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September, September
In September 1957 the South is mesmerized by events in Little Rock, Arkansas, whose governor has called out the National Guard as part of his attempt to halt the integration of Central High School. And in Memphis, two white men and a white woman are planning to capitalize on the confrontation between the races by kidnapping the grandson of a wealthy black entrepreneur and pinning the crime on white supremacists. The problem is that Podjo, Rufus, and Reeny have only an amateur's understanding of what a kidnapping entails -- and a total, terrifying incomprehension of their victims.
In September September a magisterial historian of the Civil War charts its distant repercussions in the streets of the contemporary South. By turns wryly comic, ribald, and chilling, Shelby Foote's novel is at once a convincing thriller and a powerful tragicomedy of race.
September September has been adapted by Larry McMurtry for the Turner Network Television film Memphis, starring Cybill Shepherd.
In September September a magisterial historian of the Civil War charts its distant repercussions in the streets of the contemporary South. By turns wryly comic, ribald, and chilling, Shelby Foote's novel is at once a convincing thriller and a powerful tragicomedy of race.
September September has been adapted by Larry McMurtry for the Turner Network Television film Memphis, starring Cybill Shepherd.
302 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
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188 people want to read
About the author
Shelby Foote
119 books682 followersShelby Dade Foote, Jr. was an American novelist and a noted historian of the American Civil War, writing a massive, three-volume history of the war entitled The Civil War: A Narrative. With geographic and cultural roots in the Mississippi Delta, Foote's life and writing paralleled the radical shift from the agrarian planter system of the Old South to the Civil Rights era of the New South. Foote was relatively unknown to the general public for most of his career until his appearance in Ken Burns's PBS documentary The Civil War in 1990, where he introduced a generation of Americans to a war that he believed was "central to all our lives."
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
September 2, 2022
September 1957 was a difficult and tense month across the American South. It was the month in which Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus activated his state's National Guard to prevent nine African American students from integrating Central High School in Little Rock; by the end of the month, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had deployed the U.S. Army’s famed 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to ensure that those nine black students would be able to attend Central High. Against that backdrop of racial tension, Shelby Foote’s 1978 novel September, September takes place.
Today, the Mississippi-born Foote is probably better-known as an historian than as a novelist. His three-volume, 2,968-page The Civil War: A History (1958-74), written in emulation of Herodotus’ The Histories, is still one of the best-known and best-loved histories of the American Civil War; and when documentary filmmaker Ken Burns sought out Foote as an on-screen commentator for Burns’s documentary The Civil War (1990), Foote achieved a degree of fame that had never been his as a novelist. With the musicality of his Southern cadences, his melancholy way of describing wartime events as if he had witnessed them personally – even his gray-bearded appearance that made him look rather like a Confederate veteran – Foote was a compelling commentator.
But Shelby Foote originally wanted to make his mark as a novelist; and as September, September reminds us, Shelby Foote was a fine novelist as well as a great Civil War historian. While set in September 1957, at the time of the Crisis at Central High, September, September has nothing to do with Little Rock, except that three of the main characters are hoping to use the tension generated by the Little Rock crisis as cover for a kidnapping that they plan to carry out.
Their names are Podjo Harris, Rufus Hutton, and Reeny Perdew, and as the novel begins they are making their way north from the Mississippi Delta toward Memphis. Their plan, such as it is, is to kidnap Teddy, the son of eminent African American businessman Eben Kinship, and lead all involved to assume that the kidnapping has been carried out by racists opposed to civil-rights reform.
Teddy’s sister, present when the three kidnappers take Teddy away, speaks to the depth of pre-Civil Rights Era Southern segregation when she reflects that “Some people had taken Teddy – white people, and she knew next to nothing of white people except to see them on the street – perhaps as an extension of the punishment he had received from old Miss Pitkin for letting Juny Partridge talk to him in class” (p. 98).
Once the kidnappers have committed the kidnapping, differences develop in their attitudes toward the child Teddy, and toward each other; Reeny in particular develops a motherly attachment toward the kidnapped Teddy, and comes to respect him as “a brave little boy” (p. 250). The kidnappers seem to think that they are being terribly clever about their crime, as when Podjo and Rufus direct Eben to a false drop of the ransom money, telling him, “[W]e’re not trying to devil you. What the hell. We just want to make sure youre not up to anything spooky, like bringing in the cops or some private muscle” (p. 200). Yet it should be no wonder that the plan goes awry, with deadly consequences for one of the kidnappers – whose epitaph turns out to be, “If what he wanted was to go out in blaze of glory, he sure managed it in style” (p. 301) – and a total unraveling of the elaborate easy-money plans that all three of them made.
