Choice reviews

S.W. Whyte, Montgomery County Community College

With 29 essays on 15 writers, this volume offers a wide–ranging discussion of the serious literary tradition of Appalachia. Among the writers discussed are Jesse Stuart, James Still, Wilma Dykeman, Mary Lee Settle, Lee Smith, Robert Morgan, and Denise Giardina. In the first chapter, Cratis Williams, “the father of Appalachian studies,” presents an overview of the region‘s writing during the 1930s; the remaining essays cover the next 60 years. Another essayist argues for making an American hero of the mythical figure of the Southern Appalachian mountaineer, leaping far beyond Sherwood Anderson‘s pronouncement that even hillbillies are people. Essayist John Lang places Fred Chappell‘s poetic achievement “Midquest” in the greater Western literary tradition. The requisite analysis of such issues as the lure of the land, the Southern redemptive spirit, ad the varieties of Protestantism and the family are found here in varying degrees. Each essay includes footnotes and a bibliography, increasing the value of the book for those pursuing study of modern Appalachian literature. Summing up: Highly recommended. Lower–/upper–division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice
Vol. 43, No. 2
October 2005