Keeper of the Moon

Rating:
Summary: a very powerful book
Review: every southerner should read this and all of tim mclaurin's works. his perspective and view of growing up in the south touches on some truths that every native person of the south has been exposed to. the stories of the relationships in this and all of mclaurin's books are almost too real. rarely have i read anyone's work who could express such complex feelings with such clarity. tim mclaurin, like ferrol sams and pat conroy, is one of the best the south has to offer.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Bag
Review: I enjoyed this book, but I think some of the praise here and on the back cover is a tad overblown.
I think McLaurin is a good writer, and "Keeper Of The Moon" is a good book. He spends a lot of time recreating conversations he didn't witness, or was just too young to remember, but that's a quibble. This is the kind of book a lot of us say we're going to write, but all too few of us ever get around to doing it.
But I have trouble with McLaurin and other "southern" writers who dip into fits of that reverse-snobbery they call "southern pride." Being from the south myself (Virginia, admittedly not the deep south but the home of the Presidents and Robert E. Lee, don't ya know---I do say "ya'll" several times a day), I still don't understand the theory that dying in needless hunting and drunken driving accidents, having children while still in middle school, getting in knife fights, or living in poverty because you spend all your money on booze, drugs, and hookers is somehow a proud tradition. Call me crazy, but I think there's a lot more to the south, or any other part of the country, than that.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Bag
Review: I enjoyed this book, but I think some of the praise here and on the back cover is a tad overblown.
I think McLaurin is a good writer, and "Keeper Of The Moon" is a good book. He spends a lot of time recreating conversations he didn't witness, or was just too young to remember, but that's a quibble. This is the kind of book a lot of us say we're going to write, but all too few of us ever get around to doing it.
But I have trouble with McLaurin and other "southern" writers who dip into fits of that reverse-snobbery they call "southern pride." Being from the south myself (Virginia, admittedly not the deep south but the home of the Presidents and Robert E. Lee, don't ya know---I do say "ya'll" several times a day), I still don't understand the theory that dying in needless hunting and drunken driving accidents, having children while still in middle school, getting in knife fights, or living in poverty because you spend all your money on booze, drugs, and hookers is somehow a proud tradition. Call me crazy, but I think there's a lot more to the south, or any other part of the country, than that.

Rating:
Summary: Heart-wrenching Reality of Southern Poverty
Review: Reading Tim McLaurin is like talking with a friend. In Keeper of the Moon, he recalls his painful childhood - a childhood of poverty that he didn't even recognize as poverty until he left it. The stories in this collection are so real you can feel the cold, shed the tears, and know the lonliness of the author. His memories are all to familiar to those of us who grew up during the same era and with the same in-bred prejudices and misconceptions. We all saw or knew or were related to the same characters he describes so vividly. Some of us were lucky enough not to have to work a farm, birthing swine or watching our dads drink themselves into oblivion, but we saw it all around us and felt its impact. It all comes home with a vengence while reading his boyhood stories. If you never lived it, you will through his eyes and his words. Read it more than once; you will learn something new each and every time you do. Savor it for the truths revealed; cherish it for the lessons learned and for the sheer joy of reading a masterful artist's work.