Book Reviews | Chapter 16

The Ghosts of Monticello

In Master of the Mountain, Henry Wiencek meticulously constructs a reevaluation of Thomas Jefferson’s personal and political involvement with the institution of slavery

By Ed Tarkington | October 11, 2012

October 11, 2012 With Master of the Mountain, acclaimed historian Henry Wiencek offers a timely and troubling account of how Thomas Jefferson—the Founding Father most frequently invoked as the “guiding spirit” of the New World—rationalized keeping human beings enslaved. Wiencek constructs the image of a man who in his young adulthood sensed the atrocity of slavery but went on, nevertheless, to embrace the practice after he discovered the easy profits he could glean from an institution he referred to in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence as “a cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberties.” Wiencek will discuss Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves at Nashville’s Southern Festival of Books on October 12 at 2 p.m. in Legislative Plaza, Room 12. All festival events are free and open to the public.

A Family Web

In Nancy Jensen’s multigenerational novel, The Sisters, six women are guided by the past in ways they cannot imagine

By Susannah Felts | October 10, 2012

October 10, 2012 An engrossing achievement in family narrative, Nancy Jensen’s The Sisters follows three generations of women, illuminating the way decisions—and secrets—can reverberate through decades, fundamentally shaping others’ lives in ways they may never fully understand. What emerges is a multigenerational family portrait that elegantly reveals its individual figures and allows them to reveal one another, while making deft leaps over broad sweeps of time and place. Nancy Jensen will discuss The Sisters at Nashville’s Southern Festival of Books on October 14 at 2 p.m. in Legislative Plaza, Room 31. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Tender Hearted

Legendary children’s author Katherine Paterson and her husband, John Paterson, revive a forgotten fairy tale

By Fernanda Moore | October 4, 2012

October 5, 2012 The Flint Heart, co-written by Katherine Paterson and her husband, John, reads like a modern retelling of an ancient fairy tale: at the behest of a power-hungry would-be chief, a Stone-Age “mystery man” makes a heart-hardening charm—the Flint Heart—and sells it for thirty-two sheep and thirty-two lambs. What happens next feels deliciously familiar, as all good fairy tales must. Katherine and John Paterson will discuss The Flint Heart at Nashville’s Southern Festival of Books on October 13 at 9:30 a.m. in the War Memorial Auditorium. All festival events are free and open to the public.

In the Land of the Unreliable Narrator

In a new story collection by Junot Díaz, unfaithful men stumble through lives of leave-taking and loss

By Lorraine M. López | October 4, 2012

October 4, 2012 Within a week of its release, Junot Díaz’s new book, This Is How You Lose Her, appeared on The New York Times bestseller list. Rarely does a book of short stories—rarely does literary fiction by a Latino author—generate attention like this. Rarer still are collections that deserve such hype, but in this case, the excitement is well deserved. Díaz, who this week won a MacArthur “genius” grant, is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and his growing legion of fans ought to be well pleased, even thrilled, by the nine dynamic stories in this collection. Junot Díaz will discuss This is How You Lose Her at Nashville’s Southern Festival of Books on October 13 at 4 p.m. in the War Memorial Auditorium. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Across the Generations

Louise Erdrich’s new novel is a mystery, a coming-of-age-tale, and a microcosm of Indian-Anglo relations, all at once

By Sean Kinch | October 2, 2012

October 2, 2012 Louise Erdrich does not fit into any pigeonhole. Her career, spanning three decades and twenty-six books, may once have belonged in the category of the “Native American renaissance” of the late-twentieth century, but that classification is now too restrictive. Her work, which still typically depicts Indians of the American Midwest, reaches toward the universal even as it remains rooted in the particulars of the lives of the Indians who were driven from traditional lands and into the dubious safety of reservations. On October 9 at 6:15 p.m., Louise Erdrich will discuss The Round House at the Nashville Public Library as part of the Salon@615 series. The event is free and open to the public.

La Vie Bohème

John Shelton Reed brings to life a French Quarter arts community in 1920s New Orleans

By Tina LoTufo | October 1, 2012

October 1, 2012 In 1926, two New Orleans roommates—one a writer, the other an artist—decided to put together a little book about their French Quarter circle of friends, most of whom were also writers and artists, and publish a few hundred copies, consisting mainly of caricatures and witty captions. In Dixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s, John Shelton Reed uses this little book by artist William Spratling and his roommate—a fellow by the name of William Faulkner—as a snapshot out of time through which to explore the bohemian arts community that thrived in the Vieux Carré of the 1920s. John Shelton Reed will discuss Dixie Bohemia at Nashville’ s Southern Festival of Books on October 14 at 2:30 p.m. in Legislative Plaza Room 12. All festival events are free and open to the public.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly