# Recommend some Southern fiction for a man who knows what he likes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422 "2009-02-11T20:55:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422/21 "2009-02-12T17:45:40Z")
AuntiePam: adore Edna O’Brien. Got turned onto her last year and read nothing but for a month. It was that way with Harry Crews too, though he started making me feel a little dirty. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422/22 "2009-02-12T19:24:55Z")
Joe Lansdale is often compared to Harry Crews. Have you tried Lansdale? _The Bottoms_, or the short story collection _High Cotton_. His Hap and Leonard buddy adventure stories are good too. He also writes straight horror, and weird fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422/23 "2009-02-12T19:35:28Z")
I haven’t checked out Lansdale, no. I’m just gonna print out this list by the end of the day, take it to the library, put 'em in my backpack and turn my posture into that of a jumbo prawn. ---
**Author:** ![ez2slip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/779978/32.png) [@ez2slip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ez2slip)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422/24 "2009-02-12T20:06:36Z")
You might try Walker Percy. He wrote Love in the Ruins, The Moviegoer and The Last Gentleman. EZ ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422/25 "2009-02-12T20:59:10Z")
> [@ez2slip](#): > > You might try Walker Percy. He wrote Love in the Ruins, The Moviegoer and The Last Gentleman. > > EZ Yep - definitely try WP, tho I prefer his work before LitR. You might enjoy a couple of my favorite books by Madison Smartt Bell - Soldier’s Joy and Save Me Joe Louis. Harry Crews is my favorite author - Gypsy’s Curse my favorite book. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422/26 "2009-02-12T21:07:48Z")
I’m here to second William Gay. I like the collection of shorts called “I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down” - I am partial to Bone Daddy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422/27 "2009-02-12T21:25:23Z")
Peter Matthiessen is one of my favorite authors of non-fiction. (I also like Harry Crews memoir better than his fiction) This fiction by him looks of interest though: SHADOW COUNTRY: A New Rendering of the Watson Legend, by Peter Matthiessen. (Modern Library, $16.) Between 1990 and 1999, Matthiessen wrote three Faulkneresque novels about Edgar J. Watson, a Florida cane farmer, said to be a serial killer, who was murdered by his neighbors. Now Matthiessen has revised and rewritten, combining the three novels into one, 400 pages shorter than the originals. In the Book Review, Tom LeClair said that the new book “offers a quicker and easier passage through the swamp, but fewer shades and shadows”; the National Book Award judges disagreed, giving “Shadow Country” the 2008 fiction prize. - [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/books/review/PaperRow-t.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/books/review/PaperRow-t.html) Also - has anyone ever read Wendell Berry’s fiction, set in Kentucky? I like his poems; haven’t tried the novels. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422/28 "2009-02-12T22:12:00Z")
Shelby Foote’s _Love in a Dry Season_ is a classic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-southern-fiction-for-a-man-who-knows-what-he-likes/485422.md?page=1)