Boozy Justin Savile is the black sheep of one of the founding families of Hillston, NC, a fictional college town in the Piedmont where people are polite, everyone knows each other, and family is of the utmost importance. He also happens to be one of only two homicide detectives in town. When his aunt–who is the wife of a state senator–is found murdered, Justin and his working-class partner Cuddy start investigating.
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Comments Off on Michael Malone. Uncivil Seasons. New York: Delacorte Press, 1983.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1983, Malone, Michael, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont
The suicide of Miss Myra Angelique Pettigrew – an aristocratic woman who had lived alone for years with her pet monkey, Mr. Britches – is the story that begins this novel, but is by no means the only one told. Narrated by young Louis Benfield in a rambling, funny voice that has been compared to the narrative style of William Faulkner, this novel portrays the people of Neely, N.C., a fictional Piedmont town that may be based on Reidsville.
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Comments Off on T.R. Pearson. A Short History of a Small Place. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1985, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Pearson, T. R., Piedmont, Rockingham
On July 7, in the fictional eastern North Carolina town of Marshboro, multiple generations gather to celebrate the 83rd birthday of Granner Weeks. In another part of town, the proprietor of the Quik Pik is found murdered in his store. Meanwhile, young writer Sam Swet, disillusioned but desperate for experience, has just arrived in town. This novel, set in a single day, features a wide and diverse cast of characters whose stories often overlap and result in a compelling portrait of a contemporary Southern town.
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Comments Off on Jill McCorkle. July 7. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1984.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1984, Coastal Plain, McCorkle, Jill, Novels Set in Fictional Places
Kenan’s acclaimed first novel is the story of an African American family in the fictional town of Tims Creek in rural eastern North Carolina. Horace Cross, the sixteen-year-old protagonist of the book, is haunted by what may be actual demons, while at the same time trying to come to terms with his homosexuality. He seeks advice and comfort from his older cousin James, a schoolteacher and preacher, who fears that other family members will have a hard time understanding. This richly written novel is told in several shifting voices and styles.
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Comments Off on Randall Kenan. A Visitation of Spirits. New York : Vintage Contemporaries, 2000.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1989, Coastal Plain, Kenan, Randall, Novels Set in Fictional Places
Ninety-nine year old Lucy Marsden spins an epic tale that covers the Civil War, slavery, marriage, and death. With an energetic and humorous style, she tells the story of her remarkable life. Married at fifteen to a Confederate veteran thirty-five years her senior, Lucy has survived long enough to be the oldest living Confederate widow. The novel alternates between past and present, telling the story of Captain Marsden’s experiences in the war, Lucy’s childhood, her close friendship with a former slave, and her life at present, where she is living in a nursing home in fictional Falls, N.C., a town in the eastern part of the state probably based on the author’s hometown of Rocky Mount. The book was made into a movie/miniseries in 1994.
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All won the 1990 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction.
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Comments Off on Allan Gurganus. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. New York: Knopf, 1989.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1989, Gurganus, Allan, Historical, Novels Set in Fictional Places
Everyone in the small town of Orfax, N.C. is astir when local rock-and-roller Bobby Rex hits the big time with his song “Pally Thompson.” The only one who isn’t thrilled about it is Pally Thompson, who insists that she didn’t go nearly as far with Bobby Rex as the song would suggest. Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the novel follows Pally’s attempts to redeem her reputation, but is in effect a rich portrait of adolescent small town life in the postwar South. Fictional Orfax is about twenty miles from Greensboro, the author’s hometown. Bobby Rex’s Greatest Hit won the 1987 Sir Walter Raleigh award for the best work of fiction by a North Carolinian.
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Comments Off on Marianne Gingher. Bobby Rex’s Greatest Hit. New York: Atheneum, 1986.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1986, Children & Young Adults, Gingher, Marianne, Guilford, Novels Set in Fictional Places
Ruby Pitt Woodrow and Blinking Jack Stokes tell, in alternating chapters, the stories of their lives. Ruby’s chapters are told from her perspective as she is dying of cancer at age 45, while Jack’s reminiscences are set during the period just after Ruby’s death. These stories are set largely on tobacco farms in eastern North Carolina and describe a fondly remembered marriage, which stands in contrast to the characters’ otherwise difficult lives.
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Comments Off on Kaye Gibbons. A Virtuous Woman. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1989.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1989, Coastal Plain, Gibbons, Kaye
Raney Bell discovers, a little too late, that she didn’t know her fiancé Charles Shepherd as well as she thought. This novel is a chronicle of the first two years of their marriage as the innocent and cheerful Raney and the moderately worldly Charles quarrel about religion, race, sex, and family as they adjust to life together. Raney has a funny, distinctive, and unapologetically Southern narrative voice. The novel is set in the fictional eastern North Carolina town of Listre.
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Comments Off on Clyde Edgerton. Raney. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 1985.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1985, Coastal Plain, Edgerton, Clyde, Novels Set in Fictional Places
Set in the North Carolina mountains in the 1940s, this novel-in-stories follows a boy named Jess through his daily life and encounters with his quirky family and neighbors. The book is a series of short pieces about the memorable characters Jess and his family encounter, and the land on which they live. Chappell is an award-winning poet and is noted for the lyricism he brings to his prose.
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Comments Off on Fred Chappell. I Am One of You Forever. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985.
Filed under 1980-1989, 1985, Chappell, Fred, Mountains
