Product Description
"This book is too good to keep to yourself. Read it aloud with someone you love, then send it to a friend. But be sure to keep a copy for yourself, because you'll want to read it again and again."
Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
Raney is a small-town Baptist. Charles is a liberal from Atlanta. And RANEY is the story of their marriage. Charming, wise, funny, and truthful, it is a novel for everyone to love.
"A real jewel."
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

North Carolina Quirks
This is an easy read with a lot of colloquial fun. There are many messages, good dialogue and some ideology. It looks inside different family dynamics with humor. I recommend it.

Actually kind of sexist...
Hoo boy, where to start on this one? I read it for a class, with the assurance that it would 'Steal my heart and tickle my funny bone'. While I have yet to find any book touted as being heartwarming and hilarious anything other than saccharine and cloying, this one has stuck out even years after I read it.

The main thing that got me in this were the completely bass-ackwards sexual politics. Charles, for all his enlightened big town thinking, was pretty adamant that he was the one in charge. He never once demonstrated the least bit of respect for either Raney or her family. Let's just look at the incident of the wine: Raney has had one exposure to alcohol in her life - her alcoholic uncle. She may be naive to think that everyone who drinks any alcohol immediately becomes an alcoholic, but she does have a perfectly valid reason to not want it in her house. Instead of discussing or understanding, Charles throws a big snit and complains about how "unreasonable" she is. With sex, once again, he doesn't want to discuss: he ridicules her, makes her ashamed of herself, and calls her unreasonable. She always gets called unreasonable and eventually gives in. Who knows why? Charles's actions often struck me as borderline emotional abuse... and it rankled me that he was always right in the end. He never had to compromise, because he was "reasonable".

Raney was no princess herself, but at least she respected her husband enough to explain why she wanted to do things certain ways. Wasn't anyone else bothered by the fact that she had to change her entire personality and core beliefs to suit him, rather than him making the slightest compromise? This seems less affectionate, and more like Big City sneering at us poor small town Southern hicks. I don't agree with just about anything out of Raney's mouth, but the fact that she's from a small town does not mean that she is always in the wrong. I agree with everyone who said these two never should have gotten married, since they had nothing in common.

I thought of this book again because of a topic that came up on a message board: what do stupid people do in relationships? This book answered that for me - they make each other miserable until one absorbs the other completely.

Raney
I received the book in a timely manner. It is required reading for a class I will be taking in January. I found it to be very readable and entertaining.

I really enjoyed this book, but then I live in the South (a transplant from the north)
and know the culture being described. The story, set in the seventies in a small southern town, involves a "liberal" (that is, educated) young man from Atlanta who marries a much less educated woman from a small town. He's Episcopalian, she's Baptist.His best friend is Black, she and her family are racist and don't seem to realize it.What I found unbelievable was that they married to begin with.It's hard to understand why he seemed surprised by the things her family said, given that he'd certainly met them before the wedding.Still, it's an amusing story with lively, memorable characters.

Many reviewers have disliked the book chiefly because of the racist remarks, particularly the number of times the "n" word gets used.But to censor the word out would make little sense: this is how these people talk (remember, it's the seventies in a small town in the south) and one of the main sources of conflict between the young couple involves race (the other big area seems to be sex).

But if you're one of those people who can't stand to see the word spoken or written regardless of the situation, you probably should not read this book.

People aren't getting the message
The book is a testament too old south racism, and ideals. The author clyde Edgerton is taking a stab at how ignorant these racist belief's were. I find it sad when people read a novel, and focus on only the things they would consider politcally incorrect, or offensive. What planet are you people living on? You think white people living in North Carolina in the 70's weren't racist? Give-me-a-break! Would you rather us censor these types of book out that reflect a culture for the sake of political correctness? The message of the book is actually critical of these stereotypes, and even pokes fun at Free Will Baptist. If anything this book should be offensive to WASP's (white anglo saxon protestant's). I found the book to be filled with humor, and I liked Edgerton's satirical approaches toward's southern taboo topic's like the civil war, and integration. If you don't think outside of the box, or take offense at ideals different than your own avoid this book. If you like good southern literature, or like satirical writing this is totally for you! ... Read more

Product Description
Preston Clearwater has been a criminal since stealing two chain saws and 1,600 pairs of aviator sunglasses from the army during the Second World War.Back on the road in postwar North Carolina, now a member of a car-theft ring, he picks up hitchhiking Henry Dampier, an innocent twenty-year-old Bible salesman.Clearwater immediately recognizes Henry as smart but gullible, just the associate he needs--one who will believe Clearwater is working undercover for the F.B.I.; one who will drive the cars Clearwater steals as Clearwater follows along in his own car at a safe distance.Henry joyfully sees a chance to lead a dual life as a Bible salesman and a G-man.

During his hilarious and scary adventures, Henry grapples with doubts about the Bible's accuracy, and we learn of his fundamentalist upbringing, an upbringing that doesn't prepared him for his new life. As he falls in love with the captivating Marleen Green and questions his religious training, Henry begins to see he's being used--that he is on his own in a way he never imagined. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

Good....if you're a man.
I tried very hard to like this book.It was well reviewed and liked.Then I realized: The reviewers were men!Apparently, you have to have a man's sense of humor to enjoy it.And just so it is known that I'm not being biased in my opinion, my book club did not like the book either.Of course the club is made up of women.If there had been some testosterone in the group, there may have been a difference of opinion.

Great service!
This book was delivered immediately and is in like new condition! I couldn't be happier with this order.Great service!

wonderful southern novel
I throughly enjoyed reading this book and recommend it. I have a great appreciation for southern fiction that is creative, deeply true, and wry, which this novel certainly is. I also greatly appreciate the merger of the religious faith of one person, the protagonist, with the world around him, which is a comical merger at times.

loved it
Loved this read, Listened to the audio version,and listened to it again with my husband on a trip. Just as good the second time around. Plan on giving a gift copy to friends who love audio books.Typical E.dgerton,much humor with little bits of moral thrown in.

