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Aftersleep Books
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The Last Days A Son s Story of Sin and SegregatioThe following report compares books using the SERCount Rating (base on the result count from the search engine). |
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Aftersleep Books - 2005-06-20 07:00:00 | © Copyright 2004 - www.aftersleep.com () | sitemap | top |
Marsh has a gift for remembering the humorous detail. His story-telling skills are sharp and biting. We can see Laurel, Miss., close-up through a child's eyes. Yet those things we see are presented with the clarity gained from decades of maturity and reflexion.
I know a couple of people who are contemporaries of the author, who grew up in his hometown and church. After I told them how much I enjoyed the book and how the book makes Laurel seem like a nice place, they seemed dumbfounded. They said that folks in Laurel were upset with how the town is presented. I can understand why they might be upset by some of the events and people Marsh recalls, but I never perceived any hostility the author has towards Laurel. Rather, the majority of people and the town itself serve as a pleasant balance to the few evil people and events which take place.
Not quite told with the wit and timing of a Ferrol Sams fictionalized memoir (Run With the Horsemen, for example), The Last Days still mines an earlier South (although Sams' era is the 30s-40s) and discovers treasures in the most humble of places: the home, the school, the church, the playing field. Another book that comes to mind is Homer Hickam's Rocket Boys (October Sky) with its deep yet subtle insight into the relationship (good and bad) of father and son.