Once upon a beach ...
Southern authors draw me in with their warm sunny settings—sandy beaches, marshes lined with live oak trees draped in Spanish moss. And pluff mud.
"Huh? What is pluff mud?"
Busted. You're not from around here, are you?
But you've heard of Pat Conroy, right? Margaret Mitchel? Harper Lee? We reveal much about ourselves when we share who our favorite author, or what our favorite book is.
Pat Conroy was a southern native from South Carolina. His last residence was in Beaufort—my husband's favorite coastal town. From time to time, David and I fantasize about retiring there—his emphasis is on Beaufort, mine is on retirement.
In some sense, I regret that I never met Pat Conroy. Although, I feel as if we have met through his memoir. A couple of years ago, I purchased Conroy's book, "The Death of Santini." To my disappointment at the time, I was not anticipating memoirs. I was itching for one of Conroy's salty southern stories. I laid down "The Death of Santini" and moved on.
Recently, I switched from another book that wasn't scratching my itch back to "The Death of Santini." Pat Conroy has a legacy in Beaufort, South Carolina and I'm ready to get better acquainted with the person and the place.
In his memoir, Conroy uncovered family secrets. I won't call them dysfunctional; clearly, they learned to function in spite of unenviable parentage. In Leo Tolstoy's novel, Anna Karenina, he aptly notes, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Happy family? Conroy balked at the idea. "The happy family is one of the treasured romances of the American epic ... ." He was convinced if you turned him loose at a family wedding or funeral, he would discover the family "crazy."
Beyond Conroy, who is my favorite author? I admit a tendency to love the one I'm with—books, that is. Or, as Amy Tan prefers, "writer" rather than "author."
Although he never wrote a novel, Wil Corley might be my favorite writer. Wil wrote prolifically about two of my favorite subjects: horticulture and gardening. We shared an affinity for ornamental grasses. He worked at the Extension Service in Griffin, Georgia as a researcher. Among many other responsibilities, he also managed the horticultural display garden in Griffin.
What about everyday storytellers? Certainly, they are the most accessible. "Images inched into focus as Carolyn pried open her eyes. She catches her breath and pretends to know which end is up. 'Where am I? What time is it? Where did everyone go? Ahh, yes, I'm stretched out on a psychedelic beach blanket. It's the Emerald Coast. I'm on island time. Right. I must have dozed off reading "Beach Music" ... .'"
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