Evokes a simpler time
This pleasant book evokes a simpler time in the South, spanning the late 1930s to the early 1950s. In a way, it's a song of praise to the virtues of innocence and ignorance before we were all corrupted by too much knowledge and infected by cynicism.
Henry, a young man who has been brought up by his aunt and two uncles after his father died and mother abandoned him, is trying to make his way in a world he barely understands. His idea is to send away to churches for free Bibles and then sell them to unsuspecting housewives in the Carolinas and Georgia. Henry is not a saint -- but he has an undeniable goodness and sweetness about him and these provide his armor in a world less friendly than he imagines.
Henry falls in with a car thief who tells him he's working for the FBI breaking up criminal gangs. Yes, Henry falls for this incredible story and becomes an accomplice.
The author has effortlessly taken us back to a time which may have only existed in his own imagination, where folks are polite, well-intentioned, God-fearing and charitable. In his version of the South, there's no racial prejudice -- in fact no African Americans at all.
Henry is trying to figure out some of the contradictions in the Bible. Why are there two versions of the creation story in Genesis? What is original sin? Is there really a heaven? He's a sweet and endearing creation himself -- you can't help rooting for him.
Henry meets Marlee, a girl selling fresh produce at a fruit stand, and the two embark on one of the loveliest, most innocent love affairs I've read for years. Truly, they are like Adam and Eve in the Garden.
The various plot strands are eventually rather clumsily resolved -- but this is scarcely the point. We're left with an image of enduring goodness. Truly, ignorance is bliss, the author suggests. Eat from the Tree of Knowledge and misery will result.
So we leave our hero and heroine on their honeymoon, blissfully contemplating the sea, the moon and the stars, asking unaswerable questions about the nature of existence, content they will never know the answers. It's a lovely fantasy -- and a sweet excape from reality. ... Read more

Product Description
Edgerton's first novel, Raney, went into six printings before becoming a smash paperback hit. His second, Walking Across Egypt, doubled the first's hardcover sales, set off a scramble for paperback rights, and launched the Book-of-the-Month Club's "Discovery" series. Now, there is The Floatplane Notebooks--a breakthrough novel that combines Edgerton's comic gift with his piercing insights into family ties. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Literature at its best!
The Floatplane Notebooks is one of those rare novels that truly mananges to captivate the reader.The novel, told from different viewpoints of a Southern family, has much to teach us about life, love, and loss.

My All-Time Favorite
This is absolutely my favorite book, I truly wish it was my family he was writing about.
Edgerton is by far the best Southern author writing today.

Southern Lit at its Best
"The Floatplane Notebooks" tells the story of the Copelands, a typical Southern family that gathers every year to clean up the family cemetery. Using the narrative structure of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" (a series of single-narrator chapters), the family experiences a devastating event that threatens to unravel the family fabric. In the end, all is well, and powerfully bittersweet.
The story has what is easily one if the funniest scenes I've ever read (regarding a well and a flashlight), and the way the story is resolved at the end is truly touching (the careful reader will see that the two scenes are closely related). Another notable feature is the observations of one of the book's main characters - a wisteria vine. This may seem strange, unless the reader realizes that the vine is essentially the theme of the story, for it represents death (a ubiquitous theme in all great Southern literature). The Copeland family could easily solve the problem of cleaning the family graveyard by just killing the wisteria vine. But, if they do, they then have no real reason to gather every year. This is a family that is united by and finds strength in death.
This is a truly unique and great story, though not appropriate for younger readers. Skilled readers will find much to appreciate. "The Floatplane Notebooks" is Southern Lit at its very best. READ THIS BOOK.

Pretty Gosh Darn Awful!
Nothing happens in this awkwardly constructed little book. The characters just talk (for a page or two)...and talk and talk. If you like this sort of thing (plotless yammering) you should hang out at the local diner andlisten to the folks carry on.

A future classic
I believe this book to be truly underappreciated. Most people tend to think it is just a story about some quirky southern folk.It is that but it is also much more.It is "Our Town" reborn. It shoulddefinitely be studied in our classrooms instead of all the novels that areso hard to grasp and seem irrelevent.This one has a meaning to each andeveryone of us, no matter how young, old, rich or poor. It is life. ... Read more

Product Description
She has as much business keeping a stray dog as she would walking across Egypt–which not so incidentally is the title of her favorite hymn. She’s Mattie Rigsbee, an independent, strong-minded senior citizen who, at seventy-eight, might be slowing down just a bit. When teenage delinquent Wesley Benfield drops in on her life, he is even less likely a companion than the stray dog. But, of course, the dog never tasted her mouth-watering pound cake. Wise and witty, down-home and real, Walking Across Egypt is a book for everyone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (53)

Wonderful nostalgic book!
I laughed so much and enjoyed remembering older times and the way things were done in Alabama in the 1950's.

Fun, light, and will make you laugh
I loooove Clyde Edgerton!
He is the best author to see do a reading. His readings are actually performances with music and singing, and his character portrayals will have you laughing for days. He's been described as a modern-day Mark Twain, and I think that description fits in so many ways.
This book showcases southern hospitality and tradition and family. The characters are so well-developed that I swear I'd know it was them if I ran into one in the grocery store.

Well written feel-good story
I enjoyed this uplifting story of an old lady determined to see the good in everybody and how contagious that can be.

"Walking Across Egypt"
Excellent character development.Quick, easy reading.Not what I call great literature but certainly very good fiction.The book left me with a couple thoughts that I will not forget.I will read more by this author.

Homespun charms, plodding and tedious plot
I am in the minority of reviewers; I did not care for this story very much.It is funny in places and as a lifelong southerner, I know it is quite authentic in its details.If you like to read mostly easy-going character thoughts, motives and actions against a rural southern backdrop you may like this, but the plot line takes entirely too long to develop and is not very intriguing.

There are a few extensive scenes which do not seem to tie into plot development, but just character details and some cute humor. The first half of the book thoroughly introduces the main character Mattie, and her slow southern life, with some small preparation of the interplay between her and Wesley; but that's about it - first half the book, not much plot. It slowly builds thereafter.

A bright spot for the unabridged audio CD version - the reader is fantastic.He shows why he is an award winning reader by switching between character voices fluidly, singing as Mattie (rather well) and even as Wesley sometimes.

The contrast character to Mattie is Wesley.He is the anti-thesis of Mattie and I got where I could not stand to hear from him.He is an idiot, not even a competent criminal.I understand he is an adolescent and Mattie wants to help him, but I just wanted to ring his neck. Sadly, there really are such people but still Wesley sometimes seemed like a caricature of such a person.

I think this may not be the right sort of story for me, I was experimenting a bit since I normally read non-fiction, but I enjoy a little fiction as well - it is probably best to take my opinion with a grain of salt: this story has homespun, charming details, cute humor and a simple, nearly boring plot.
... Read more

Product Description
When Clyde Edgerton was four years old, his mother took him to the local airport to see the planes. For Edgerton, it was love at first sight. Eighteen years later, she would take him to the same airport to catch a flight to Texas for Air Force pilot training. In Solo, Edgerton tells the story of his lifelong love affair with flying, from his childlike wonder to his job as a fighter pilot flying reconnaissance over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Now, nearly thirty-five years after the war in Vietnam, he looks back at his youthful passion for flying, at the joy he took in mastering it, at the exhilaration—and lingering anguish—of combat flying. It is a story told with empathy and humor—and with searing honesty that will resonate with every pilot who remembers the first takeoff, the first landing, the first solo. For the nonpilots who always choose the window seat, it’s a thrilling story to live vicariously. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Not well written or particularly interesting.
I suppose if you are a pilot, hearing Edgerton re-tell his own experiences learning to fly would be pretty interesting. If you're just interested in planes, the book is just OK. If you're looking for a good story you'll be deeply disappointed.

About 1/3 of the book is learning to fly one plane after another. About 1/3 is an attempt to make sense out of his service in Vietnam. The remaining 1/3 is filler with an occasional anecdote, sometimes interesting.

What is so surprising is how clumsily the text is written and how little he has to say. I think maybe he wrote this book too long after the fact. The Vietnam war was a long time ago, and his memories have faded.

A healthy dose of military aviation insights.
You may recognize Clyde Edgerton's name: he's written eight previous novels but here provides a compelling saga in SOLO: MY ADVENTURES IN THE AIR, a biographical memoir which provides the true account of his flying experience, from Air Force training and combat missions in Vietnam to his own personal plane. The joy Edgerton holds for planes and flying shines from every chapter: any with an affection for planes will love this celebration of flight, which holds a healthy dose of military aviation insights.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

It should have been great.
Solo, by Clyde Edgerton, could have been a great book about flying.Edgerton's experience in aviation along with his obvious life long passion for flight, combined with his post-flying resume entry of Professor of Writing and the University of North Carolina (Wilmington) should have been the recipe for the best book of flying since Rinker Buck's Flight of Passage.Unfortunately, it is not.That stated, this is a good book that aviation enthusiasts will likely forgive Prof. Edgerton's flaws and enjoy its quickly passing pages.

Solo begins slowly with a rather poor explanation of flight and flight controls for the non-pilot reader.It reads as some dated and poorly written instruction manual.Edgerton should have just stuck with his suggested reading mentioned in the Author's Note of Wolfgang Languisher's timeless "Stick and Rudder".My sense in that most who will want to read this book either know about the basics of flying or don't care and just want him to get to his jet training and his rediscovery of the joy of flying general aviation "taildraggers" later in his life.A good one third to one half of this book reads more like a diary then a work of a military pilot, trained also as a writer.Ah, but the second half . . .

Solo literally soars in the second half, dealing with the writers training in military fighter aircraft in the Vietnam Era and of his experiences in that environment.Edgerton also nails the rediscovery of flight later in life in small and slow general aviation aircraft.He writes clearly and beautifully on what all of us in the aviation community know about flying - it almost doesn't matter what you fly, as long as you fly.Here is a fighter pilot accustomed to F-4 Fantom jets, the premier fighter of its day, falling in love with a Piper 2 seater with an engine half the size of most of today's cars.Unfortunately for all readers, just when building to this crescendo and dénouement he falls back to listing seemingly nonsensical and peripheral logbook entries and spoils the end.

As a pilot and flight instructor, my predisposition was to enjoy this book and, by and large, I did.But that was only because my blinders allowed me to get past his very obvious poor and disjointed writings.As with too many books a couple of more critical edits could have made this a must read.I would say it is a fun, quick read but only for those who have a real passion for flight.

How low can you go?Solo
My father and I have the same last name, we are both pilots and we have both read SOLO by Clyde Edgerton.That's were we parted company.My dad liked it.I did not.

Imagine the movie AMERICAN GRAFFITI after you cut out hotrods, drive-ins, and cute girls and replaced them with characters rehashing their collective driver's training experiences.Then you would have SOLO: MY ADVENTURES ON THE GROUND.

SOLO is a dull book so stuffed with filler that it could have been sold as a pillow.It contains pages of walking around a plane and explaining every part; pages of flying a plane and explaining every control; pages of the author's old letters home; pages of transcribed audiotapes; pages of anecdotes that never quite become interesting, pages of dialog that convey little meaning.