The influence of fellow Mississippian William Faulkner looms large in Foote’s work; indeed, Faulkner himself once said of Foote that “Foote shows promise, if he'll just stop trying to write Faulkner, and will write some Shelby Foote.” As Faulkner invented his own Mississippi county of Yoknapatawpha, and set many of his novels and short stories there, so Foote created his own Jordan County, Mississippi, and situated a number of fictional works there, including Follow Me Down (1950), Love in a Dry Season (1951), and Jordan County (1954). As Faulkner crafted a Civil War narrative, The Unvanquished (1938), so Foote wrote his own Civil War novel, Shiloh (1952), a realistic recreation of the titanic April 1862 battle in West Tennessee.
The Faulknerian influence shows in Foote’s adoption of the perspective of various characters from the novel, who spend entire chapters of September, September speaking for themselves, in first person, in a manner reminiscent of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying (1930) -- as when Podjo, observing the self-destructive quality of Rufus’s criminality, remarks that “Sooner or later he’d get what he was running toward, and that was what made him scary, especially now that the crime was far from petty. If there was any way to screw up he’d find it; he’d head for Parchman [Mississippi’s prison farm]…like a pigeon winging homeward to its roost” (p. 50). Similarly, Eben’s wife Martha reflects that “Most everything I was, and am, came from getting my daddy’s looks and not my mama’s. If I’d been born willowy like her, high-nosed and light of skin, instead of squat and froggy, dark like him, I wouldn’t have had to spend so much time rising above my appearance” (p. 150). Over the course of the novel, readers hear the first-person perspectives of Podjo, Eben, Rufus, Reeny, and Martha; and all of it blends reasonably well with the main action of the novel.
September, September, which is noteworthy as the last work of fiction that Foote completed after writing The Civil War: A Narrative, turns out to be a well-crafted novel in which Foote develops his characters effectively and evokes the story’s time and place well. If the story sounds familiar to some readers, that may be because September, September was adapted in 1992 as a TV-movie titled Memphis, with Cybill Shepherd as Reeny, and a screenplay by Texas novelist Larry McMurtry. Foote’s work as a novelist is not going to make readers forget his work as a Civil War historian; but writing on this September morning, I reflect that September, September shows the extent to which Shelby Foote’s oft-overlooked novels deserve to be read and appreciated.
Today, the Mississippi-born Foote is probably better-known as an historian than as a novelist. His three-volume, 2,968-page The Civil War: A History (1958-74), written in emulation of Herodotus’ The Histories, is still one of the best-known and best-loved histories of the American Civil War; and when documentary filmmaker Ken Burns sought out Foote as an on-screen commentator for Burns’s documentary The Civil War (1990), Foote achieved a degree of fame that had never been his as a novelist. With the musicality of his Southern cadences, his melancholy way of describing wartime events as if he had witnessed them personally – even his gray-bearded appearance that made him look rather like a Confederate veteran – Foote was a compelling commentator.
But Shelby Foote originally wanted to make his mark as a novelist; and as September, September reminds us, Shelby Foote was a fine novelist as well as a great Civil War historian. While set in September 1957, at the time of the Crisis at Central High, September, September has nothing to do with Little Rock, except that three of the main characters are hoping to use the tension generated by the Little Rock crisis as cover for a kidnapping that they plan to carry out.
Their names are Podjo Harris, Rufus Hutton, and Reeny Perdew, and as the novel begins they are making their way north from the Mississippi Delta toward Memphis. Their plan, such as it is, is to kidnap Teddy, the son of eminent African American businessman Eben Kinship, and lead all involved to assume that the kidnapping has been carried out by racists opposed to civil-rights reform.
Teddy’s sister, present when the three kidnappers take Teddy away, speaks to the depth of pre-Civil Rights Era Southern segregation when she reflects that “Some people had taken Teddy – white people, and she knew next to nothing of white people except to see them on the street – perhaps as an extension of the punishment he had received from old Miss Pitkin for letting Juny Partridge talk to him in class” (p. 98).
