My interview with Monica Hesse continues – part 2 of 3
In part 1 of my interview with Monica Hesse, author of American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land, we talked about her experiences of the Eastern Shore, where the arsons explored in the book took place. In this segment of the interview we looked at what the arsons might say about America more… →
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Attention Must Be Paid: Writing Young People Into My Life
How do you write about the activities of people who don’t act in ways you can see? I’m spending this month in West Texas writing a novel that has, as a main character, a 16-year-old boy. Of all the characters in the book, this was supposed to be the easy one, since he’s loosely based… →
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A Reporter Comes to the Shore: My interview with Monica Hesse – part 1 of 3
Monica Hesse, an author and reporter for the Washington Post, came to the Shore to write a book about the spate of arsons that took place on the Eastern Shore between 2012 and 2013. That resulted in the bestselling book, American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land, which I recently reviewed on Heartlands. Monica agreed… →
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The Relentless Storytelling of Philipp Meyer: A Review of American Rust
Philipp Meyer is a relentless storyteller. By the time he gets through with you, you will have a deep immersion in the place where the story happens and will have met characters who are anything but passive. They are doers who fight and scrape against an unjust world. They make many mistakes, some dreadful,… →
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