Only two stories were memorable:

The first story struck me because it typifies the style of book and underlines its major fault: only cookie-cutter characters populate Edgerton's universe.Readers are first introduced to fellow fighter pilot Rob on page 150 only because Edgerton needs to tell of his death on page 151.Worse, Edgerton tells the story as a laundry list of facts without apparent emotion or empathy.The sum total of Edgerton breaking the news to Rob's fiancé on page 152 is, "I sent a telegram to Lynda and then wrote her a letter."

The second story suprised me because it demonstrated that Edgerton can tell a story well when he wants to.Taking nine pages instead of his usual nine sentences, Edgerton does a great job of conveying the tale of two downed pilots he helped search for while on duty in Vietnam.Neither pilot was found.Much later in life, Edgerton discovered that one of the missing pilots had survived the war as P.O.W. while the second remains missing to this day.

Unfortunately, one interesting story does not make a book or justify its purchase.I gave 2 stars out of respect for Edgerton's service to his country and because I save 1-star reviews for the truly awful.If I were giving it a letter grade though, I would give it a D- because Mr. Edgerton earns his living as a professor of creative writing and should know better.

In short, a more accurate title would have been: SOLO: MY SINGLE INTERESTING ADVENTURE IN THE AIR.

An Insight into the Dream of Flight
This book is probably the best written book I have read this year. It is an example of a book written by someone who knows their subject matter well. Edgerton has a way of making you feel as though you are a fly on the wall of the cockpit.
He used this skill to guide us through his flying years, be it when he was watching planes at the local airport or when he was commanding pilot over the jungles of Vietnam.
I would recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in aviation or good writing. I particularily enjoyed this book because I have an interest inflight and it is always great to hear and read about someone who has done something with the dream.
This is one great book. ... Read more

Product Description
In his eighth deliciously funny novel, Clyde Edgerton introduces us to the irrepressible Lil Olive, who's recently arrived at the Rosehaven Convalescence Center to recuperate from a bad fall. Lil longs to be back in her own apartment, and since her driver's license doesn't expire until her ninety-seventh birthday, she also longs to get back behind the wheel of her sporty '89 Olds. To pass the time until independence, Lil strikes up some new friendships. Mrs. Maudie Lowe and Mrs. Beatrice Satterwhite, who are laying bets on whether Clara Cochran's glass eye comes out at night. And L. Ray Flowers, the freelance evangelical preacher with fancy white hair who sings his sermons, strums a mean guitar, and aspires to an even higher calling. Keeping a watchful eye on them all is Carl, Lil's middle-aged bachelor nephew with a heart of gold and the patience of a saint. But soon Rosehaven is turned upside down and the outcome is anyone's guess. Lil and the girls steal a car and hit the highway. L. Ray's vision of a national movement to unite churches and nursing homes (Nurches of America) is embraced by the residents. And then there's Darla Avery's dirty little secret, which could spell the end for the visionary preacher.

Edgerton looks at the challenges of aging with sympathy, sensitivity, and his trademark sense of humor. Like the bestseller Walking Across Egypt, this is vintage Edgerton: wise, wistful, and laugh-out-loud funny.Amazon.com Review
Respect for his elders, Southern charm, an ear for authentic dialogue, and a great sense of humor are Clyde Edgerton's trademarks. Lunch at the Piccadilly is no exception. Lil Olive, lively octogenarian, fetches up at the Rosehaven Convalescent Center after a bad fall, but she is not ready to pack it in. Instead, she befriends several of her peers, plans outings which she executes by stealing a car she insists is hers, and starts laying bets on whether or not Clara removes her glass eye at night.

The center of the novel is Lil's middle-aged, never married nephew Carl. It has fallen to him to look after the women in his family: first his mother, then his Aunt Sarah and now Aunt Lil. He is the soul of patience and kindness, looking after Lil's needs, visiting her frequently and taking the ladies to lunch. He befriends L. Ray Flowers, a firebrand preacher who, because of an injury, is temporarily marooned at the Center.Flowers has an idea: "We are about to pronounce the grand fact that nursing homes and churches all across this land must become interchangeable... We need not two institutions... We need one. And it shall be called Nurches of America, Chursing Homes of the United States." In addition to his grandiose idea, he writes music and encourages Carl to take up the bass guitar again. Carl starts writing lyrics for L. Ray's music and, for a short while, preaching and singing rock the porch at Rosehaven.Inevitably, time and the past catch up with Lil and L. Ray, but not before Carl has found a new creative outlet that gives him some purpose in life other than selling awnings.

Edgerton's Raney and Walking Across Egypt are better novels, with tighter plots and more fully realized characters, but Lunch at the Piccadilly is unmistakably Edgerton, and that's not bad. --Valerie Ryan ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Elderly aunt and her nephew.
Gentle story of folks in a nursing home. Single man visits his aunt--last member of his family. Old preacher gives him a guitar and they write songs together.

I wanted to like it...
this book had all the right ingredients, including quirky characters, some sense joy, some real sadness, compassion and human-ness. And a damn good idea. But it just didn't speak to me, and I couldn't get past page 99.

Lunch At the Piccadilly
I absolutely hated this book.This is my first experience with this author and I thought this book was a bunch of nonsense.I usually have a 50 page rule when reading a book and I did manage to read up to page 66, but from what I read, it was silly, and just plain dumb.I wouldn't waste my time with this one as there too many other books I would rather be reading.

A mixed bag
Carl Turnage's lot in life seems to be caring for the old people in his family.His Aunt Lil is the only one alive from his mother's generation and now he is tending to her while she's in a nursing home, trying to recover from a fall.The home is inhabited by a bunch of quirky people, including a foul-mouthed old lady with a glass eye and a preacher who wishes to turn churches into nursing homes (nurches).Some of the book is hilarious, such as a joyride that Aunt Lil takes, and some of it is achingly sad.The ending kind of fizzled for me, and left me with an empty, unsatisfied feeling.

