In spite of the fact that I had all of my literary education in the South, there is a huge hole where Southern literature should be in my soul. I have never read a book by William Faulkner, Walker Percy, Thomas Wolfe and many of the other great Southern authors. I did have the opportunity to do so at Carolina but I spent my literature classes with Shakespeare and Dante instead. Where ought I start, y’all?
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read in 2016:
Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins
Sloan, Ajax Penumbra 1969
Mandel, Station Eleven
Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty
Shakespeare, As You Like It
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I read As I Lay Dying and I’d recommend it. It’s a very strange book, though! I really love A Long and Happy Life by Reynolds Price. And Huckleberry Finn. I haven’t read it but I want to this year.
Kristen, I have four Faulkners on my shelf, all unread. I’m quite taken with Eudora Welty.
Add Eudora Welty & Reynolds Price to the haven’t read list.
I know Huck Finn is considered Southern Lit but it’s really on the fence in my book. I liked it, regardless.
Flannery O’Connor!! Start there!
I’m *gasp* not much of a Faulkner fan, but I would suggest reading Light in August over As I Lay Dying.
Thomas Wolfe– Look Homeward, Angel
I’d also suggest reading some Eudora Welty short stories.
Ernest J. Gaines — either The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman or A Lesson Before Dying (I’ve heard him read and he’s just fantastic).
And for a well-rounded survey:
Robert Penn Warren — All the King’s Men
Drama– Tennessee Williams
Poetry– Sidney Lanier
For some modern Southern poetry from a unique perspective, you MUST read Natasha Trethewey. She’s lived in ‘Bama and Georgia and has an amazing black Southern voice in her poems. Start with Domestic Work– should be at the library.
Oh, and for more modern Southern authors– my alma mater has a great writing workshop in the spring with all sorts of panel speakers. They should update the info soon, since it usually occurs in March: http://www.bsc.edu/events/college-events/writingtoday.htm
Hope this helps! You’ve inspired ME to read more Southern authors!
Clyde Edgerton… love him..
Dave Sedaris.
Eudora Welty.. I specifically remember covering her in Mrs. Baker’s Class in 11th grade.
Nicholas Sparks.. JUST KIDDING :)
i would recommend the moviegoer as a first walker percy intro. however, my favorite is the second coming. but i pretty much love all things walker percy.
“As I Lay Dying” by Faulkner is where I’d start. I really liked it.
I also enjoy Erskine Caldwell.
I think you should also consider Anne Rice in your list of great southern authors. I know she is a tad more modern but I really like her writing style.
Flannery O’Connor is a must.
I second the Ernest Gaines, the Walker Percy (The Moviegoer), and the Tennessee Williams.
I have never made it through a Faulkner, myself.
I really like Flannery O’Connor and I remember loving All the Kings Men in high school… thanks for all the other good suggestions.
Reba, I don’t recall Eudora Welty at all from our English class… I remember reading Edith Wharton, maybe my EWs are blending together. ;o)
I’m adding The Moviegoer to the 2007 list and will probably read another 1 or 2 as I have room later in the year.
hmm… I remember we did her short stories… “A Worn Path” rings a bell.. maybe a few others?
on second thought, i took a short stories english class at carolina and i could be confused… but i’m pretty sure that i read her work in high school and at carolina… anywho… good stuff nonetheless
If you feel up to a challenge, “The Sound and the Fury” is well worth it. Be forewarned that it’s all really stream-of-consciousness, one of the perspectives is that of a mentally retarded man, and one of the perspectives is that of a suicidal person. Really difficult, but really good stuff nonetheless.
Lee Smith? Have you read Clyde Edgerton?
Wendell Berry’s Port William stories. I’ve just read his fiction for the first time in the last couple of months and love it.
Ditto Kelly’s comment above. I have four Wendell Berry’s waiting, but Bede takes precedence at the moment.
Kristen, thanks for the wordpress suggestion. I think I’ll take it. I shrink from the work of changing, but hopefully it won’t be too difficult.
I like Wendell Berry and Clyde Edgerton, haven’t read any Lee Smith yet…
I definitely agree with the Walker Percy comments. He is excellent. The Moviegoer and The Last Gentleman would be where I would start.
Have you read Harper Lee? To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books.
Eudora Welty is also good.
Margaret Mitchell – I never thought I’d enjoy Gone with the Wind, and simply read it because I figured any South Carolinian should read it, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe (a good book and very historical)
Newer, but still very good Southern Writers include:
Brett Lott (A song I knew by heart)
Gloria Naylor (Mama Day)
Pat Conroy (Beach Music)
Alice Walker (The Color Purple)
Ron Rash (Good Poetry and Novels)
Josephine Humphries
Fred Chappell
Loved To Kill a Mockingbird (have read it at least three times) and liked GWTW more than I thought I would, so those are covered. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is already on this year’s reading list.
