Thanks for all the comments on Grapes of Wrath. I might try
another one here soon. In Dubious Battle sounds good. I would
probably look through Wilson's
"Boys in the Back Room" essay, too. There were a couple that
he mentioned that I had never heard of that sounded
interesting. My favorite so far is Of Mice and Men. A couple
other pieces that I've read and associate with him but won't
swear on it and I'm too lazy to look up right now is The
Pearl and The Red Pony. I've read both them too. I think The
Red Pony is a short story. They were both OK, but they didn't
have the edge that the other two have. To be honest, my
memory of them is foggy. I do remember the boy in The Red
Pony coming upon the vultures munching on his pony.
Just finished Tom Franklin's Smonk. A wonderful pastoral set
near the Gulf coast in the early twentieth century. Filled
with humorous nuances, murder, incest, and insanity. It
reminded me somewhat of Blood Meridian, but not as skilled or
as effective.
I had a problem with the humor in the book. Southern
Gothic often has a humorous side to it, all the way back
Faulkner, but Smonk seems to stumble on the humor, and I'm
not convinced it really ever escapes cheap
sensationalism.
He's got a set of stories called Poachers that is rock solid,
right up there with Hemingway and the Pancake.
miker
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