Once the kidnappers have committed the kidnapping, differences develop in their attitudes toward the child Teddy, and toward each other; Reeny in particular develops a motherly attachment toward the kidnapped Teddy, and comes to respect him as “a brave little boy” (p. 250). The kidnappers seem to think that they are being terribly clever about their crime, as when Podjo and Rufus direct Eben to a false drop of the ransom money, telling him, “[W]e’re not trying to devil you. What the hell. We just want to make sure youre not up to anything spooky, like bringing in the cops or some private muscle” (p. 200). Yet it should be no wonder that the plan goes awry, with deadly consequences for one of the kidnappers – whose epitaph turns out to be, “If what he wanted was to go out in blaze of glory, he sure managed it in style” (p. 301) – and a total unraveling of the elaborate easy-money plans that all three of them made.
The influence of fellow Mississippian William Faulkner looms large in Foote’s work; indeed, Faulkner himself once said of Foote that “Foote shows promise, if he'll just stop trying to write Faulkner, and will write some Shelby Foote.” As Faulkner invented his own Mississippi county of Yoknapatawpha, and set many of his novels and short stories there, so Foote created his own Jordan County, Mississippi, and situated a number of fictional works there, including Follow Me Down (1950), Love in a Dry Season (1951), and Jordan County (1954). As Faulkner crafted a Civil War narrative, The Unvanquished (1938), so Foote wrote his own Civil War novel, Shiloh (1952), a realistic recreation of the titanic April 1862 battle in West Tennessee.
The Faulknerian influence shows in Foote’s adoption of the perspective of various characters from the novel, who spend entire chapters of September, September speaking for themselves, in first person, in a manner reminiscent of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying (1930) -- as when Podjo, observing the self-destructive quality of Rufus’s criminality, remarks that “Sooner or later he’d get what he was running toward, and that was what made him scary, especially now that the crime was far from petty. If there was any way to screw up he’d find it; he’d head for Parchman [Mississippi’s prison farm]…like a pigeon winging homeward to its roost” (p. 50). Similarly, Eben’s wife Martha reflects that “Most everything I was, and am, came from getting my daddy’s looks and not my mama’s. If I’d been born willowy like her, high-nosed and light of skin, instead of squat and froggy, dark like him, I wouldn’t have had to spend so much time rising above my appearance” (p. 150). Over the course of the novel, readers hear the first-person perspectives of Podjo, Eben, Rufus, Reeny, and Martha; and all of it blends reasonably well with the main action of the novel.
September, September, which is noteworthy as the last work of fiction that Foote completed after writing The Civil War: A Narrative, turns out to be a well-crafted novel in which Foote develops his characters effectively and evokes the story’s time and place well. If the story sounds familiar to some readers, that may be because September, September was adapted in 1992 as a TV-movie titled Memphis, with Cybill Shepherd as Reeny, and a screenplay by Texas novelist Larry McMurtry. Foote’s work as a novelist is not going to make readers forget his work as a Civil War historian; but writing on this September morning, I reflect that September, September shows the extent to which Shelby Foote’s oft-overlooked novels deserve to be read and appreciated.
April 13, 2014
Shelby Foote is now one of my favorite authors. I discovered him through watching Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War and found one of his books for sale at a Goodwill in Texas. He's obscure and probably one of the best authors you have never or barely heard of.
I enjoyed Foote's ability in this novel to focus on the characters and the intimacies of their flaws and personalities. He reveals his grasp of the human condition very well in this book.
I look forward to reading more by him.
I enjoyed Foote's ability in this novel to focus on the characters and the intimacies of their flaws and personalities. He reveals his grasp of the human condition very well in this book.
I look forward to reading more by him.
April 16, 2020
Septembre 1957 est une date importante de la lutte des Afro Américains pour les droits civiques : alors que le président Eisenhower a statué pour l’intégration des Noirs dans les écoles jusqu’alors réservées aux Blancs, le gouverneur de l’Arkansas, ségrégationniste, s’oppose à l’intégration de neuf élèves noirs au Lycée de Little Rock. Ces événements déclenchent de sévères émeutes raciales. C’est dans ce contexte agité que trois malfrats décident d’enlever un petit garçon de 8 ans, Teddy, issu d’une famille de la bourgeoisie noire de Memphis, contre rançon…
Dans cet excellent roman noir, Shelby Foote, grand auteur et historien du Sud, mêle fiction et grande Histoire, avec brio. Les trois malfrats comptent sur les émeutes raciales pour brouiller les pistes, et parient sur le peu de motivation de la police de Memphis pour retrouver les ravisseurs d’un enfant noir.
