Chitlin Strut and Other Madrigals

by William Price Fox

Style, writes William Price Fox, is not "an exclusive property in the aristocracy of the arts. A jockey, a shortstop, a used car salesman, or even a mechanic grinding valves can have it, and the feather-trimmed hookers working the curbs along Gervais and Millwood are not without it." Most of all, however, Bill Fox is not without it. Since the publication of his classic collection of short stories, Southern Fried Plus Six, propelled him into the national literary spotlight, Fox has charmed thousands of readers with his rhapsodic tales of the South. He uses humor like a scalpel to cut away pomposity. He exposes charlatans and glorifies what is real about the South and its native sons. But there is no canned humor in William Price Fox--it's all garden fresh. Chitlin Strut and Other Madrigals is a heaping helping of such humor. It's a skillful blending of fact and fiction that often leaves the reader unable to distinguish one from the other. It's Satchel Paige in the "Rhythm Room" of the Twilight Zone Bowling Alley; it's a frog-jumping contest in Springfield, South Carolina; it's Flatt and Scruggs in a thrilling performance at histori

200 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1983

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of fiction and nonfiction by a writer whose stories about Columbia I love. I also liked his nonfiction pieces on Satchel Paige and attended the Iowa State Fair. He obviously loved golf, fishing, and country music. I don't think I met him while I was at USC, but I sure wish I had. I look forward to reading some of his other books, especially Southern Fried.

[Fred R · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Price Fox is the redneck answer to P. G. Woodhouse, a revelation that came to me as I read his golf story “Charleston’s Oldest Foursome”, an epic in miniature that would stand comparison with any of the master’s epics of The Links.
Also, his accounts of life closer to the trailer park end of things seem pretty damn authentic.