After completing his freshmen year at The Citadel, Pat Conroy goes back to spend the summer with his family. A summer of work is on the horizon for him and his mother has some ideas about that. She introduced him to Father Stewart in Omaha. Enjoy this excerpt from Conroy’s essay entitled “Deacon Summer”:

“‘I’m the pastor of Holy Family Parish on Izard Street, located in the center of the ghetto. We’ve been trying to do outreach programs that will meet the needs of the our parishioners . . . I can give you free room and board. I can’t say the work won’t be dangerous but it will be satisfying. I have three young men from the seminary who’ll be spending their Deacon Summers at my parish. Two nuns will be doing social work. I can offer you a strong sense of community and can assure you that you’ll be doing work that will make the Near North Side a better place. We can offer you . . .'” (61-62)

“I interrupted him saying, ‘I can’t take a salary, Father. Father I come from the weirdest family on earth, and my father won’t let any of us have a paying job.'”

“‘That’s what your mother said. I find it strange. May I ask why?'”

“‘It’s a long story, but father’s something of an asshole, Father. Pardon my French,’ I said. ‘The Depression made him weird.'”

“‘Then consider yourself hired, Mr. Conroy,’ Father Stewart said.” (62)

. . .

“By July I had nearly completed my census of the whole parish when I knocked on the door of Yunca Matkovich. Many of the neighbors had warned me about approaching Yunca, using words like addled, schizophrenic, and crazy as hell to describe her. Though I had come accustomed to people answering the door with revolvers in their hands, I had never encountered anyone like Yunca Matkovich . . .” (67)

“‘May I come in and ask you some questions? I’m taking a census for the Holy Family Church.'”

“‘Please sit down in my living room.'”

“When I sat down in an armchair, roaches scattered across the floor, and I had to compose myself to keep myself from gagging. She had been born in Poland, she told me, then filled out the details of a most unlucky life. Six months ago she had gone completely blind. She’d never seen a doctor because she couldn’t afford one since someone had begun stealing her social security checks. I tried to turn on a lamp  but there was no electricity . . . Opening the door off the kitchen, I saw the outline of the sink and a commode in the lightless room . . . I looked at the black walls, aware only of a secret abhorrence of something staring back at me. I felt a movement in the impenetrable blackness of those walls; then slowly as my eyes adjusted, I processed the scene with a horror coming over me that I’d never felt before when I realized that I was looking not at a color, but a billion-footed colony of roaches . . .”  (68-69)

I enjoyed this essay so much so I am not going to tell you what happens. The rest is up to you. Editor Sonny Brewer will be having a signing and reading for Don’t Quit Your Day Job on Wednesday, December 1st.

Although Pat Conroy will be not be visiting Lemuria for his new book, My Reading Life, we do have signed copies available. Click here to read more about Conroy’s reading memoir.

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On the “Today Show” this morning, there was a segment entitled “Is Civility Dead”? I was immediately reminded of the excellent apropos novel that I started over the weekend and from which I am only about 20 pages from the conclusion: The False Friend by Myla Goldberg. Richard Russoo, author of That Old Cape Magic has commented on Goldberg’s newest novel by saying, The False Friend is a riveting read, both compelling and richly satisfying.” I agree. Author Aimee Bender’s comments on Goldberg’s Bee Season, a previous novel, were also very complimentary. So, I am not alone in liking Goldberg’s power in storytelling.

So, how does The False Friend fit in with “civility”? Simply because this captivating novel explores the horrible human characteristic, now more present than ever, of bullying. As we all know, bullying begins often in childhood and progresses in adolescence, as is seen currently in the sad, sad case of the Rutgers students who chastised their classmate on a website, thereby resulting in his demise.

In The False Friend the female protagonist goes back in time, emotionally and physically, when she returns to her small midwestern home town to “tell the truth” about the bullying of which she was apart in the 1960s when she was only 11 years old. The reader learns that she was part of a small group of girls who held power over other young girls and made them wear their hair, their clothes, and shape their lives into a form which was incredibly measured by series of checks and balances each morning on the school bus. Ironically, the ring leader disappears in a forest, and the protagonist sees her simply “fall”, but tells the others that a car took her away. Therefore, a mystery is in the making, fueled more and more each year by the townspeople. The bullying was relentless and in present day haunts the protagonist so much that it begins to affect her relationship with her boyfriend and her parents, all of whom are major characters in this short novel.

When Celia returns to investigate her friend’s disappearance so many years before, no one wants to believe her version of “the truth” about what really happened that day in the woods. She even tracks down the other girls in the group and interviews them about what they think happened that fateful day. Yes, this is a type of mystery, but it is much more. This spellbinding, culturally applicable novel has me itching for the time tonight after my busy, busy day when I can read the final 20 pages to see some resolution.  -Nan

That’s Santa Sonny Brewer with John Evans when he came to Lemuria last year.