Le temps est comme ralenti dans cette maison de Memphis louée pour l’occasion par le trio, composé de deux hommes et une femme. L’action s’étale lentement sur la durée du roman, et pourtant on ne parvient pas à le lâcher sans savoir comment va se terminer l’histoire du petit Teddy. Si l’action est lente, l’alternance des points de vue entre les ravisseurs et la famille de Teddy procure beaucoup de dynamisme et de tension à la lecture. Le lecteur s’effraie de voir la tension monter entre les malfrats au fil de la réclusion du petit garçon.
Shelby Foote déploie tout son talent dans ce roman : l’élégance de l’écriture, l’évocation du contexte historique, la description de la psychologie des personnages, tout est parfait.
Encore un excellent titre de La Noire chez Gallimard, relancée il y a un an par Marie-Caroline Aubert.
Dans cet excellent roman noir, Shelby Foote, grand auteur et historien du Sud, mêle fiction et grande Histoire, avec brio. Les trois malfrats comptent sur les émeutes raciales pour brouiller les pistes, et parient sur le peu de motivation de la police de Memphis pour retrouver les ravisseurs d’un enfant noir.
Le temps est comme ralenti dans cette maison de Memphis louée pour l’occasion par le trio, composé de deux hommes et une femme. L’action s’étale lentement sur la durée du roman, et pourtant on ne parvient pas à le lâcher sans savoir comment va se terminer l’histoire du petit Teddy. Si l’action est lente, l’alternance des points de vue entre les ravisseurs et la famille de Teddy procure beaucoup de dynamisme et de tension à la lecture. Le lecteur s’effraie de voir la tension monter entre les malfrats au fil de la réclusion du petit garçon.
Shelby Foote déploie tout son talent dans ce roman : l’élégance de l’écriture, l’évocation du contexte historique, la description de la psychologie des personnages, tout est parfait.
Encore un excellent titre de La Noire chez Gallimard, relancée il y a un an par Marie-Caroline Aubert.
January 11, 2012
I listened to this book on tape. It is long, 12.25 hours.This story is set in 1957 Memphis. The historical backdrop is of the integration of Little Rock Central High 90 miles away in Arkansas. A group of 3 small time white hoods decides to kidnap the child of a well-off black couple. They figure the couple will not call the police because they are black and the kidnappers white. They hold the kid for a week in a house by the banks of the Mississippi River.The story is told through a narrator and also at times through the eyes of the various characters involved. We learn the inner thoughts of both the crooks and the folks whose child was taken. In the audio version of the book, the different characters are narrated by different actors.
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April 13, 2023Shelby Foote can't keep the Faulkner from leaking out of his ears in a few places, but I really really enjoyed this. I thought I was getting an Elmore Leonard-ish comedy of criminal errors but what I actually got was Foote presenting a set of despicable characters and trying to find a way to make you care about them anyway, which is exactly my thing.
"Lies work wonders, properly used... The only rule is don't lie to yourself, except sometimes when it helps."
"Lies work wonders, properly used... The only rule is don't lie to yourself, except sometimes when it helps."
July 10, 2010
low lifes kidnap a black girl in 1950s Arkansas. Wonderful setting and characters
February 21, 2021
Shelby Foote considered himself a novelist. He published fiction before and after his magnum opus: a narrative history of the civil war, twenty years in the making, 1700 pages in three volumes (1958, 1963, and 1974). Fifteen years later, his appearances and voice in Ken Burns’s 1990 PBS film on the civil war elevated him to icon status.
To sample his fiction, I selected September, September (1977) because it was his last published novel and I liked the Memphis setting and the premise: fallen from grace whites, two men and a woman, plan and carry out the kidnapping of a well-to-do black family’s child and blame it on white segregationists. Having just read the collection of Foote’s story-like letters to his long-time friend and writer Walker Percy, I anticipated a great read. I was disappointed. Foote the magisterial historian did not carry over to good fiction; the sine non qua was absent. Below are cites from my research, which I feel corroborates my review and rating.
“There's a young man in Mississippi named Shelby Foote that—that shows promise if he'll just stop trying to write Faulkner and write some Shelby Foote.” William Faulkner question and answer session, UVA Charlottesville, March 11, 1957. https://faulkner.lib.virginia.edu/dis...
