I’ve been asked by a friend to recommend some good “Appalachian authors”, here defined as Appalachian natives who write or authors of any background who’ve written good books set in Appalachia.
I’ve only read one really outstanding “Appalachian author”, that being Lee Smith (Fair & Tender Ladies, Oral History, etc.). Can anybody else recommend somebody?
Thanks,
J
I’ve enjoyed many novels described as Appalachian. For some reason, I don’t like Sharyn McCrumb’s books, but she’s extremely popular, so maybe it’s just me.
Harriett (or Harriette) Simpson Arnow is my favorite. She wrote The Dollmaker and Hunter’s Horn. These are not sweet smarmy stories full of cliches about innocent country hill people like some of the current crop of Appalachian stories.
Arnow’s people are real, they’re flawed, and they will break your heart with the choices they make and what happens in their lives.
Another more recent Appalachian story I liked was A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds – interesting story about a woman who communicates with the dead people in the cemetery where she’s the caretaker.
Jesse Stuart is the standard Kentucky Appalachian author every trots out around here. Been a long time since I read any of his stuff, but as I recall Taps for Private Tussie was pretty good. I think I enjoyed his short stories more than his novels, but its been a long time.
Check out Silas House. Both his books, Clay’s Quilt and A Parchment of Leaves, are outstanding.
James Dickey.
TR Pearson doesn’t exactly qualify, but he writes about poor towns in the south. And he’s quite amusing. I realized that after I got used to the dialect he uses when writing. whoo hoo.
I recommend Gurney Norman, author of “Divine Right’s Trip,” a “counterculture” novel with a hero from Kentucky, and his road trip home from California (Norman wrote much of it centered around, and serialized in, “The Whole Earth Catalog”). A great read, hell the guy’s microbus (its name escapes me at the moment) even narrates portions of the story, and in some cases, the characters call Norman to get them out of trouble.
He has a collecion called “Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories,” one of which, “Fat Monroe,” was made into a short film starring (Kentucky-born) Ned Beatty.
I highly recommend his work.
Sir Rhosis