No, these books aren’t full of moonlight and magnolias — but they do give a tour of the depth and breadth of the real Southern experience, from a Louisiana sugarcane plantation to a suburban Texas duplex. These books cover the many facets of life in the South, with all of its complexities and contradictions. They have characters to love and characters to hate, and they never shy away from ugliness, but never miss a chance to embrace what makes the South special.
Set in rural Mississippi, 1968, Father and Son is a story of murder, vengeance, and the inescapable past. As is common with Larry Brown’s work, the main character, Glen Davis, is deeply (very deeply) flawed, unlikable, but compelling.
Rebecca Lee describes Phillips as “the literary love child of Carson McCullers and John the Baptist” — I’m not sure what that means, but it’s spot-on. These stories, including one about Shania Twain (no, not that Shania Twain), bring a rare depth and richness to what appear to be mundane lives.
I only made it halfway through this book before deciding to include it on this list, and I know it’s the right call. These old men show some of the best parts of the South, while confronting some the worst it has to offer.
Luikart gives us fifty stories in under 200 pages — which is a feat surpassed only by the emotional, visceral weight he manages to pack into each story, the longest of which is only nine pages long. In tiny vignettes, these stories peel back the veneer of reality to find the true substance underneath it.
The South has a unique brand of humor precisely displayed by Norwood Pratt and his cross-country adventure, complete with a dubiously acquired pet chicken. While focusing on the comedy and absurdity in the trip, Portis still manages to get at some of the real essence of what it means to get by in the South.
Born in the pandemic, these essays perfectly and precisely capture the feeling of living in a decaying South. There’s dread, sure, but also absurdity, even joy.
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