The Wild Things by Dave Eggers is a novel for all ages. It is loosely based on the award-winning children’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay for the movie. Maybe you have seen the fabulous previews for the movie, which was co-written by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze. Click here to watch the trailer. Just watching these characters run and tumble makes me happy. The movie opens October 16th. The Wild Things is out today. Oh, and I just read the original story today. hee hee.

When John wrote about The Delta Blues Museum and Muddy Waters’ cabin, he showed me this amazing book called Lost Delta Found.

The book was published in 2005 but it collects the lost work of John W. Work, Lewis Wade Jones, and Samuel C. Adams. These men were scholars from Fisk University. Their work took place in the 1940s and their goal was “to document adequately the cultural and social backgrounds for music in the community,” the black community of Coahoma County, Mississippi.

Author and filmmaker Robert Gordon and musician Bruce Nemerov have compiled the results of the folklorists’ study, including individual entries about musicians, such as Muddy Waters, general writings about the Delta, musical transcriptions of the traditional songs, and interviews. These scholars–Work, Jones and Adams–left us a treasure.

In particular, John W. Work III recorded these notes about Muddy Waters: “Muddy Water would like to join the church but to do so would mean abandoning his guitar–a sacrifice too dear to make now.” (120)

“John W. Work took this famous photo of Henry Sims and McKinley Morganfield on Stovall’s plantation in Coahoma county in the summer of 1943 . . . Courtesy of Center for Poplar Music, Middle Tennessee State University; John W. Work III Collection.” (119)

Two of the short stories in this collection were selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories series. McCorkle, author of three other short story collections plus five novels, is a favorite Southern author from North Carolina. Her works have also been selected as New York Times Notable Books.
In Going Away Shoes, McCorkle writes about characters who oftentimes experience the same common place situations, scenarios, and challenges as the reader. The protagonists, most often female, experience complications from love relationships but ultimately find resolution.
In the third short story, “Midnight Clear” the single mother of two young sons, who are eagerly anticipating Santa’s arrival, notices a horrible smell late Christmas Eve afternoon. A very joyful older plumber arrives on the spot to offer, not only a solution to the rank smell, but also, unknown hope and promise for the future as he relates the happiness he feels with his second wife. What appears as a dismal situation is lightened with unexpected wit. This seems to hold true in many of McCorkle’s short stories. Everyday occurrences and events greet the reader with understanding usually often not imparted with such poignancy and rare humor.
McCorkle will sign Going Away Shoes and read from the short stories on Tuesday, October 20, at 5:30 p.m. This is an event not to be missed.
-Nan

As I was driving into work this morning James Ellroy was on NPR Morning Edition and as usual was his fantastic self!!!  If you missed it here it is…

Blood’s A Rover: A Novel

James Ellroy

(Random House, 2009)

Hard-boiled crime fiction is at its boiling point in 2009. Chef Ellroy has finished his fine hot meal with his new novel, Blood’s A Rover, as a cowboy steak for his main course. American Tabloid (1995) was the appetizer, followed by the salad, Cold Six Thousand (2001). With dinner now served, this meal is like no other in literary crime fiction. Ellroy is extending this grand genre with Blood’s literary accomplishment.

Reading Ellroy, you enter the writer’s mind as he expresses himself through a multitude of complex, believable characters. This fine author challenges the reader while being touched with the full gambit of internal emotions, feeling these characters experiences not just reading them. Plots too complex to summarize, characters too many to name, adjectives too many to start using in description.

I consider Ellroy to be totally courteous to the reader: not giving away too much, not letting this meal be chewed too fast, a dinner served to last awhile and savor with dessert being the last page.

P.S.: While reading Blood’s A Rover, don’t be surprised if you find yourself cussing more in your day-to-day conversation.