I walked into the library yesterday and spied a new novel by Pat Conway. Titled, “South of Broad,” the South Carolina low country author takes us on an another adventure among a bunch of dysfunctional folks in a Southern city -- this time Charleston. He hasn’t written a novel in 16 years but gained fame with “The Price of Tides,” which became a Hollywood mega hit movie.

I guess I have always loved the Southern genre of fiction from the time I came across “Gone With the Wind” as a teenager. It is probably the number one Southern and American novel ever written. A close second is, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the sole contribution of Harper Lee to the category.

Over the years I have wallowed in Robert Penn Warren‘s “All the King’s Men,” with a recent re-read before the movie version hit the theatres; Fannie Flag’s “Fried Green Tomatoes;” Tom Wolfe (both authors) in “Look Homeward Angel” and “A Man in Full;” Cormack McCarthy and his recent “The Road;” Anne Rice with her vampires; “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil;” "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter;" and wildly successful novels of John Grisham that mostly take place in Mississippi. The list goes on and on, as I recently read a new Charles Frazier who hit the big time with “Cold Mountain.”

My one admission is I cannot read Faulkner. Sorry, he is too esoteric for me and I have to use the Spark Notes to figure out his symbolism.

But if you want a lot small town secrets and angst in your novels with a plot that makes you cry, the Southern gendre is the best, IMHO.

You might try a Barbara Kingsolver, another of my favorite authors who was from my now home in Kentucky. Her “Prodigal Summer” is a excellent read.

A review of "South of Broad" if you are interested in the plot:
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