Tobacco Road

Tobacco Road was Erskine Caldwell's most highly regarded book; hailed by the likes of William Faulkner and Saul Bellow. A 2006 Slate magazine review (Erskine Caldwell's greasy hairball of a novel. - By Dwight Garner - Slate Magazine) called it "one of the sickest and most lurid books to have emerged from the literature of the American South. It's about as nutritious as a plate of pork cracklings. You're going to feel a little ill when you get up from this table. And I mean all of this, I think, in a good way."

Tobacco Road depicts the Lester family as the "poorest, whitest, trashiest, horniest family in rural Georgia." They are about as lowdown as human beings can get. Lazy, shiftless, and dishonest, violent, and sex-obsessed. In some ways, Tobacco Road is the anti-Gone with the Wind; no magnolias and romantic chivalry in Caldwell's South. It is also an anti-Grapes of Wrath. The Lesters are stuck in the Depression too and about to be kicked off their land, but it's hard to work up any sympathy for them.

Tobacco Road was turned into one of the most successful Broadway plays of all time by Jack Kirkland and later a movie (starring the alluring Gene Tierney as Ellie Mae Lester). The movie recently aired on TCM and is showing on the Fox Movie Channel on March 26, 2010 8:00 am ET and April 14, 2010 7:00 am ET. The movie (directed by John Ford, who also directed Grapes of Wrath) turns the story into a hillbilly comedy.




The Georgia Encyclopedia entry had this to say about the movie:

Ford and screenwriter Nunnally Johnson (a Georgia native) attempted to preserve the caustic comedy and social protest of the book and play, but the studio overruled them on central issues, specifically the tragic ending. The result was a sentimental burlesque that Caldwell himself disavowed.

Nevertheless, the movie retains enough of Caldwell's sharp edge to draws the viewer in. The characters created by Caldwell became enduring cultural stereotypes of white Southern hillbillies. And it does provide a window into a time and place not too far over the historical horizon, but nearly unimaginable for many.

Netflix: Tobacco Road

My Reads 2009: Classic and Significant Books

For no particular reason, in 2009 I spent a significant chunk of my reading time catching up on some of those books that anyone who takes reading even a little bit seriously should read.

I term them Classics and Significant Books. The classics tag is, I think, self-explanatory. Significant books are books that have endured for at least several decades and remain noteworthy.

I'd like to add links, but the Internet is running in mud this morning. This page has my reviews on Library Thing.

1.    Heart of Darkness and The Congo Diary by Joseph Conrad. Conrad's semi-autobiographical journey up the Congo River. Coppola used it as the basis of his film classic Apocalypse Now.

2.    I, Claudius : From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 (Vintage International) by Robert Graves.

3.    The Case of Comrade Tulayev (New York Review Books Classics) by Victor Serge.

4.    The First Rumpole Omnibus by John Mortimer. OK, I'm cheating a little here by including this volume in this list, but it's my list and I really love the Rumpole books.

5.    War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. This book is the major reason that my total number of books read was down from previous years! The new translation is the one to read. Yes, it is worth your time.

6.    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I re-read this book about every five years.

7.    Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding. I read this book as a freshman at the University of Illinois and it was one of those books that introduced an 18-year-old from Southern Illinois to a broader, deeper world of learning. Fielding also wrote the perhaps better known Tom Jones.

8.    The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. On one level, The Name of the Rose is a decent whodunit set in an isolated northern Italian medieval monastery. Mixed in with the mystery, however, are discursions in semiotics, hermeneutics, biblical analysis, religious debate, literary theory, and medieval history. And what would a medieval mystery be without the inquisition? I find Eco's tendency to show off a bit annoying, but the guy is Mr. Smarty Pants. My review.

Saw the movie before I read the book. Both are good. Each has a somewhat different ending. The movie is easier on the little gray cells.



Try this page for a more comprehensive list of Great Books.