KILLER DILLER. [Paperback]

Clyde. Edgerton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: CHAPEL HILL: ALGONQUIN BOOKS. 1991; Advance reading copy. edition (1991)
• ASIN: B000U2DKAK
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Clyde Edgerton is the author of ten novels, a memoir, short stories, and essays. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and teaches creative writing at UNC Wilmington. He lives in Wilmington, NC, with his wife, Kristina, and their children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sequel Outshines the Original, January 4, 2004

By 

"naceywright" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer Diller (Hardcover)

Eight years after the events of Walking Across Egypt, Edgerton resumes the story of now twenty-four-year-old Wesley Benfield, ex-con resident of a Baptist halfway house called BOTA (Back On Track Again). This sequel does what few sequels can: it outshines the original. I frequently laughed out loud and near the end, I was moved almost to tears. Edgerton is a Christian who can respectfully mine the foibles and humor of organized religion, specifically of his fellow Baptists, and more specifically of the men running Baptist colleges. The pompous Sears twins, Ted and Ned, are brilliantly drawn in their endless fund-raising and insensitivity to the genuinely disadvantaged. I was so pleased to find out that Mattie Rigsby was still alive at age 86, and that Wesley had promise despite his rocky start. As in Walking Across Egypt, though, Edgerton leaves us with a less than satisfying conclusion. Will Mattie be able to resume taking care of herself? Will Wesley end up back in jail? This time, there's no sequel, at least not yet.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you went to Campbell University..., July 27, 2007

By 

M. MCCRACKEN (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Killer Diller: A Novel (Paperback)

you will enjoy this book. Edgerton taught there and the similarities between the fictional Baptist university and CU are difficult to miss.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty near as good as Mattie's home cookin', June 26, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Killer Diller: A Novel (Paperback)

Personally, I liked Raney and Walking Across Egypt better than this one, but it's still pretty damn good. Wesley , the delinquent sort of adopted by Mrs. Mattie Rigsbee in Walking Across Egypt, is now 24, and still a bit of a handful. He's a resident in a Christian halfway house in rural North Carolina. There's a love interest, a band, and there's Vernon, who 'bout steals the show when he appears on the page. And of course Mattie herself, who is older still but still cooking up a storm.
Good story, great author; sequel to follow, surely.