Have not read anything on the newer list!
Thanks for the ideas, Aubrey. :o)
Flannery O’Connor, definitely.
Contemporary authors:
Vicki Covington
Dennis Covington
T. R. Pearson
OK, why is _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ on this list? Harriett Beecher Stowe was most definitely NOT a Southern author. Harriet Beecher Stowe was from Connecticut: about as Yankee as you can get. (The closest she ever got to the South was Cincinnati, Ohio.) _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ was written in Brunswick, Maine. and it’s extremely debateable how “historical” that book is.
I guess by “historical” I meant it was important historically, and I realize that she is not southern, but it still is an important book in that it affected the South and also certainly influenced thought about the South as well as the war. I can also say, though, that this book is an indictment of the North just as much as it is an indictment of the South in how people living in both areas mistreated African Americans. Northerners may have thought that former slaves were better in the North, but after reading this book, you see that is not necessarily true. So I agree that it is not really southern fiction, as a southerner, I still thought it was important to read because of its place in history.
Oh my, now you’ve done it. Touched on a subject very near and dear to my heart. Now, if you’re talking about truly Southern Southern writers – I would not consider David Sedaris, whose writing I love, or Wendell Berry, for whom I have a distant admiration, truly Southern (I agree with RenJATB that H.B. Stowe ain’t anywhere near Southern, and neither are Cormac McCarthy or Mark Twain) – you’re looking for authors whose work evokes an overpowering fragrance of the South, like wisteria in full bloom. Wendell Berry’s work is about community and simplicity. David Sedaris writes about relationships and people. Other so-called Southern writers simply live in the South, or use the South as a setting for their more important plot and characters. But truly Southern writers write about their muse, their passion: their place. The South is unlike any other, and it produces the best stories. Here are my favorites:
– Walker Percy. I concur with Brooke that The Moviegoer is a good first. Followed by The Last Gentleman or The Second Coming or Lancelot.
– Flannery O’Connor. Short stories. (You mentioned already liking her; I think that anyone who’s into Shakespeare and Dante will love Flannery O’Connor. In fact, I had a crazy lit prof who collected antique torture devices and taught ONLY Shakespeare and O’Connor)
– William Faulkner. Definitely start with A Light in August, I agree with Allison.
– Padgett Powell. Edisto. Or his book of short stories, Typical.
– Ferrol Sams. Run with the Horsemen.
– Carson McCullers. The Member of the Wedding.
I also like Eudora Welty, Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston and Robert Penn Warren. I love love love Dorothy Allison (a South Carolina girl, like me), but she’s very intense, and I’d only recommend her to those who can stomach reading graphic depictions of violence done to women. Those listed above are my favorites. (And there are a few Southern authors who I don’t like so much: Pat Conroy, Barry Hannah, and John Kennedy Toole, to name a few.)
I actually need a new book to read so maybe I’ll try one recommended above. Thanks, Kristen!
Oh, oh, Greg Garrett’s book “Free Bird.” Takes place in everywhere from North Carolina to New Mexico. Written by a Texan. Brokenly beautiful book. (Full disclosure: He was one of my writing professors. But I like the book on its own merits, not just because I know the author.)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was on this year’s reading list as a “classic I never read & feel like a bum about” long before I was on a quest to read more “Southern Lit” ;o)
Cassia,
I concur with your definition of Southern Literature, and as someone who has now lived in the South longer than any other place and who considers herself a North Carolina native, I feel like I need to immerse myself in the literature that captures this place (or rather, set of places that share geography and heritage, but also maintain unique identities.)
One of the great liberties of reading for pleasure instead of for a class is that I can do this over several years instead of 4 months, and mull a bit more about what makes literature Southern as I read.
I find now that when I discover a great author (not a good one, a great one) instead of plowing through all of their books in a few months I want to save them and savor them, experience new ones every year. I am taking that approach with my Southern Lit “project.” It may be overthinking it but it is exciting to know that there is lots of new Wendell Berry to read, for years to come, and Umberto Eco, etc. It was bittersweet to read Housekeeping and know that there are no more Marilynne Robinson novels to read (until she writes another!)
I just thought of another great author who is southern. Kaye Gibbons. (Or maybe Gibbon??) She wrote this great book called Ellen Foster, another called Charms for an Easy Life, and many others whose names just aren’t coming to me yet. I also liked Dorothy Allison, but agree with the assessment that her books are somewhat graphic. And by the way, Fred Chappel lives (or at least he used to live) in NC. Zora Neale Hurston is also great. Ferrol Sams’ whole series of books are good and funny and chronicle most of the life of a southern boy who ends up in medical school.
Cane River by Lalita Tademy.
Gone with the Wind is a must.
I felt the same way and decided to read Faulkner. I was depressed for weeks.