A bit redundant now because you've heard what you wanted to
hear, but I can't help but join the Erskine Caldwell chorus
of approval. Al introduced me to him (not literally) some
time ago and I couldn't believe he'd slipped me by up until
then. TB, GLA and THE BASTARD
(gotta love the title) are brilliantly observed, absorbing
and full of demonic humour. And I don't think I've read a
more stealthily powerful short story than Savannah River
Payday.
Charlie
---------- charliewilliams.net
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Allan Guthrie"
<allan@...> wrote:
>
> Another couple of extraordinary Caldwell stories are
'Savannah
River Payday'
> and 'Saturday Afternoon'.
>
> 'The Bastard', a novella from 1929, is about an
amoral loner and is
as noir
> as anything by Appel or Goodis.
>
> 'Poor Fool', 1930, is a tale of a gullible
down-and-out boxer who
ends up in
> a house of horrors from which he is unable to leave.
The character
> motivations are poor enough to make the book pretty
weak when
looked at with
> a critical eye, but the story is surreal and
engaging enough and I
suspect
> that the poor character motivations were deliberate,
so I closed my
critical
> eye and read on with the other one and found the
whole thing
grotesque and
> fascinating.
>
> 'Tobacco Road', 1932, is a stunner. It's the story
of the Lester
family,
> Georgian sharecroppers who live in grinding poverty.
It's brutal,
depraved,
> absurd, hilarious and heart-breaking. It's one of
those books that
make you
> want to read everything else the author's ever
written. Did for me,
anyway.
> Unfortunately, I haven't found another (yet) that
lives up to TR.
Although
> I've found something exceptional in each of them.
For instance,
three scenes
> from 'Journeyman' have stayed with me -- one might
even be my
favourite in
> all of fiction -- even though much of the book can
be dismissed as
> lascivious nonsense.
>
> Al
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark R. Harris"
<brokerharris@...>
> To: <
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 10:21 PM
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Erskine
Caldwell...
>
>
> > "Kneel to the Rising Sun" is a classic Caldwell
story.
> >
> > On 2/4/08, jacquesdebierue
<jacquesdebierue@...> wrote:
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 05 Feb 2008 EST