"Raney"
(Reviewed by Judi Clark APR 19, 1998)
I was looking for Edgerton's book Walking Across Egypt when I ran across Raney and decided to give it a try. I read it one Sunday afternoon, and chuckled over it all the next day. I think I quoted half the book to my sister Lori. (And then she read it and quoted it back to me!)
It's the story of a "modern" Southern woman who is a member of the Free Will Baptist church and her marriage to a liberal well educated, Episcopalian man named Charles. After their marriage they reside in Listre, North Carolina not too far from her parents. (Many of Edgerton's books take place in Listre.) Between the comic scenes, Edgerton makes the point that marriages are marriages of two families and not just two people and he succeeds marvelously in showing the compromises. I have a really hard time believing that this book was written by a man, Raney's voice just seems too true.
- Amazon.com
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Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)
- Raney (1985)
- Walking Across Egypt (1987)
- Killer Diller (1991)
- In Memory of Junior (1992)
- The Floatplane Notebooks (1993)
- Redeye- A Western (1995)
- Where Trouble Sleeps (1997)
- Lunch at the Piccadilly (September 2003)
Nonfiction:
- Solo: My Advetures in the Air (September 2005)
Movies from Books:
- Walking Across Egypt (1999)
- Killer Diller (2006)
Theater from Books:
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Book Marks:
- Official website for Clyde Edgerton
- Columbia Magazine Online review of Where Trouble Sleeps
- Readers Guide for Lunch at the Piccadilly
- BookPage review of Lunch at the Piccadilly
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About the Author:
Clyde
Edgerton was born in Bethesda, North Carolina, a small community in east
Durham County in 1944. He served as an Air Force pilot during the Vietnam
War and later attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
earning an English education degree. The plot of Raney, revolving around
the marriage of a Free Will Baptist and an Episcopalian, led to Edgerton's
leaving the teaching staff at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North
Carolina (a Baptist institution). He later taught at St. Andrew's
College in Laruinburg, North Carolina.
Also a musician, Edgerton, with his wife Susan Ketchin, is a founding member of the The Tarwater Band and is currently playing with the Ranks Strangers Band.