Below you will find a letter Sonny wrote to accompany his new book, Don’t Quit Your Day Job. After some conversation between Sonny and John–filled with a wonderful misunderstanding about the book–Sonny decided to collect stories from writers about the day jobs they quit. I loved the letter Sonny wrote so much that I decided to share it with you here. Don’t let the seriousness of the letter fool you. Sonny is always up to something–as writers often are when there is no 9 to 5 job. Last December Sonny was Santa. I wonder what he’ll be up to this December when he comes to Lemuria?

Dear Booklover,

P. J. O’Rourke said, “Creative writing teachers should be purged until every last instructor who has uttered the words ‘Write what you know’ is confined to a labor camp . . . The blind guy with the funny little harp who composed the Iliad, how much combat do you think he saw?

Like O’Roarke, William Faulkner had his own take on the Other Commandment for writers, the one that goes, “Thou shalt not quit thy day job.” Faulkner, who won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature, had, twenty-five years before, worked at the post office in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi.

Mister Faulkner was known to say, “One of the saddest things is that the only thing a man can do for eight hours, is work. You can’t eat for eight hours, nor drink for eight hours a day, nor make love for eight hours a day.”

He must have been determined to give something else (writing, we may assume, perhaps a glass of whiskey on the side) a whirl when he tendered his resignation to the postmaster. “I reckon I’ll be at the beck and call of folks with money all my life,” he said, “but thank God I won’t ever have to be at the beck and call of every son of a bitch who’s got two cents to buy a stamp.”

The authors in this book have tried their hands at some of the same jobs you have held, or still keep. They’ve worked on the railroad, busted rocks with a sledgehammer, fought fires, wiped tables, soldiered and carpentered and spied, delivered pizzas, lacquered boat paddles, counted heads for the church, sold underwear, and, yes, delivered the mail. They’ve driven garbage trucks.

And, like Williams Faulkner, they have quit those jobs.

And like Faulkner they write. They tell good tales. If you wonder what work preceded their efforts to produce a great pile of books, if you would like to know how they made the transition to, as William Gay said, “clocking in at the culture factory,” then this is the book you’ve been waiting for.

Sonny Brewer, Editor

Fairhope, Alabama

Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit is available now. You can reserve a signed copy online or call the bookstore 800/601.366.7619. On December 1st, Sonny will be signing and reading from his book. Don’t Quit Your Day Job is also the December selection for our First Editions Club.

Stay tuned for excerpts from the anthology between now and December 1st.

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It has recently come to my attention that I am sitting in a boom. It doesn’t feel like it but if you look in the right places our economy is smashing into a new, sort of, front: the Internet. One of the few places in our economy that isn’t in the tank. For the past couple decades people have done business on the internet and it seemed like a lot of a few were making very large amounts of money; but now the market is opening up and large amounts of people are making substantial sums of money. Therefore, I’m ready to get on my horse and make sure I don’t miss the revolution!

I’m not a tech nerd or have any sort of exceptional internet prowess; but I’m pretty sure that its not a requirement, having friends that are is what you need. In my thinking a good product with a refined sense of marketing and design are what makes the money happen. So where else to look than Seth Godin. He has been highly recommended to me several times by Joe and John and after flippin’ through a few of his and a few of others. He seems to have the weighty information that actually make a difference in your thinking and teach you how to become an educated business beast, instead of trying to get a quick fix and tricks.

-John P.

As I travel to musical events in the Delta, I enjoy visiting the graves of blues players. It’s my homage and my way to show appreciation and care for the psyche of the makers of this music that I admire and enjoy.

A couple of years ago, along with my music buddy and girlfriend Jeanie, we ventured to find the grave of Mississippi John Hurt, who died on November 2, 1966. We left Greenwood on our way to Avalon, close to where Hurt lived. We followed the guidebook taking us down a gravel road and up a dirt road which we drove back and forth multiple times. Finally, through the woods we find the entrance to his family plot. All the way in the back Hurt rests, one of the gentlest of blues musicians. High up on the Yocona Ridge, overlooking the Delta lay the bones of this musical specialist. A tree canopy shelters his grave, covering what feels like holy ground as you approach and meander about. Words don’t do this special spot justice; Ken’s photo helps.

Over the years, we visited many blues graves of which Sonny Boy II is another favorite. It’s no telling what adornment tokens you will find left with respect. It’s not uncommon to find half a pint of whiskey left, placed after toasting, waiting for a spirit to return and imbibe.

Share your favorite blues resting spots you’ve experienced and the most unusual tokens observed. I would like to visit what’s meaningful to you and step into your story, especially with a toast for a by-gone blues singer.

Click here to see all of our blogs on Mississippi State of Blues.

Ken Murphy and Scott Barretta will be signing at Lemuria on Thursday, November 11th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

For a view of the beautiful photos, please visit the official State of Blues website.

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