In Memory of Junior [Paperback]

Clyde. Edgerton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: CHAPEL HILL: ALGONQUIN BOOKS, 1992; First Edition edition (1992)
• ASIN: B000V92V34
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dreary and Dry, May 26, 2004

By 

"trwprid" (Durham, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Memory of Junior (Paperback)

My relationship with Edgerton's books is usually hit or miss. I keep going back and reading more of them because a) I have a fierce loyalty to North Carolina writers, and b) I really enjoyed _Walking Across Egypt_ and _Killer Diller_.

That said, I must confess that I really disliked _In Memory of Junior_. ["Hate" is such a strong word and I shall reserve it for a book that really makes me grind my teeth in disgust.]

This, as well as other Edgerton books, are marked as being humorous. I found nothing to laugh at in this work. While _Lunch at the Piccadilly_ was lighthearted in its handling of old age and the inevitability of death, I found _Junior_ almost tacky.

I didn't bond with any of the characters,so I won't bother picking them out here. They all seemed ridiculously shallow and so poorly expounded upon that they seemed to be almost afterthoughts in the writing process.

For once, this Edgerton title has a conclusive ending, however by the time I got to it, I really didn't care. Making it to the ending was a real accomplishment.

The humor in this book is almost sterile compared to the gut-busting bawdiness of _Egypt_ and _Killer Diller_, and honestly, I miss that.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Down home fun!, September 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: In Memory of Junior (Hardcover)

Twisted- my one word description of the author, Clyde Edgerton. He's a Dave Barry from the deep south. Just when you think you've figured out the plot, he adds a new twist to the story. Did you ever think you'd see a pink tombstone? Or a circular runway? And who would ever think to steal a grave...not the stone, but the spot. Great reading!

4.0 out of 5 stars Graveyard Humor, December 16, 2010

By 

Sam Sattler (Spring, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Memory of Junior (Paperback)

For many readers, there is something particularly appealing about comic novels set in the South. Perhaps it goes back to their exposure as young readers to the classic novels of Mark Twain. It might even be that they see a little of themselves and their families in the plots of these novels. Are comic Southern novels, after all, as popular elsewhere as they are in the very part of the country in which they are set? I have to doubt it.

Clyde Edgerton's nine novels are filled with quirky characters so busy living life according to their own rules and traditions that they seldom stop to consider what the rest of the world might think of them and their efforts. His books are, at times, laugh-out-loud funny, but his humor is more often of the type that makes you smile at the antics of his characters as they navigate their way through Edgerton's rather eccentric plotlines.

In Memory of Junior is no exception. Although I had read six other Edgerton novels, I was unfamiliar with this seventeen-year-old novel (1993) prior to discovering a pristine first edition copy of it in a local used-book bookstore. I figured I would enjoy the story and, despite an overabundance of characters (15-20 main and secondary characters) in such a small book, I was correct.

Brothers Faison and Tate Bales were deserted by their mother when Tate was just a toddler. Glenn, their father, eventually remarried and gave his boys a half-sister by the name of Faye. Now, Glenn Bates and Laura, his second wife, seem to be in a contest to see which one of them will die first, a contest that will determine the immediate futures of Faison, Tate, and Faye. If Glenn dies first, the family farm passes to Laura and, eventually, to Faye. If Laura dies first, the farm and the valuable land on which it sits passes to Glenn and, finally, to his sons. The Bales find themselves involved in one of the most bizarre death watches imaginable since it seems that both the elder Bales could die at any moment.

The real fun of In Memory of Junior comes from Edgerton's use of several first-person narrators to tell the family's story, both past and present. These narrators range from the old black housekeeper who has made a career of caring for old white people before they die, to Uncle Grove, a Bales family outcast because he is the brother of Glenn's runaway, first wife. Along the way, readers will watch as Uncle Grove tries to wrangle a spot for himself in the family cemetery, Faison and his ex-wife fight about what name should appear on her young son's tombstone, and as Tate's teenaged son surprisingly bonds with Grove.

If you are not offended by graveyard humor, this one is great fun. I will warn you, too, that if you want to keep up with the story, you need to pay particular attention to the family tree Edgerton provides at the front of the book for your reference. It is difficult enough to keep up with twenty or so characters even with the tree, impossible to do so without it.

Rated at: 3.5