Customer Reviews

Into the Sound Country: A Carolinian's Coastal Plain

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I received Bland Simpson's "Into the Sound Country" as a gift. I've had it by the bed for my night reading. It's an unlikely book for me to read -- no plot, no tight narrative, no famous folks or... well, it's different.

You walk into it rather slowly. I kept thinking of John Parker quoting White's description of Roanoke Island (site of the "Lost Colony") as "the goodliest land under the cope of heaven."

"I got no respect for a man with judgment like that," Parker said.

Simpson takes on this swamp filled, brackish, mosquito plagued, twisted tree, run-down and Godforsaken part of the world (except for the beaches) that he and his ancestors grew up in, and Suffering Cats! You can't put the book down. You want to go there. Hell, you want to LIVE there. Remarkable.

I read until I couldn't keep awake last night and then for some reason -- perhaps my wife being away baby sitting in Charlottesville -- I woke up this morning a bit! before five and finished the book. Hated for it to end. That kind of book.

Simpson teaches Creative Writing at Chapel Hill. His long ago past was at one time my present, the forties and fifties on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It's a funny book to recommend. Who the hell has time for a book that is so... leisurely. And such good company. I read passages to Jutta. Long passages. That kind of book.

Very quietly in a sort of sneaky way, you get a picture of this guy and his family. Not a bad life. Not bad at all. You'll be glad you got to know him and them. His wife takes pictures. Good ones. You'll like her too.