A funny Southern nursing home story
Finding gentle humor in a nursing home setting is a gift Clyde Edgerton has utilized beautifully and lovingly in this book.Amusingly outré characters (always an Edgerton watermark) thrive at life's end in an all-too-real warehouse for the elderly and infirm.There's even a quirky preacher (not at all in the southern fundamentalist tradition) with a mildly sordid past and the grand idea of combining churches and nursing homes into one institution and inviting all faiths to participate. His small sermons throughout the novel are a definite high point as are the songs he composes with protagonist Carl during visits to his dying aunt. Again as with all Edgerton tales, the dialogue and descriptions redole Southern grace and charm.Readers of earlier Edgerton such as RANEY, WALKING ACROSS EGYPT, and THE FLOATPLANE NOTEBOOKS know what to expect and will delight in this work, which to new readers, will serve splendidly as an introduction.If you enjoy gentle humor, well-written, such as is found in the novels of Miss Read, Philip Gulley, and Jan Karon, you'll like Edgerton too. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Dreary and Dry
My relationship with Edgerton's books is usually hit or miss. I keep going back and reading more of them because a) I have a fierce loyalty to North Carolina writers, and b) I really enjoyed _Walking Across Egypt_ and _Killer Diller_.

That said, I must confess that I really disliked _In Memory of Junior_. ["Hate" is such a strong word and I shall reserve it for a book that really makes me grind my teeth in disgust.]

This, as well as other Edgerton books, are marked as being humorous. I found nothing to laugh at in this work. While _Lunch at the Piccadilly_ was lighthearted in its handling of old age and the inevitability of death, I found _Junior_ almost tacky.

I didn't bond with any of the characters,so I won't bother picking them out here. They all seemed ridiculously shallow and so poorly expounded upon that they seemed to be almost afterthoughts in the writing process.

For once, this Edgerton title has a conclusive ending, however by the time I got to it, I really didn't care.Making it to the ending was a real accomplishment.

The humor in this book is almost sterile compared to the gut-busting bawdiness of _Egypt_ and_Killer Diller_, and honestly, I miss that.

Great humor......great story.
I have liked all of Egerton's books and this one is very good. His books are good to read and I love the auido versions.

Down home fun!
Twisted-my one word description of the author, Clyde Edgerton.He's a Dave Barry from the deep south.Just when you think you've figured out the plot, he adds a new twist to the story.Did you ever think you'd see a pink tombstone?Or a circular runway?And who would ever think to steal a grave...not the stone, but the spot.Great reading!

You'll laugh out loud & what's better than that?
I've read all of Clyde Edgerton's books & whereas I like them very much primarily for their humor, this is by far the funniest. Not just the funniest Edgerton book, but perhaps the funniest book I've ever read & I'm a voracious reader. There's a book called "Scoring in Heaven." It contains photos of tombstones & other memorials which seem like subject matter that shouldn't be that funny but the pictures are highly amusing. This book deals with death but while the characters are still alive ... Read more

Product Description
A joyful, funny new novel about the folks around the Listre-Bethel-Summerlin, North Carolina, area. With characters who walk right off the page and into your heart, it's a chance to make new friends down there, and to welcome back two old ones--Wesley Benfield and Mattie Rigsbee. From the author of Walking Across Egypt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Killer Diller
The book was in excellent condition and I received it in reasonable time. I like "Walking Through
Egypt" more than this book but that is just a personal opinion.I would like to see "Walking Through Egypt" as a Kindel book.

If you went to Campbell University...
you will enjoy this book. Edgerton taught there and the similarities between the fictional Baptist university and CU are difficult to miss.

Sequel Outshines the Original
Eight years after the events of Walking Across Egypt, Edgerton resumes the story of now twenty-four-year-old Wesley Benfield, ex-con resident of a Baptist halfway house called BOTA (Back On Track Again).This sequel does what few sequels can: it outshines the original.I frequently laughed out loud and near the end, I was moved almost to tears.Edgerton is a Christian who can respectfully mine the foibles and humor of organized religion, specifically of his fellow Baptists, and more specifically of the men running Baptist colleges.The pompous Sears twins, Ted and Ned, are brilliantly drawn in their endless fund-raising and insensitivity to the genuinely disadvantaged.I was so pleased to find out that Mattie Rigsby was still alive at age 86, and that Wesley had promise despite his rocky start.As in Walking Across Egypt, though, Edgerton leaves us with a less than satisfying conclusion.Will Mattie be able to resume taking care of herself?Will Wesley end up back in jail?This time, there's no sequel, at least not yet.

Pretty near as good as Mattie's home cookin'
Personally, I liked Raney and Walking Across Egypt better than this one, but it's still pretty damn good. Wesley , the delinquent sort of adopted by Mrs. Mattie Rigsbee in Walking Across Egypt, is now 24, and still a bit of a handful. He's a resident in a Christian halfway house in rural North Carolina. There's a love interest, a band, and there's Vernon, who 'bout steals the show when he appears on the page. And of course Mattie herself, who is older still but still cooking up a storm.
Good story, great author; sequel to follow, surely.

Lacked the Mattie Spunk
I anticipated this novel to capture the uniqueness of Walking Across Egypt.Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

WAE introduced me to Mattie Rigsbee, an energetic, high-spirited senior that loves to cook and bake her way through life.She took in Wesley, a juevile delinquent, and gave him the love and encouragement he needed to become a fine, young man.Which is where _Killer Diller_ takes up.

