Love novels? Love Virginia? Boy, we got some favorite books for you!
Virginian literature is considered unique in American and Southern literature canon. Virginian literature was influenced in its early years by the English establishment of the Jamestown Colony in 1607 in the Chesapeake Bay area. Literature of the region was later characterized by the Antebellum period, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction Era, and later on the 20th century. Just like with Southern literature, other Americans have a grudge and bias against Virginian literature. This is one of the reasons why most of the books are mostly under-the-radar.
To define what is Virginian literature, the book's author must be truly born and raised in the Commonwealth of Virginia (Edgar Allan Poe doesn't count) and the book must be set there. Any Virginian author born in now present-day West Virginia before 1863 is considered canon. Most of these books deal with mature thematic material and complex themes such as family, religion, poverty, corruption, Virginian culture, culture clashes between Americans and Southerners, etc. The original "American Dream" began in Virginia, a place of unparallel wonder. The visionary landscape of the commonwealth drew inspiration to many Virginian authors and continues today despite the "dream" being dead.
This is our list of the best literature from Virginia.
William Styron
Published in 1951, The novel is about the dysfunctional Virginian Loftis family. It centers on the funeral of Peyton Loftis, one of the daughters, with previous events told in flashbacks by the other characters. The Loftis family members are waiting for the coffin of their daughter Peyton. The novel goes back in time through flashbacks and recollections uncovering truths and events leading to Peyton's suicide. Lie Down In Darkness is a post-modernist novel, a post-war account of the human state, an age of alienation, decay and meaninglessness. Neither society nor family nor religion nor emancipation nor ethics are able to save Peyton from an inevitable death.
This book is a lot of things: arduous, painstaking, sad, disgusting, loving, enchanting, sweeping, graphic, and vague. All in all, a powerful read, if you can stand it and handle its mature themes.
Earl Hamner Jr.
Published in 1961, Spencer's Mountain is the story about a rural Virginian family in the Blue Ridge Mountains, rich in core values but poor in actual cash, and their efforts to get see that the oldest child is able to attend college during the 1930's depression. Although the boy has the desire, the abilities and the drive, the funds are the key sticking point. The Father, Clay Spencer, is determined to see that all his children do better than he did, not just by completing high school but perhaps even going farther. Clay is bigger than life, and his sayings, stories, curses and habits fill the book, but his oldest son's dreams permeate every quiet moment, and lay the groundwork for the family future.
This was Earl Hamner's second novel, which he based on his own childhood in Schuyler, Virginia; he named the novel after his paternal grandmother Susan Henry Spencer Hamner. This book also provided the basis for the popular TV show, "The Waltons" (named after another family member), although adult themes were toned-down for television. The show was filmed in California and that's why the Blue Ridge mountains are so different (and inaccurate) in the show. A film adaption called Spencer's Mountain starring Henry Fonda, made some changes from the book, instead of taking place in 1930's Virginia, it takes place in 1960's Wyoming.
Readers who can distance themselves from the rigors of fast-paced thrillers or superficial pieces of fiction will enjoy this tale that warms the heart and brings a tear to the eye at the same time.
Earl Hamner Jr.
Published in 1970, this is the short-novel sequel to Spencer's Mountain. When Clay Spencer fails to arrive home at the expected hour on Christmas Eve of 1933, his family grows concerned. While his seven brothers and sisters and his mother keep vigil the older son, Clay-boy, goes in search of his father. But on his journey through the snowbound Virginia hills, the boy experiences a series of hazardous, touching and hilarious adventures. With twists and turns, the author provides a surprising climax to the story, and in a single moment illuminates the triumph of the human spirit. Rich with life that rings true, filled with nostalgia, laughter and tears, The Homecoming is a warm and wonderful classic of Virginian literature.
It was adapted into a Christmas special for CBS that served as a pilot for The Waltons.
Marta Lockett Avary
A very engrossing personal account of the Civil War through the eyes of a confederate officer's wife, named Nell Grey. Some call it the real life "Gone with the Wind" and most likely served as the inspiration. Nell Grey is a pseudonym adopted to preserve her privacy, and her real name (not to our knowledge) has not ever been revealed.
Married at seventeen at the time and the outbreak of the war, she visited her husband in camp and ventured into American territory in service of the C.S.A. as they travel back and forth to both the American and Confederate borders. Nell is from Norfolk, Virginia's social elite, and her narrative does indeed frequently find her mentioning with Southern celebrities (the Lee family, J.E.B. Stuart, etc.). She was in her late teens during the war, and, apart from fleeing the shelling of Petersburg, had little direct experience of its horrors; the book is relatively sunny and almost cheerful compared with others of the genre.
Myrta Avara was the one to later befriend Nell and wrote her story. She was also the original editor of the famous Mary Chesnut diary, prominently featured in Ken Burn's documentary, The Civil War. A very interesting easy read. This underrated novel shows what life was like for a Confederate wife. It's so different from how we live today.
Donna Andrews
First published in 1999, a sensible Meg Langslow travels to her hometown city of Yorktown, Virginia to plan three weddings.
She's maid of honor at the nuptials of three loved ones--each of whom has dumped the planning in her capable hands. One bride is set on including a Native American herbal purification ceremony, while another wants live peacocks on the law. Only help from the town's drop-dead gorgeous hunk, keeps Meg afloat in a sea of dotty relatives, her family's crazy shenanigans and outrageous neighbors.
And, in whirl of summer parties and picnics, their Southern hospitality is strained to the limit by an offensive newcomer who hints at skeletons in the guests' closets. But it seems this lady has offended one too many when she's found dead in suspicious circumstances, followed by a string of accidents--some fatal. Soon, level-headed Meg's to-do list extends from flower arrangements and bridal registries to catching a killer--before the next catered event is her own funeral...
This cozy mystery is the first book of a long-running Meg Langslow series.
David Baldacci
Precocious twelve-year-old Louisa Mae Cardinal lives in the hectic New York City of 1940 with her family. The Cardinal family were planning to move from New York to California due to money problems, then tragedy strikes after a car accident leaves the father dead and the mother in a catatonic state - and Lou and her younger brother, Oz, must go with their invalid mother to live on their great-grandmother's farm in the Virginia mountains. Suddenly Lou finds herself coming of age in a new landscape, making her first true friend, and experiencing adventures tragic, comic, and audacious. But the forces of greed and justice are about to clash over her new home...and as their struggle is played out in a crowded Virginia courtroom, it will determine the future of two children, an entire town, and the mountains they love.
There are a lot of books which make you feel things- sometimes happy, sad the other times, and much more. Then there are some books which grab you by the scruff, shake all emotions out of you and refill you with a new experience of things which you never felt before. This is one of those books.
This 2001 historical drama novel was very well written; the characters were deep and engaging and the setting beautifully described. This story of hope and triumph of the human spirit will get you hooked to the very end.
The book was adapted into a film in 2013.
Matt Bondurant
Based on the true story of Matt Bondurant's grandfather and two granduncles, "The Wettest County in the World" is a gripping tale of brotherhood, greed, and murder. The Bondurant Boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition and in the years after. Forrest, the eldest brother, is fierce, mythically indestructible, and the consummate businessman; Howard, the middle brother, is an ox of a man besieged by the horrors he witnessed in the Great War; and Jack, the youngest, has a taste for luxury and a dream to get out of Franklin. Driven and haunted, these men forge a business, fall in love, and struggle to stay afloat as they watch their family die, their father's business fail, and the world they know crumble beneath the Depression and drought. White mule, white lightning, firewater, popskull, wild cat, stump whiskey, or rotgut -- whatever you called it, Franklin County was awash in moonshine in the 1920s. When Sherwood Anderson, the journalist and author of "Winesburg, Ohio," was covering a story there, he christened it the "wettest county in the world." In the twilight of his career, Anderson finds himself driving along dusty red roads trying to find the Bondurant brothers, piece together the clues linking them to "The Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy," and break open the silence that shrouds Franklin County.
In vivid, muscular prose, Matt Bondurant brings these men -- their dark deeds, their long silences, their deep desires -- to life. His understanding of the passion, violence, and desperation at the center of this world is both heartbreaking and magnificent.
Adriana Trigiani
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