Christmas Books
by
Gail Jarvis
by
Gail Jarvis
Books make
excellent Christmas gifts and in the weeks preceding Christmas you
will be seeing numerous lists of book recommendations. I would also
like to suggest a few books but not the kind that are usually recommended
on a site like this – history, economics, political science, etc.
Instead I want to recommend works of fiction. Books about the South,
written by Southern authors who avoid the stereotypical Hollywood
clichés about the region.
 Fittingly,
I will begin with a Christmas book, one that portrays Christmas
in South Carolina’s Lowcountry in the mid-1800s: The
Golden Christmas by William Gilmore Simms. This little book
is described as being influenced by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
as well as Charles Dickens’s A
Christmas Carol. But there is also the flavor of Oscar Wilde’s
The
Importance of Being Earnest as Simms humorously describes
two young Southern aristocrats trying to win the affection of their
true loves during Charleston’s holiday season. Although Simms’s
language offers quite a contrast to today’s speech, the book is
a pleasure to read and Simms draws you into the festive environment.
As a bonus, the book includes an introduction by Simms scholar,
David Aiken, that provides a wealth of information about the Lowcountry
at the time of Simms’s story.
 Next,
a Christmas book that you are probably familiar with but one that
deserves to be mentioned: A
Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. This book, little more
than a short story, is a remembrance of a Christmastime when Capote
was seven years old and living with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama.
The young boy and his elderly cousin, a very special lady who has
retained her youthful enthusiasm, prepare for Christmas in a small
town in the rural South in the 1930s. Although often referred to
as a children’s story, it has been enjoyed by many adults. And if
you are not too jaded, you might be very moved by it.
 Band
of Angels may not be a well-known novel but it is a very
special one. This is a work by Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer Prize
winner and member of the literary group known as The Fugitives that
came out of Vanderbilt University in the 1920s. This book has been
compared to Gone With the Wind and there are striking similarities.
Both protagonists are beautiful women eagerly sought after by men,
often to their regret. Both are daughters of Southern plantation
owners and both stories are set in the period before, during and
after The War Between the States. Without giving away too much of
the story, I will say that the idyllic life of Warren’s heroine,
Amantha Starr, comes to an abrupt end when she learns that her recently
deceased father was deeply in debt and creditors are seizing his
entire estate. Among the "property" seized is Amantha
herself, who discovers that her long-deceased mother, whom she had
never known, was a slave. This makes Amantha a half-caste and, according
to her father’s creditors, a slave. At a New Orleans slave auction,
she is purchased by a strange yet kindly master and so begins a
series of entanglements and adventures. This is quite a book and
Warren’s portrayal of historical events is informative and accurate,
especially the Union’s military occupation of New Orleans.
 Another
member of The Fugitives literary group was Donald Davidson, whose
scholarly essays made him a preeminent advocate of the agrarian
South. In the mid-1950s, Davidson tried his hand at fiction, writing
The
Big Ballad Jamboree, a humorous account of the conflicts
arising when urbanism creeps into rural communities. A country music
star, Danny MacGregor, tries to win his childhood sweetheart, Cissie
Timberlake, once a country music singer but now a serious folk-music
scholar. MacGregor stops at nothing in his romantic quest and his
shenanigans are as inept as they are hilarious.
 In
Walking
Toward Home, James Kibler presents a thoroughly enjoyable
collection of eccentrics who inhabit a remote rural area of South
Carolina – the nearest ATM is over twenty miles away. You will
encounter strange names like Shot-Face, Triggerfoot, Lulu Bess,
Mattie Lou, Jim-Jesse, and Hoyalene. And the dialect is authentic
throughout. Kibler’s people, like Davidson’s characters, also have
conflicts with modernity. But they don’t lose their identity and
their stories are often humorous but not without a touch of sadness.
This is one of those books that come along from time to time to
give us respite from the troubles of the day.
 Finally,
for those who love mysteries, and most of us do, I recommend The
Hunt for Confederate Gold by Thomas Moore. As the title
implies, the story concerns an attempt to find the legendary Confederate
gold, hidden from the invading Union forces at the end of The War
Between the States. Moore tells his story craftily, switching back
and forth between 1865 and the current era, allowing his main character,
Bo Bolitho, to reveal a few facts at a time to keep us in the chase.
Moore adds spice to his tale with the inclusion of trumped up charges
of treason against Bolitho’s cohort and mentor, University of South
Carolina history professor, Parker Hastie; charges that result in
Hastie’s imprisonment by the Federal government. And, of course,
there is the obligatory attractive female, Iona Herrick, to tickle
the romantic fancies of the intrepid Bo Bolitho. In a preview, you
can’t say too much about a mystery story for fear of diluting the
mystery. But this book is a great read and would make an excellent
Christmas gift.
 These
books are available from Amazon.com and most can be shipped in a
couple of days.
December
7, 2005
Gail
Jarvis [send
him mail] is a free-lance writer.
Copyright
© 2005 LewRockwell.com
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