Books

Just from the synopsis of his new book, you might think that Clyde Edgerton was riffing off of Flannery O’Connor.

The Bible Salesman opens in 1950, with 20-year-old Henry Dampier — a Christian gentleman, naïve, virginal, maybe even a little dim-witted — hitchhiking on a dirt road in the North Carolina mountains. Dampier is the bible salesman of the title, and he’s picked up by a criminal named Preston Clearwater, a man who’s part of a car-theft ring working up and down the Southern coastline. Dampier isn’t entirely virtuous himself; not only does he have questions and concerns about the good book’s sometimes contradictory teachings, but he’s also getting those bibles for free from Christian organizations, razoring out the page with the word “complimentary” and selling them door-to-door. And Clearwater isn’t entirely a bad guy. Yes, he takes advantage of Dampier, claiming that he’s with the FBI and that they’re going to break the car ring, conning Dampier into driving the stolen cars himself while Clearwater rides safely behind. And yes, Clearwater can use a gun when he needs to — more than once, in fact. But there’s something appealing about his attitude toward Dampier, trying to get him to comb his hair right or keep his belt in his belt loops. If this is “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” meets “Good Country People,” it’s certainly a kinder, gentler O’Connor that Edgerton is channeling here.

But of course The Bible Salesman is not O’Connor; it’s Edgerton — more tall tale than dark fable, and all of it infused with the same warm, wise humor that we’ve come to expect from his works, the same careful depiction of a place and its sometimes zany inhabitants.

Navigating this unlikely pair’s car-stealing spree, Edgerton offers his own take on the period crime novel — a whimsical Elmore Leonard, to make another comparison — but he also offers an amusing love story and fond evocation of the past. Much as Dampier is excited about his job as a budding FBI accessory, for example, he’s also got some bibles still to sell, and a young woman at a fruit stand quickly goes from prospective customer to prospective girlfriend — and soon the question weighs heavy on his mind about what the Bible says about premarital sex. In addition to the 1950s storyline, Edgerton also steps back in time, exploring key scenes and characters from Dampier’s Depression-era childhood and younger adulthood: his father who died in an accident; his mother who abandoned him; the sister who almost drowned him; the cousin he took turns playing Cowboys and Indians with; and the neighbor who lived down the road, whose son had a goiter, and who threw her voice so it seemed like her cats talked.

As much as the crime story takes center stage here, it’s in these extended flashbacks to Dampier’s history that Edgerton shows some of his best writing: quick, nostalgic glimpses of a lost era, told mainly from a child’s wide-eyed perspective — but infused with a master storyteller’s understanding of the adult world as well. In one of the finest scenes, Dampier’s uncle takes the family to Swan Island, NC, to crash a fancy party and watch a movie on the beach. Dampier and his sister watch their uncle and aunt dance in the dunes and witness the full moon rise and marvel at the world around them, until that world crashes in a little on them. It’s a tour de force scene, one of the highlights of this warm and winning story.

Edgerton will read from and sign copies of The Bible Salesman at several area bookstores in August and September, including McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington Village on Saturday morning, Aug. 16, and Durham’s Regulator Bookshop later that same afternoon; Pomegranate books in Wilmington on Thursday evening, Sept. 4; and Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 6.

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

Edgerton’s work also appears in another new book this month: the annual New Stories from the South anthology, selected and edited this year by acclaimed short story writer ZZ Packer. Edgerton’s story “The Great Speckled Bird,” originally published by The Southern Review, finds wider audiences here, as do stories by several other writers with North Carolina ties, including Karen E. Bender, who teaches with Edgerton at UNC-Wilmington; Daniel Wallace, who teaches at UNC-Chapel Hill; and Ron Rash, who teaches at Western Carolina University. Additionally, the volume features several up-and-coming writers, including my good friend Rob Drummond, whose story “The Unnecessary Man” provides — from my biased point of view — reason enough for anyone to purchase the entire anthology.

