Tag Archives: Class struggle

by | July 17, 2008 · 3:41 pm

Sidney C. Tapp. The Struggle. New York: A. Wessels Co., 1906.

It is a stretch to call this a North Carolina novel. Over a hundred pages are set in the boardrooms of Manhattan. The author’s goal is to reveal the way trusts, corporations, and large banks manipulate the commercial and political systems, to the detriment of the the average citizen. After the plans of the robber barons are put into place, the extended Shelton family is ruined. One of the few rays of hope for ordinary people is the Democratic Convention of North Carolina where the “representative of the people” achieves some victories. The heroic figure of the convention is the Hon. William Fitchen, who is thought to be modeled on Congressman and North Carolina Governor W.W. Kitchin.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Sidney C. Tapp. The Struggle. New York: A. Wessels Co., 1906.

Filed under 1900-1909, 1906, Novels to Read Online, Tapp, Sidney C.

Tagged as ,

by | May 23, 2008 · 3:11 pm

Margaret Maron. Hard Row. New York: Warner Books, 2007.

Judge Deborah Knott is adjusting to married life with her new husband, Dwight Bryant, and his young son Cal. There are signs that Colleton County is not doing as well accepting its newcomers–immigrant agricultural workers. When body parts begin to turn up around the county it’s clear that a murder has taken place. Who was the victim? Who is the murderer? The answers to these questions make this a timely book about race, class, and the vulnerability of immigrant laborers.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Margaret Maron. Hard Row. New York: Warner Books, 2007.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Coastal Plain, Maron, Margaret, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places

Tagged as ,

by | March 13, 2008 · 9:58 am

Charles Price. Freedom’s Altar. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 1999.

Set in the violent, lawless days just after the Civil War, this novel explores the deeply complicated questions about how the South would recover and adjust to new ideas about race and class. Daniel McFee, a former slave who had fought for the Union, has returned home to western North Carolina to become a sharecropper on land owned by his old master, Madison Curtis. Despite good intentions, both Curtis and McFee have trouble adjusting to this new relationship. It’s especially hard to make any meaningful progress when the whole region is overrun with violent vigilantes all too willing to take matters into their own hands. The novel is based in part on the author’s family history. Freedom’s Altar won the 1999 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for the best novel by a North Carolinian.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Charles Price. Freedom’s Altar. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 1999.

Filed under 1990-1999, 1999, Historical, Mountains, Price, Charles

Tagged as , , ,

by | · 9:58 am

Michael Parker. Hello Down There. New York: Scribners, 1993.

Edwin Keene has become something of a recluse after a tragic car accident in which one of the passengers was killed. The aristocratic Keene, son of a prominent local family, eases the pain of his own injuries with too-frequent doses of morphine. As his life appears to be slipping away, there is a sudden hope for redemption when Keene falls for Eureka Spaight, a local high-school girl whose working-class family is very different from his own. The novel is set in the early 1950s in the fictional eastern North Carolina town of Trent.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Michael Parker. Hello Down There. New York: Scribners, 1993.

Filed under 1990-1999, 1993, Coastal Plain, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Parker, Michael

Tagged as ,

by | · 9:58 am

Eric Martin. Luck. New York: Norton, 2000.

Mike Olive and several classmates from Duke spend the summer in fictional Cottesville, N.C. alongside Mexican migrant workers on a tobacco farm. The students are working on a project to document the living and working conditions of the workers, and find that conditions are even worse than they imagined. As they began to protest the abuses they see, the locals are none too happy, especially Harvey Dickerson, Mike’s childhood friend. To make things even more complicated, Mike has fallen for the daughter of one of the Mexican workers. As the end of the summer approaches, Mike finds that there are now several people out to get him.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Eric Martin. Luck. New York: Norton, 2000.

Filed under 2000, 2000-2009, Martin, Eric

Tagged as , , ,