Okay, I know it’s close to Mother’s Day but there’s something about Fathers and Daughters. God knows, I adored mine. He was funny, smart and bullheaded, just the kind of man to indulge a mischievous daughter who didn’t want to obey her mom. Yes sir, I think my father was brilliant but a lot of girls feel that way about their dads.. Adela Rogers St. Johns certainly did and she captured that father-daughter spark in her biography, Final Verdict. Of course, when she said her Old Man was brilliant the rest of the world agreed. Earl Rogers may still be the greatest trial attorney that ever entered a courtroom. It’s funny but no one remembers Earl Rogers these days. Mention Johnny Cochran or F. Lee Bailey or Gerry Spence and legal heads will nod. Talk about Bill Kunstler or Clarence Darrow and some history mavens will admit they had skill but they point out these guys lost as many cases as they won. Talk about the man who Perry Mason was based on and you’ll hear “Perry who??” Well, such is the nature of fame. Still, in the first half of the twentieth century, if you were charged with murder…
There is something special about a Southern Mama. I used to explain it by saying I moved to Alabama because, “I married a Southern Boy. And Southern Boys don’t get too far away from their mamas.” That usually got a laugh because, on one level, it’s true. Southern mothers are strong women and their children respond to that strength. These women have raised generations of kids who know Mama is stronger than anyone except Grandma or God Almighty. Dads are dads and everyone should have a good one but no one’s more certain than Mom. That standard was true of my southern mother-in-law and it is certainly true about Rick Bragg’s mother. In All Over But the Shoutin‘, his mom is the heroine of the story and the center of his life. To hear Rick tell it, life should have been nicer to Margaret Marie Bundrum. Although she was born into a large family in one of the poorer areas of the United States, the country was beautiful, her family was loving and her father provided for them all by building houses and making moonshine. It was a reasonable childhood for that area and at seventeen, Margaret Marie had the…
I came late to the Stephen King party. His books first hit the national consciousness when I was a teenager and at the time, I decided they were bad. Not because of the subject matter; I’ve been terrifying myself with stories since I first picked up a book. No those early stories were poorly written, in my opinion, fiction man-handled onto a page by someone without subtly or regard for language. Except for the film adaptations, I ignored the man’s output until 1999 (which is a separate tale in itself) when I found the author everyone else had been yakking about for decades. I am sure some of Mr. King’s writing skill improved through sheer practice and I hope he’s had help from the best editors in the business but I’d guess the single greatest factor that improved the man’s work is his sobriety. His later books have a focus that was missing in his earlier work.. Nothing shows the change more than comparing the two stories of Danny Torrence: The Shining and Doctor Sleep. The Shining is, of course, the account of the Torrence family’s tragic adventures in the Overlook Hotel. Jack Torrence tries to turn his life around…
I nearly forgot I said this is a place to discuss, books, plays and short stories. As long as I’m finally getting around to plays, I’d like to start out with a favorite: A Moon for the Misbegotten. Every person has life-changing experiences. Some of these are obvious turning points like marriage or the death of a parent, some are not. One of mine was a play I saw at age fifteen, a modern drama. At fifteen, I couldn’t say why I identified with the characters or why it moved me so (other than it was a great performance) but the work and the author got under my skin for the rest of my adolescence. It is still a singular piece though now I understand it a bit more. It was written by Eugene O’Neill and it’s called “A Moon for the Misbegotten.” Few people outside of the theatrical world understand the impact of O’Neill but, to put it simply, he made American Drama human. Theatrical plays written in this country before O’Neill were either broad comedies or melodramas. I’m sure they were lots of fun to watch, containing virtuous heroes and dastardly villains but there was nothing an audience…