“I am what is called a narrative historian.” Histories should be accurate, novels are not so bound, and that is the main difference (second sentence reflects my minor editing). Shelby Foote seminar excerpt, New York State Writers Institute, March 20, 1997. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civ...
“William Faulkner was Foote’s literary idol, and Walker Percy was the friend of his heart, but it was Robert Penn Warren who may have done the most to elevate Foote,” in a phone call from Ken Burns, whose epic PBS film which debuted in 1990 relied heavily on Foote’s voice, and by the time of his death in Memphis in 2005, was one of most iconic American writers (reflects my minor editing). Shelby Foote’s War Story, How a Memphis novelist’s history of the Civil War made history itself, by Jon Meacham, Garden and Gun, April/May 2011 issue. https://gardenandgun.com/articles/she...
To sample his fiction, I selected September, September (1977) because it was his last published novel and I liked the Memphis setting and the premise: fallen from grace whites, two men and a woman, plan and carry out the kidnapping of a well-to-do black family’s child and blame it on white segregationists. Having just read the collection of Foote’s story-like letters to his long-time friend and writer Walker Percy, I anticipated a great read. I was disappointed. Foote the magisterial historian did not carry over to good fiction; the sine non qua was absent. Below are cites from my research, which I feel corroborates my review and rating.
“There's a young man in Mississippi named Shelby Foote that—that shows promise if he'll just stop trying to write Faulkner and write some Shelby Foote.” William Faulkner question and answer session, UVA Charlottesville, March 11, 1957. https://faulkner.lib.virginia.edu/dis...
“I am what is called a narrative historian.” Histories should be accurate, novels are not so bound, and that is the main difference (second sentence reflects my minor editing). Shelby Foote seminar excerpt, New York State Writers Institute, March 20, 1997. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civ...
“William Faulkner was Foote’s literary idol, and Walker Percy was the friend of his heart, but it was Robert Penn Warren who may have done the most to elevate Foote,” in a phone call from Ken Burns, whose epic PBS film which debuted in 1990 relied heavily on Foote’s voice, and by the time of his death in Memphis in 2005, was one of most iconic American writers (reflects my minor editing). Shelby Foote’s War Story, How a Memphis novelist’s history of the Civil War made history itself, by Jon Meacham, Garden and Gun, April/May 2011 issue. https://gardenandgun.com/articles/she...
September 24, 2023
I’ve read Shiloh and the Civil War narrative. He’s one of my favorite authors. This book was good but this is the first non-Civil War book of his I’ve read. It was a tough read in some ways. It dragged a bit and I found myself slogging through at times. I did like his method of character development and his portrayal of the late 1950’s Southern issues. Attempts to keep blacks from integrating into all white schools and how the whites made the rules and the whites enforce the rules. The by product of the failed post Civil War reconstruction era. Rufus, Podjo and Reeny (the “girlfriend” of Rufus) are three white people looking for a quick score and their plan is to kidnap the grandson of a rich black man, hoping the civil unrest in Arkansas will direct attention away from them. Playing on the fears of the blacks fear of the KKK, Rufus uses that as a ruse to get the money. Mean while, the black family gathers the money. All the while Reeny develops a motherly bond with the kidnapped child while tension build between Rufus and Podjo. Mostly due to Reeny offering herself to Podjo. With the money delivered and the child safely returned, the tension between the two men reaches the boiling point. The ending of the book is a bit if a surprise. If you’re a Shelby Foote fan, I’m sure you’ll like the book.
March 27, 2018
If you're like me, you remember Shelby Foote as the bearded historian who enhanced Ken Burns The Civil War with his knowledgeable commentary and Southern charm. When I discovered he was a published author, I was interested to read one of his books.
September, September was actually a little shocking for me. I expected it to be more of historical fiction novel, with Foote's gentlemanly vernacular entertaining me as the story unfolded. What I found was a gritty crime drama that happened to take place in 1957 Memphis. The story is about the kidnapping of a black child from a well-to-do family. It was very good, don't get me wrong, but there was no trace of the Southern gentleman in the writing.
September, September was actually a little shocking for me. I expected it to be more of historical fiction novel, with Foote's gentlemanly vernacular entertaining me as the story unfolded. What I found was a gritty crime drama that happened to take place in 1957 Memphis. The story is about the kidnapping of a black child from a well-to-do family. It was very good, don't get me wrong, but there was no trace of the Southern gentleman in the writing.
June 27, 2025
J'ai lu la version française.