And just as Edgerton’s new novel deals in part with the Bible and the people who struggle to stay true to it, so too does the new novel from another local favorite touch on the church and its power. Margaret Maron’s latest mystery, Death’s Half Acre, starts out with a chilling scene as a minister tests his wife’s devotion and obedience in front of the entire congregation. While this latest Deborah Knott mystery ultimately focuses more attention on real estate than religion (or more on development than dogma, to extend the alliteration), that opening scene casts a long shadow over this multi-layered exploration of how power can be misused and abused, whether in the pulpit or in the political arena.

Maron will be reading from her new novel at Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books on Friday evening, Aug. 22, and on Thursday evening, Sept. 4, at the Cary Barnes & Noble, and several other mystery-themed events are also planned for the coming weeks. Bestselling author JA Jance reads from her new novel Damage Control at McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington Village on Friday afternoon, Aug. 1, and again later that evening at the Cary Barnes & Noble. Martin Clark, author of The Legal Limit, appears at Durham’s Regulator Bookshop on Friday evening, Aug. 1; at McIntyre’s Books on Saturday morning, Aug. 2; and at Quail Ridge Books on Monday evening, Aug. 4. T. Lynn Ocean reads from her mystery novel Southern Fatality — set in Wilmington! — at Wilmington’s own Pomegranate Books on Tuesday evening, Aug. 5. And each of the Triangle’s major independent bookstores is hosting a Southern mystery panel this month. Quail Ridge Books welcomes Mark de Castrique, author of Blackman’s Coffin; Mary Anna Evans, author of Effigies; Vicki Lane, author of In a Dark Season; and Cathy Pickens, author of Hush My Mouth, on Thursday evening, Aug. 14. The panel — without Perkins — also appears on Friday afternoon, Aug. 15, at McIntyre’s Books with reviewer Molly Weston, and again Friday evening at the Regulator.

Other notable authors on this month’s schedule include:

• John McNally, co-editor of Who Can Save Us Now?: Brand-New Superheroes and Their Amazing (Short) Stories, on Thursday afternoon, Aug. 28, at the Country Bookshop in Southern Pines.

• Haven Kimmel, author of Iodine, on Tuesday evening, Aug. 5, at the Regulator, and again on Thursday evening, Aug. 7, at Quail Ridge Books.

• Ann Wicker, editor of Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas, with contributor David Childers, on Friday evening, Aug. 8, at the Regulator.

• Charles Price, author of Nor the Battle to the Strong: A Novel of the American Revolution in the South, on Friday afternoon, Aug. 8, at McIntyre’s, and again on Wednesday evening, Aug. 13, at Quail Ridge Books.

• Celia Rivenbark, author of Belle Weather: Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits and Conniptions, on Wednesday evening, Aug. 20, at Quail Ridge Books.

NORTH CAROLINA BOOKWATCH

While some authors are appearing in local bookstores, others are as close as your own living room, thanks to the new season of North Carolina Bookwatch, hosted weekly by DG Martin on UNC-TV. On Friday, Aug. 1, at 9:30 p.m. (and again in an encore presentation on Sunday, Aug. 3, at 5 p.m.), Bookwatch welcomes children’s book author Eleanora Tate with her latest publication, Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance. The rest of the month’s schedule follows the same pattern (Fridays at 9:30 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m.) with the following guests:

• Eric Wilson, a professor of English at Wake Forest University and author of Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, on Friday, Aug. 8, and Sunday, Aug. 10.

• Wayne Caldwell, author of the novel Cataloochee, on Friday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 17.

• Theda Perdue, a professor of history at UNC-Chapel Hill and co-author, with fellow UNC-CH professor Michael D. Green, of The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears, on Friday, Aug. 22, and Sunday, Aug. 24.

• And Bernie Harberts, author of the memoir/travelogue Too Proud to Ride a Cow: By Mule Across America, on Friday, Aug. 29, and Sunday, Aug. 31.

Turn to Metro next month for information on NC Bookwatch’s September programming. To have your literary event considered for inclusion in this column, please e-mail MetroBooksNC@gmail.com.