ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609180036
SECTION: BOOKS PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
Below the Mason-Dixon line
Reviewed by Donlan Piedmont
1001 THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE SOUTH. By John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed. Doubleday. $34.95.
Listen, y'all, this is a witty, erudite book which, properly distributed, will revive the moribund art of reading aloud. Consider the pleasure to be derived, with this wonderfully eclectic book in hand, from educating one's family and friends to, say, the difference between a redneck and a good old boy, or about James Branch Cabell and King Oliver, or about how to tell bluegrass music from country or western from Nashville and honkytonk. Do not be misled - this book is more than Moon Pie and Elvis, more than the selection of "Hurry Sundown" as the Worst Movie about the South, more than the Lost Cause, more than Bubba and "ma'am," though all of those have their proper place in the text. ``1001 Things" is part almanac, part Who's Who, part biography, part history and part anthropology - all with an evocative salting of trivia. In it are all of the wonders and glories of the South and of Southerners, and at the same time, all of their haunted and dark past. Under the perception and skills of the authors, who must have had a grand time writing it, the text is never marred by admonition or apology or deprecation.
``1001 Things" is a bourbon-smooth, pecan pie-sweet, front porch-mellow, Hollins-bright excursion into the many worlds of what lies below the Mason-Dixon line. It is divided into general, but not rigid, sections for easy reference: Southern culture and folk ways, history, geography, music, religion, sports, race, the Confederacy, drink and food. (In connection with the latter, the authors say that Henry VII was fond of sweet potato pie, having been told by the Spanish that this particular vegetable was an aphrodisiac. If true, they add, "Methodist church suppers would be more exciting.'') The reader, diving into this delightful book, can begin anywhere or browse at a leisurely Southern pace. Doesn't matter - the rewards are the same either way.
The South is a vast river, beyond time and space; it has been fed by a large number of cultural streams and creeks, each bringing its own enrichments to the whole. The river flows and changes, sometimes because of external pressures, sometimes because of its own obstinacy, but always altering, and now and then obliterating, what was in its course. The result is an ever-old, ever-new landscape, a "New South," of which there have been many, the first dating from 1886. Whether this is good or bad depends upon where one stands, of course, but it is virtually inevitable, and to most Southerners, sad.
Thing 1001 ends the book with the words of Flannery O'Connor: "The anguish that most of us have observed for some time now has been caused not by the fact that the South is alienated from the rest of the country, but by the fact that it is not alienated enough, that every day we are getting more and more like the rest of the country, that we are being forced out, not only of our many sins, but of our few virtues."
Donlan Piedmont is author of "Peanut Soup & Spoonbread: An Informal History of Hotel Roanoke."
Facts about the South educate and entertain
Reviewed by John A. Montgomery
YELLOW DOGS, HUSHPUPPIES AND BLUETICK HOUNDS: The Official Encyclopedia of Southern Culture Quiz Book. By Lisa Howorth. The University of North Carolina Press. $9.95.
"Being Southern is a state of mind, not an IQ test, and with a guide like this, it might could be learned by anyone who is not, by the grace of God, actually born Southern." These words are from Lisa Howorth's preface. A staffer at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi and compiler of this 816-question guide, Howorth sets the stage early for an enjoyable, educational, light (134 pages) piece that can adequately serve as entertainment at a party or help pass the miles en route to a college football game.
Eclectic topics as wide-ranging as music, sports, history, religion and literature are subject to Howorth's selection, and it is the exceptional person who knows most of the answers the first time through. In the foreword, author Roy Blount Jr. suggests that it would be a reasonable requirement for a Southerner to score an 80 on this test to acquire a driver's license. (And I thought parallel parking was hard.)
Most Virginians can handle the Patsy Cline and Statler Brothers questions with ease; they know who founded the Moral Majority, who built the University of Virginia and who wrote the Declaration of Independence.
But what Southern town has the smallest Jewish synagogue in the United States? Where was Lynyrd Skynyrd's epic 14-minute live recording of "Free Bird" made? Who designed the city of Savannah? Which Major League Baseball players hail from Mobile? How many Miss Americas attended the University of Mississippi?
Read this book, and you'll sail through any cocktail conversation. You shouldn't have any problem renewing your driver's license, either.
John A. Montgomery is the current president of the Blue Ridge Writer's Conference.
Astute Southern politician will win next time
Reviewed by Monty S. Leitch
ANSWERS TO LUCKY. By Howard Owen. Harper Collins. $22.
I could tell you that this is another fine novel of Southern family dynamics, and that would be true. But the best thing I can tell you about Howard Owen's third novel is that it's a terrifically sharp-eyed confrontation with Southern politics, especially that brand of Southern Republicanism that has sold itself to the religious right.
Lucky is the estranged twin brother of Tom Ed Sweatt, Republican gubernatorial candidate for North Carolina. In the last days of the campaign, Tom Ed calls in Lucky to be his driver. Lucky agrees, even though he suspects that Tom Ed has cut some deals with the devil.
Together, Tom Ed and Lucky go to pig-pickin's and anti-abortion rallies, to factory gates and town meetings. Tom Ed is brilliant at reading a crowd. He knows how to make people believe in and vote for him.
But deals with the devil have a way of backfiring. On the very eve of election day, Tom Ed is betrayed, his shady secret is revealed, and he loses the election.
Even so, he brings home 35 percent of the vote. By then, Lucky "has seen enough of the campaign to know that people don't want Integrity and Commitment. People want the room to light up." Lucky knows that, despite his deals with the devil, Tom Ed will always be able to make the room light up. Tom Ed will return to politics, and Tom Ed will win.
But Lucky is at ease with this. And therein lies the novel's family drama: how the twin brothers reconcile with each other, with their father and with themselves.
So what I tell you finally is: read this book. Even though you now know one of its outcomes, you'll still find plenty to keep your interest and plenty to open your eyes.
Monty S. Leitch is a columnist for this newspaper.
BOOKMARKS
Reviewed by George Kegley
THE PLOW READER. Edited by Ann F. Richman. Sow's Ear Press. $15.
Followers of Virginia's mountain lore will delight in this collection of selections from "an Appalachian alternative newsmagazine of the late 1970s." Based in Abingdon, the Plow was full of good reading for more than 31/2 years. It appeared monthly and later twice a month from 1975 until 1979 when it died, mainly for lack of adequate financing.
Larry Richman, an associate editor for three years, set the course when he wrote in a "Behind the Plow" column for the first issue, "We're all small people trying to survive in a world full of hungry giants."
The Plow tackled such public policy issues as a proposed Brumley Gap hydroelectric dam in Washington County, a scenic highway talked about for the Mount Rogers area, strip mining and land reclamations and the abandonment of the Virginia Creeper rail line into North Carolina. Designed as a "people's newspaper," it reached a peak circulation of 5,000.
Its fare consisted of columns, stories about people who live in hills and valleys, essays on subsistence farming, features on such mountain arts as music, crafts and literature, as well as poetry and letters to the editor. They were accompanied by interesting photos of farm life.
Alfred E. McThenia of Glade Spring, a frequent letter writer, said the Plow "affords us a more wholesome, healthy and balanced literary diet, by furnishing a 'mess' of good, old-fashioned fatback bacon and beans, as opposed to the frivolous, 'frilly' cornflake type of news provided by most of our daily papers, and ugh! TV newscasts."
In the last issue 17 years ago, editor Bill Blanton warned that the Carter administration and others following might declare war on energy problems. If that happened, he said, energy-rich Southwest Virginia would become "a war zone and many of the good things in our way of life will be casualties."
Even as he was forced to quit, Blanton wrote that there is a need for a paper "to speak with them [the people], to carry the news they need to know, to provide a medium they can use to share their experiences with others."
George Kegley is a retired business writer for this newspaper.
Reviewed by Harriet Little
AUNT BEE'S DELIGHTFUL DESSERTS: More Than 350 Recipes from Mayberry, America's Friendliest Town. By Ken Beck and Jim Clark. Rutledge Hill Press. $14.95.
``The Andy Griffith Show" enjoyed a loyal following when it first ran on television and continues to do so in reruns. The reality of Mayberry and its denizens, of course, helped, as did the 249 episodes themselves. In their introduction, the authors write, "This cookbook is meant to be a tribute (through recipes) to all of the talented people who helped make Mayberry such an appealing place." They add that the recipes from many of the program's actors, writers and members of the production crew and their families help keep the spirit of Mayberry alive.
The book contains, in addition to recipes, lots of photographs, bits of dialogue, trivia quizzes and plot summaries. (It even has an Episode Menu.) The recipes, divided into categories from Beverages to Refrigerator Treats, include a wealth of easy-to-follow desserts such as Goober's Beanie Brownie Pie, Lawman Barney's Fruit Pizza, Calvin Coolidge Cashew Fudge, Opie's Lemonade Cake and Mayberry Molasses Bread.
In the true spirit of Mayberry, a portion of the royalties of this book will go to help support the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association, better known as CASA, which works to improve the lives of abused and neglected children.
Aunt Bee decidedly would approve.
Harriet Little teaches at James River High School.
LENGTH: Long : 185 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Bill Blanton. White Oak basketmaker Mary Heltonby CNBworked on her front porch in 1975. 2. Lisa Howorth's "Yellow Dogs,
Hushpuppies and Bluetick Hounds: The Official Encyclopedia of
Southern Culture Quiz Book."