Wesley is now at a strict Christian School, enrolled in a Project Promise Program that restructures, rehabilitates, and reprograms disadvantaged youths in the "only" way, the Baptist way.He attends classes, is in a band, and is a preceptor to an autistic boy named Vernon (who says "Killer Diller", hence the title) teaching Vernon how to lay bricks as part of another administration inspired program.

Influenced by Mattie to the Christian life style, Wesley enthusiastically embraces their philosophy without question. His remarkable "recovery" attracts the attention of the manipulative Christian College Administration.They scheme to use him and his band to advertise their Christian college and ultimately, orchestrate fund raising to fullfill their self-serving purposes. He begins to ask questions and seek answers to the confusing and conflicting interpretations of the bible and the self-serving actions of thecollege administration.

What seems to be lacking is Mattie's presence in the story.While she is "there"her character is minimized. The ending feels rushed and somehow unfulfilling.Christian and Bible hypocrisy is explored deeply in this story as Wesley searches for answers. While I feel Mr. Edgerton explored this aspect very skillfully, somehow it collectively fell flat in the end. ... Read more

Product Description
"Side-splittingly funny...Clyde Edgerton is the love child of Dave Barry and Flannery O'Connor....He approaches O'Connor's dark view of human nature often, but in the end he serves up a lot more humor than she does.Just when it looks as though tragedy is going to be the blue-plate special, the laughs start arriving by the skilletful, a fresh batch on every page."
--Raleigh News and Observer

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

"What Garrison Keillor has done for Lake Wobegon, Edgerton has done for Listre, creating a place of battered charms and dog-eared lore."
--The Washington Post


"Here, evil comes to sleepy Listre, N.C., circa 1950, in the form of a stranger with a pencil-thin mustache and a trunkful of dirty movies. Listre is the kind of rustic crossroads where the most exciting event in years was a collision between a mule and a pickup truck, where boys slip over to the Gulf station for a Nehi and a peek at the pinup calendar, and where everybody knows everybody else's secrets. It's the kind of place, in other words, where it seems like nothing ever changes--until the fateful day when everything changes at once."
--Entertainment Weekly


"Hilarious...Wonderful...Edgerton engagingly captures small-town America."
--Atlanta Journal & Constitution


"As much the story of a man who brings random badness into a good place as it is the story of a boy's search for his own salvation."
--Mark Childress, The New York Times Book Review


"His best book since Walking Across Egypt."
--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"A wonderful gallery of comic characters...In Clyde Edgerton, Southern Baptists have found a laureate to uncover their rich humor and humanity and to share without condescension or condemnation."
--The Boston Globe

"THIS MAY BE EDGERTON'S BEST NOVEL."
--Newark Star-Ledger

"Pitch the revival tent and sing hallelujah! Clyde Edgerton has returned to Listre...and for his legions of fans, that's cause for rejoicing.... Where Trouble Sleeps features an array of the wonderfully human, often quirky characters we've come to expect....As always, Edgerton skewers the hypocritical and sanctimonious with hilarious deftness....Beneath the comic flourishes lies a tender, bittersweet view of the world. Edgerton has given us small-town men and women in all their human frailty and splendor."
--Charlotte Observer

"Rollicking...Newcomers and old-time followers alike should...delight in his latest slice of small-town Southern life."
--Southern Living

"When Edgerton's debut novel Raney came out, I was impressed by how clever he seemed, how clearly and completely he was able to inhabit a voice, keep a joke running. Seven novels later, Edgerton hasn't lost that ability to capture a character, a tone, or a situation, but Where Trouble Sleeps is surely a superior, more mature work--clear evidence of his amazing growth as a writer. Without sacrificing humor, Edgerton has delved deeper into his characters; he takes what might have been simply funny or even ridiculous and reveals levels and layers of emotion, pathos, and even darkness. Amusing, engrossing, and insightful, Where Trouble Sleeps is a sublime achievement."
--The Spectator (Chapel Hill, NC)

"ECCENTRIC, FUNNY, AND CHARMING."
--American Way

"Where Trouble Sleeps is sure to win accolades and readers....A story about faith and temptation...Like cubist painters, [Edgerton] is able to write about everyday life as our minds, not just our eyes, experience it: from all sides at once....We're transfixed."
--St. Petersburg Times

"In his wonderful new novel Where Trouble Sleeps, Edgerton strips away the veneer of propriety that [Jesse] Helms and cronies slather over the South like a rancid barbecue sauce to reveal a far more recognizable region characterized by humor, hypocrisy, ignorance, lust, compassion, and the occasional good deed."
--Detour

"Superb...Clyde Edgerton is a first-rate storyteller. [He] has a musician's ear, an artist's eye, and a generous heart. "
--San Antonio Express-News

"Once again Clyde Edgerton proves he's a master of the amiable, truthful, small-town novel."
--Trenton Times

"Religious hypocrites are artfully revealed and the eccentricities of the good, everyday characters are cheerfully described by a writer who understands, remembers, and loves this rural world and the sound of its people's language....Where Trouble Sleeps will make the reader want to sit in the Listre School grandstand on Friday nights, eat popcorn, and watch the picture show, all for 25 cents."
--North Carolina Libraries

"In the pitch-perfect tradition of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner, Edgerton spins things wildly, masterfully, hilariously out of control."
--Maxim

"Slyly satiric...Whether through cunning, bashful, or averted eyes, Edgerton reveals the innocent, the deluded, and the hypocritical with an unerring sense of humor and truth."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Hugely Disappointing
I read this book from a recommendation in Honey for a Woman's Heart and I was appalled. It is so crude in so many places. I was hoping for a story full of funny characters that satirized Southern culture. Instead, I saw some of the very worst of human nature and the unfair view that all "good" Christian folk are like the characters in this book. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. I didn't laugh once. I cringed.

Too quirky for me
This was a quirky book about a small southern N.C. town.They have a strange visitor (Jack Umstead) who has come to scope out the place and maybe steal something.The author introduces several people who live in the town, however, he doesn't really develop them.They just play the parts of simple town folk.The stranger tries to fit in and even gets friendly with some of the people in town before he does his evil deed.The book is suppose to be funny and it is in some parts. I just didn't think it was hilarious.I wish it was, it might have made for a better read.

Creates Nostalgia for a Place I've Never Visited
Clyde Edgerton's loving and funny evocations of the rural South capture the charms and strengths of the South.

His old women are especially memorable: drawing their confidence from their religious faith, they don't need a shotgun to assert themselves (and, if they DO need a shotgun, they know how to use that, too). Contrary to his publicist's ads, Mr. Edgerton is not out to mock the religious hypocrisies of his characters. Yes, they are only human and don't always live up to their ideals, but it is also very clear that they draw strength from their faith.

Where Trouble Sleeps is a parable of temptation and how a small town can be corrupted. Whether the corrupter is "Satan" or just a conman is up to the reader's interpretation, but it is a delightful read either way. The story manages to introduce you to what seems to be most of the population of Listre, North Carolina and keeps them fresh in your mind with a few deft strokes of the author's pen.

Not Heaven on Earth at Listre, NC
This writer had fun remembering the fifties with inspiration and real-life events to draw from in a whimsical way at a stop-in-the-road place which didn't even have one right light.A small town has at least two.Some way, they managed to get a flashing yellow light out in the middle of nowhere.Dominated by the church and its activities, particularly the elderly secretary Dorothea who really thought that Jesus had visited her there in the church one night when she gave him ten dollars.

"Jesus" actually was Jack, a criminal who accidentally found the place and stayed around long enough to cause a bit of mischief at the church and found himself in hot water looking down the barrel of a shotgun.Jesus loves Chuck, but he had a whole of a good time fooling the old woman.Preacher Crenshaw was tempted by a young, shapely woman, a sex kitten of sorts with loose scrumples.He thought foolishly like old men tend to do tht she sorshipped him.In fact, he felt that way about all of the good-looking women, but he tried to deflect the worship of himself toward God and Jesus.Saving lost souls, bringing "lost sheep" to Jesus Christ was dead serious business, involving eternal life in heaven or hell.His onerous plump wife was a burden he had to bear, so as to appear humble.There were lots of prayers and hymn singing as in all tiny churches all over America.

The motel where Jack made his headquarters was identical to one I always wanted to explore in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, birthplace of Senator and actor Fred Thompson.There was an office, and little one-room cabins for the tired and weary to rest. You must read the joke about remembering; it is worth a thousand dollars."In spite of illness, one can remain alive past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways."

This was the kind of delightful "nonsense" incidents which Sam Venable would write.It takes an expert writer to carry it off.Clyde Edgerton also wrote WALKING ACROSS EGYPT which was turned into a funny, clever movie.He is a native Southerner, which means he's extra special.

Entertaining, but
What was the purpose of the story? It kept me entertained on a flight to the UK, but if the in flight entertainment system had been working, I'm not sure if I would have finished it.

The version I read had questions for discussion which I found interesting, unfortunately, my book club was unable to find any meaningful answers to the questions raised.

Throughout the book he wrote little blurbs about characters living in the town or near by.You expect them to have some relevance to the story, but they are never heard from again.It's almost as if these blurbs were put in to meet a page quota.

I'm not usually a book snob, but I would turn my nose up at this one. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1963 at the age of 17, Dwayne Hallston discovers James Brown and wants to perform just like him. His band, the Amazing Rumblers, studies and rehearses Brown's Live at the Apollo album in the storage room of his father's shop in their small North Carolina town. Meanwhile, Dwayne's forbidden black friend Larry, aspiring to play piano like Thelonius Monk, apprentices to a jazz musician called the Bleeder. His mother hopes music will allow him to escape the South.

A dancing chicken and a mutual passion for music help Dwayne and Larry as they try to achieve their dreams and maintain their friendship, even while their world says both are impossible. In THE NIGHT TRAIN, Edgerton's trademark humor reminds us of our divided national history and the way music has helped bring us together. (2003) ... Read more

Product Description
A tale of American expansionism, opportunism, religious fanaticism, and adventure pivots around the discover of ancient Native American cliff dwellings and the 1857 slaughter of pioneers by Mormons and Native Americans near Salt Lake City. Reprint. NYT. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good Read
I found this book an entertaining read.There is more to it than that, but you can enjoy it on any level you like.It offers good prose, a plot that moves along at a comfortable pace, and an interesting historical setting.This is my first exposure to Clyde Edgarton but it will not be my last.

Read other Clyde Edgerton
Not the best of his works.Try Raney or Walking Across Egypt to know why there are Clyde Edgerton fans who will even read Redeye: A Western.And don't ever miss an opportunity to hear him talk and tell tales.

Creative style but ...
I read it on a business trip because that's all I had to read, but once I got access to a different book- only a few scant pages from the end, I happily traded it in.

Different but great.
Read it. Not much more to say

Topnotch Light Fare
It must be said at the outset that "Redeye" is not only slim but lightweight, and its storyline a fragile structure indeed. Having said that, I have nothing left but praise for this book.Edgerton deftly weavestogether an adventurous present in 1892 Colorado, a tragic past from 1857,and a framing text from 1915, by which time historic sites and scenicgrandeur have degenerated into new ways to separate the unwary tourist fromhis money.He draws his characters, from the sweet and naive to the mostdastardly, with a light and loving touch.He knows and appreciates hissetting, and can instill this appreciation in his readers.He hasworthwhile things to say on important matters--multi-ethnic society, therole of archeology, the profit motive--but makes his points without beingmoralistic or pedantic.And, oh yes, the man can be very funny.Edgertonknows what he's about, and has the talent and humanity do it well.Anevening with "Redeye" is time well spent. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an introduction to the literature of contemporary American writer Clyde Edgerton. A North Carolina native, Edgerton has been compared to Mark Twain for his easy, humorous style, which is based in oral tradition. Like Twain and other humorous writers, Edgerton's work often contains both biting satire and exploration of very large questions about the human condition. The book contains an overview of each of his novels and his memoir in addition to offering critical commentary on theme, craft, and structure. Pedagogical support is offered with specific strategies that will encourage authentic engagement and learning. Teachers will find specific companion pieces of literature for introducing Edgerton's vivid and challenging work. This book presents the case for including more of Clyde Edgerton's work in our secondary and college English language arts classrooms as a means of revitalizing curricula and challenging the ways we traditionally think about teaching. ... Read more

Product Description

In a deft analysis of works by Doris Betts, Reynolds Price, Fred Chappell, Lee Smith, Clyde Edgerton, and Randall Kenan, Vale of Humility explores the lives of the plain folk, white and black, who populate the worlds of contemporary North Carolina fiction.

As George Hovis explains, a wealthy planter elite was significantly less prominent in North Carolina than in neighboring regions, and as a result the state's plain folk did not develop a class identity based as deeply in relation to a superior planter class. Instead of the plantation, the yeoman's small farm has been the essential context for the ideal life and thus a distinguishing feature of the state's literature. In this first full-length study of North Carolina's contemporary fiction, Hovis examines the work of six representative writers from the state's three geographic regions: Smith and Chappell from the mountains, Betts and Edgerton from the Piedmont, and Price and Kenan from the coastal plain. He explores their work within the broader Southern literary tradition with attention to how they have revised such modes as pastoral, family saga, and southwestern humor in order to portray their own regional experiences.

Just as writers of the Southern Renascence in the early twentieth century were characterized by a "backward glance" to a passing culture, today's North Carolina writers often critique their contemporary Sun Belt society through the lens of what they view as a fading yeoman past. Although these writers celebrate the egalitarianism at the heart of the yeoman ideal, they also expose the racism, sexism, and classism that have also marked the state's history.

Product Description
Take a photographic journey through the spectacular scenery of North Carolina with notable landscape photographer George Humphries. From the magnificent and enigmatic Great Smoky Mountains to the green, rolling hills of Piedmont, to the stately pine-covered dunes and fragile islands of the Coastal Plain, the sheer beauty of the Tar Heel state is captured in this splendid volume. Travel along the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway and visit the grand Roanoke River. Explore the capes, islands, and beaches of North Carolina's glorious coast. Visit captivating historical sites across the state. A moving and nostalgic essay by Clyde Edgerton brings the people, culture, and history of North Carolina to life. ... Read more

Product Description
"It was like food. Blues music, good blues music, was like Mrs. Risbee's pound cake and apple pie, except he ate it with a different part of himself. He had to have it. He had to have the sweetness of it. Blues tasted sweet like her food and it was sad sometimes and there was something about it that sounded like a part of the feeling, the sweet ache in his body when the horses were twisting in the air, getting shot through with hot gold."---from Killer Diller "Wesley Benfield was already a Christian when he chanced upon a shiny white Continental with a tan interior, the keys left behind and beckoning in the ignition. Shuttled among orphanages, houses of detention and foster homes since he was eleven, Wesley has been trying to make good ever since. But two things are keeping him from a strictly straight-and-narrow kind of existence: just for Phoebe Trent, who is the most in the world woman he's ever met, and a National Steel Dobro, bottleneck guitar. Wesley's progress toward the sanctified life is temporarily waylaid while he's a resident of BOTA a halfway house near the campus of Ballard University. Ballard is one of the bible-belt's finger examples of Christian education. But there's more than one way for an ungainly white boy to find a little soul. When Wesley discovers what Ballard is all about, he strikes out on his own path of redemption. "Clyde Edgerton is a miner of considerable skill, burrowing into the hillside of humanity to find the ore of characters os pure and so real they might just sit down beside us and tell us a tale."---The Washington Post "Clyde Edgerton lives in Durham, North Carolina with his family. His previous novels are Raney, Walking Across Egypt and The Floatplane Notebooks." [from case] ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Dixie snaps
The idea behind this interesting book (originally it was an exhibition) was to use photos to show how the South had changed in the decades after the Civil War.The 180 photos are from just over 106 named photographers and twenty-five anonymous ones.They are not just photographers from the South (Swiss born Ernst Haas is included) but all the images show the complexity of Southern life from the mid-1800s to 1990.

The majority of the early photos show colored family life mixed in with a few from the Civil War and white rural activity.I thought nearly all of these as photos of record rather than powerful creative statements.This sort of work starts with the FSA photos from the mid-thirties with an excellent selection from Evans, Shahn, Lange and Bourke-White.The post WW2 years have twenty on the politics of race covering the marches and battles with law enforcement with a few of white social life.The books ends with several pages of more personal observations work from now famous names: Friedlander; Christenberry; Callahan; Meyerowitz; Eggleston; Sternfeld.What I found missing and perhaps it wasn't in the remit of the exhibition, was an absence of several photos showing how the majority of the Southern white population lived, especially in the fifties and sixties when consumer prosperity spread across the whole country.

This is not just a photo book because someone had the bright idea of adding essays by seven authors to split up the decades.None of them are very long but I thought they provided just the right narrative to go with the photos that follow each essay.

I've had this book for some years and always enjoy looking through it.The design is simple and elegant with the photos printed in a 175 screen on a reasonable matt art paper.As an attempt to sum up an idea as much as a place I think it succeeds.

***LOOK INSIDE THGE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under the cover. ... Read more