March 20, 2013 Eden Rise by Robert J. Norrell, a history professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, contains both a lively narrative and a deep historical understanding of the atmosphere of the small-town South at the height of the civil-rights movement. Set in 1960s Alabama, the novel’s plot centers on a murder trial, and the book is a fine addition to the genre of Southern courtroom dramas that capture the tension between the objective reality of racial injustice and the subjective desire of most of the white population to deny it, justify it, or cast themselves as its true victims.

March 19, 2013 In 1958, institutional racism infected all life in the deep South. Because of distant threats—court decisions, freedom riders, and the like—its influence was perhaps more entrenched than ever. Yet many whites seemed oblivious to its pernicious effects. In James Williamson’s novel, The Ravine, a thirteen-year-old boy from a privileged white family in Memphis spends the summer in a small Mississippi community, where a violent tragedy changes his life profoundly.