photo credit: trialsanderrors
I just posted a review of Absalom, Absalom last Sunday, and I was going to choose Faulkner as my representative of Mississippi. I cannot think of a better representative of this beautiful, conflicted state.
photo credit: robertstown2001
Absalom, Absalom has been heralded as the best reflection of the South’s triumverate issues of race, class, and gender — issues that confront the entire country to this day, obviously, but the South has the backdrop and legacy of slavery and the Civil War — always present in Faulkner’s writing. Happily, Omnivoracious agreed with my pick, so I have included a sample of their take on who should represent Mississippi. Here are Tom’s words:
“[Mississippi] may usually finish near the bottom in education stats, but per capita I think the only ones that can match it for literary firepower are Massachusetts, New York, and neighboring Louisiana (having to limit Washington, D.C., to just three books will be a challenge too). As I mentioned in introducing Pete Melman’s Louisiana list, with a state like this you either have to go straight canonical and stick with the icons, or mix it up with some surprises and leave some folks howling (justifiably!) at the ones you left off.
My inclination for these lists is toward the canonical, but I’ll throw in a little curveball below (and my honorable mention list would do many other states proud as their first string):
- Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner: All right, if you’re going to do it, let’s do it right: the Faulkneriest Faulkner, the doomful Southern past rising up in a swirl of consciousness and at least one thousand-word sentence. By the way, I ran across a piece on the web about fellow Mississippian Shelby Foote’s 1936 review of Absalom, apparently one of the few at the time that recognized its greatness. I mention it because the review begins with one of the best sentences I’ve read in some time: “The characters of a William Faulkner novel seem to be struggling like monsters seen through a distorting glass, subsisting on some inward reserve of undefeat without air or food.” Foote, I should mention, wrote it for a student journal while he was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of North Carolina. Geez.
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner: Only six spots, and Bill gets two? Yes. And this weird charmer is a nice appetizer for the great meal of Absalom. I “hated” Faulkner as a youngish reader until this one held my hand and showed me along…
- The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty: Forty-one tales to put up against anybody’s.
- Black Boy by Richard Wright: Ralph Ellison famously wrote about the hero of Native Son that Richard Wright “could imagine Bigger, but Bigger could not possibly imagine Richard Wright.” But in Wright’s memoir of self-education against all obstructions, you can see how a young man, hemmed in, could still imagine becoming Richard Wright.
- Airships by Barry Hannah: The most-admired collection from Welty’s successor as the Mississippian master of the short story.
- Oil Notes by Rick Bass: It’s hard to remember, now that Bass has settled so definitively into the Montana wilderness, that he first came on the scene with the stories of Mississippi and Texas in The Watch and this one-of-a-kind memoir of working as a petroleum geologist in Jackson. It’s a young book, and, as you can tell from the copy I just pulled out of my shelf for the first time in years, I carried it around a lot with me when I was young.
I haven’t read Oil Notes or Airships yet — anyone else?
photo credit: bk1bennett
Curious about what states we’ve done so far and which ones are on deck?
Photo by marxchivistFirst, from Melanie Jones:
Alabama: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (check out my To Kill A Mockingbird Sample Kit!) Michigan: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides Alaska: The Man Who Swam With Beavers by Nancy Lord Arizona: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver North Dakota: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger Vermont: The Secret History by Donna Tartt Hawaii: Heads by Harry by Lois-ann Yamanaka Georgia: Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones Massachusettes: Mystic River by Dennis Lehane Oregon: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey Wyoming: At Close Range by E. Annie Proulx
And I happily borrowed the collective wisdom of Omnivoracious for
- Delaware: Marisa de los Santos (and W.D. Snodgrass, Robert Montgomery Bird, Jonathan Kellerman… they are choosing an author for every electoral vote…)
- New York: Check out the list of literary greats — wow…
- Rhode Island‘s little giants…
- Indiana‘s sweeping greatness…
- Maine‘s unknown gems…
And I went out on my own for…
Florida: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Zeale Hurston Minnesota: In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien Wisconsin: When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton Louisiana: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells (Jones’ pick) and The Awakening by Kate Chopin (my pick) Colorado: Plainsong by Kent Haruf Maryland: Anything by Anne Tyler Georgia: Awakening by Kate Chopin Ohio: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Arkansas: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Virginia: John Grisham Idaho: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson North Carolina: Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons Tennesee: Run by Ann Patchett New Jersey: Anything by Janet Ivanovich Texas: Anything by Elmer Kelton Connecticut: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx Montana: The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie Utah: Edward Abbey South Carolina: Pat Conroy Iowa: Wallace Stegner Pennsylvania: John Updike and James Michener Missouri: Mark Twain New Hampshire: Robert Frost Kentucky: Robert Penn Warren California: John Steinbeck
Wondering where your state is? Coming soon… In the meantime, weigh in on future picks!
Sorry to see Lewis Nordan’s Music of the Swamp not make the Mississippi list. It’s a wonderful book, nothing else like it. But great call on the Hannah and Rick Bass though
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