Bonne intrigue. L'action se passe dans le cadre d'un contexte historique, toujours intéressant à mes yeux. Des truands imparfait, la préparation d'un coup... et on sent que ça va foirer.
Bonne intrigue. L'action se passe dans le cadre d'un contexte historique, toujours intéressant à mes yeux. Des truands imparfait, la préparation d'un coup... et on sent que ça va foirer.
January 28, 2018
Read because of Memphis locale but sex, kidnapping, race relations and vulgar language did not appeal to me tho there's no doubt that Foote is a talented writer. I skipped over parts.
April 4, 2012
Sex and kidnapping in 1957 Memphis
Shelby Foote is most famous for his massive history of the Civil War (The Civil War: A Narrative), but he was also an author of fiction. I have read several of them and they mostly qualify as Southern gothic - moody, dark and full of tragedy. September September fits that description perfectly, although it takes place later than his other novels.
Set against the backdrop of the racial integration of Little Rock Central High School in September of 1957, the novel features two white men and a white woman who kidnap the grandson of a wealthy black Memphis businessman. They use the Little Rock incident as their cover to blame the kidnapping on racial strife when it is really a brazen attempt to get $60,000 from a man who will not expect much cooperation from the police.
The problem is summed up in a line from one of the kidnappers: "Truth is, we're not very smart, those of us who go in for crime." A sexual triangle forms between the three kidnappers. Anger and jealousy start to take precedence over "the plan" with tragic results...
Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/...
Shelby Foote is most famous for his massive history of the Civil War (The Civil War: A Narrative), but he was also an author of fiction. I have read several of them and they mostly qualify as Southern gothic - moody, dark and full of tragedy. September September fits that description perfectly, although it takes place later than his other novels.
Set against the backdrop of the racial integration of Little Rock Central High School in September of 1957, the novel features two white men and a white woman who kidnap the grandson of a wealthy black Memphis businessman. They use the Little Rock incident as their cover to blame the kidnapping on racial strife when it is really a brazen attempt to get $60,000 from a man who will not expect much cooperation from the police.
The problem is summed up in a line from one of the kidnappers: "Truth is, we're not very smart, those of us who go in for crime." A sexual triangle forms between the three kidnappers. Anger and jealousy start to take precedence over "the plan" with tragic results...
Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/...
January 21, 2024
Set in 1950s Memphis, an inept gang of youthful white ne'er do wells decide to kidnap the grandson of a scion of the black community. This was later made into a pretty decent film adaptation. The film may be easier on the senses than the novel.
Quite a bit of time is spent on the back story of the victim's family. Some of what has stuck with me are the novel's descriptions of black people's blackness expressed in some pretty broad strokes.
I have always loved Shelby Foote, and I know he comes from a different generation. But I cannot see some of the same prose being used to describe African Americans in a novel today.
Quite a bit of time is spent on the back story of the victim's family. Some of what has stuck with me are the novel's descriptions of black people's blackness expressed in some pretty broad strokes.
I have always loved Shelby Foote, and I know he comes from a different generation. But I cannot see some of the same prose being used to describe African Americans in a novel today.
June 5, 2011
Shelby Foote's smashing return to the novel form after 24 years (a little thing like the 3,000-page "The Civil War: A Narrative" filling the gap) still looks to the past. Three white people kidnap a black child of wealthy stock during the September 1957 integration in Little Rock, Ark. "September September" was my first Foote fiction; I was impressed. Really strong writing here. Alas, it was to be his last.
November 28, 2015
This is an interesting novel from Shelby Foote. He very skillfully uses the story and it's characters as means of presenting and commenting on the social structure of the South (in this case Memphis and Little Rock are the microcosms) in the late 1950's, with the story set in 1957. In my opinion, this is not a thing one often finds artfully accomplished in a work of fiction, but Mr. Foote certainly succeeds.
August 10, 2010
In this great work of fiction the famous Civil War historian captures the social mood of 1957 Memphis, during the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement. Adapted by Larry McMurtry for the television film Memphis.
September 5, 2011
How I love revisiting history through the eyes and experiences of Foote's characters. His stories are important to me because they are genuinely, bona fide southern, peopled with folk who are real and true, whether good or bad.
May 8, 2009
Story about a kidnapping in set in Memphis in the late 1950s. Follows both the kidnappers and the victim's family. Decent writing.
August 4, 2012
Good Read.
January 29, 2013
Undeniably disturbing. Probably true. Irritatingly seedy.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews