Customer Reviews

Red Clay, Blue Cadillac: Stories of Twelve Southern Women

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The first tale, Stella: Red Clay, is perhaps the best in the book, following the decades-long obsession of a boy and his father, Buddy and Clayton Hayes, with a B film starlet, Stella Dora Doyle, who marries well and then murders her husband, only to get off because of some legal maneuvering. Years later, after the father, who was a high school classmate of the starlet, dies, the son meets up with the actress- Stella- and discovers the truth behind the murder. It is a well-structured tale, and uses the soap opera machinations inherent in its telling to great effect. Also, the fades in and out to different time periods works well. It won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1997, from the Mystery Writers Of America, and appears in Best Mystery Stories Of The Century.

Marie: Blue Cadillac, originally published in Playboy, does not work nearly so well, as it follows Marie, its blond titular character, and her obsession with Elvis Presley play out as she seduces swindles a gullible would-be suitor: Braxton Cox, who is heading home to Memphis in his Mustang for Thanksgiving. Precious: Winners And Losers follows a divorcee who is troubled over his ex-wife's pending remarriage. Charmain: White Trash Noir is another murder tale that starts off in media res, but is not as good as the first one. It follows a woman who offs her college basketball star husband, and gets sentenced to some time, even though the shooting was really an accident. While the character study of Charmain is strong, the rest of the tale is rather sparsely detailed, and not particularly interesting, as well as too long. Malone does a good job rendering the lead's character and lack of self-esteem. The realistic question of whether Charmain will air her marriage's dirty laundry to save herself from a conviction is what gives the tale a nice tension that lesser tales lack.

Lucy: Maniac Loose follows the lead character after she confronts her dead husband's lover, and attempting to psychically screw her. The lover ends up dying, and Lucy strolls naked through town. Do not be thrown by this description- it's a very good tale. The ending, where Lucy is on trial the same day as a man who shot his wife, who is the maniac of the title, is quite strong:


Testifying over his lawyer's protest that he'd tried to kill his wife and her lover but had `just messed it up', the maniac pleaded guilty. So did Lucy. She admitted she was creating as much of a public disturbance as she could. But unlike the maniac's, her sentence was suspended, and afterwards the whole charge was erased from the record....A few months later, Lucy went to visit the maniac at the state penitentiary. She brought him a huge box of presents from the going-out-of-business sale at The Fun House. They talked for a while, but conversation wasn't easy, despite the fact that Lucy not only felt they had a great deal in common, but that she could have taught him a lot about getting away with murder.

Flonnie: The Rise Of The South And Flonnie Rogers details the life of a bitchy old black woman that might be best described as Miss Jane Pittman with a `tude. It is slight, with some humor, but fairly forgettable. Patty: Love And Other Crimes, at forty-eight pages, is far too long, and another murder tale that is a shadow of the first two. A good five pages is wasted on describing the titular character's past husbands, very little of which is relevant to the tale. Meredith: Fast Love is a simple little romance, as a bumpkin falls for the first woman jogger he has ever seen. It won an O. Henry Award. Angie: The Power is a solid story following a small town clique's obsession with pro baseball and murder theories regarding Marilyn Monroe. Mona: Miss Mona's Bank describes an old woman's talking two bank robbers out of their crime. Betty: A Deer On The Lawn is a rather soulless tale of a woman who gets her wish in getting out of her loveless marriage when her husband dies. Mattie: An Invitation To The Ball is another overly long tale of murder- probably the least affecting tale in the book.

Overall, the book is a sturdy collection, although not particularly quotable. It is not a poetic prose, and not likely to cling to someone's bosom the way many other writers' words do. In a sense, Malone's prose, if a car, is a serviceable beater- not particularly memorable, nor pleasing to look at, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do more often than not, and that is entertain. Does it enlighten? No, no more than most soap operas do. But, there is something refreshing in the best of his unpretentious tales. Perhaps it is called enjoyment?

The Italians have a word for it: "sprezzatura," meaning "the art of effortless mastery." Michael Malone, North Carolina's twenty-first century Prospero has exactly this kind of prestidigitator's touch with the short story form. His collection entitled: "Red Clay, Blue Cadillac" has a natural flow which makes reading it pleasurably easy. Proof of his legerdemain? Presto! Two of these stories garnered national prizes: "Stella, Red Clay" won the Edgar Allen Poe award and "Meredith: Fast Love" the O.Henry laurel.

A notoriously difficult literary form, the short story usually entails a five point structure: 1. situation 2. generating circumstances 3. rising action 4. climax and 5. denouement. Such literary strictures apparently pose no hardship for Malone who, while maintaining his necromancer's panache with narrative, never loses his inventive prowess. His humor and command of southern speak shine. Here, the novelist presents the reader with a dozen distillate vignettes, every conception dazzlingly real.

Each story bears a woman's name and there are as many types as stories: the omnipotent femme fatale, the psychologically abused wife, the easy sexpot, a feisty and unsinkable old African-American... to name only a quarter ot the total. Malone doesn't limit his magician's sleight of hand to the distaff side either; there are fascinating guys too: a good ole boy hunter type personifying bumpkinhood, a clueless, abusive husband, a slick upper class lawyer, and a harried sports manager. These lists omit many memorable minor characters.

I was delighted when Malone's sleuthing duo, police chief Cuddy Mangum and chief detective Justin Savile whom we know from "Time's Witness" and "Civil Seasons" showed up in the seventh story: "Patty: Love and Other Crimes." A Cahner's Business Information, Inc. critic called this story, "pedestrian." I found it anything but. "Patty" fits the classic pattern snugly; plus it has an ingenious plot, insight into the human psyche, really funny dialogue, and enough twists and surprises to keep the reader happily engaged. Loving Savile, as I do, I was disappointed that Cuddy has more hilarious conversations with "Bubba Percy, the star (in his opinion) reporter for the Hillston Star," than he does with his chief detective.

I always envy those who have yet to succumb to the enchantment of a Malone book for the first time. My initial reading brought Robert Louis Stevenson's appreciative lines to mind: "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be happy as kings." Malone's version of the new south is on target and fits this quotation. I'll betcha it'll prove even more rewarding the second time around.

Postscript: When reading a work so full and varied, surely, one must wonder about the inscrutable interior stratagems involved in the creative process. In the fourth story "Charmain: White Trash Noir" there are four words which may hold subtle clues to the internal windmills turning inside the learned, labyrinthine mind of Michael Malone. Tenuous intimations to be sure, but ones too plain to be coincidence. Charmain's patrician young lawyer's name is Tilden Snow and his ancestral home is called "Heaven's Hill." These phrases may jangle, even fibrillate your mindsprings if you have read "The Last Noel," Malone's novel which begins as a rare southern snow is falling. It's memorable heroine's name is Noelle Katherine Tilden and her old southern mansion is known as Heaven's Hill. Mysterioso!

Mr. Malone, I wish you would stick with Cuddy and Justin as they are your finest, in my opinion. The very best story here is Maddie and I wish you had developed her into a full length book. That story was greeeeat. A good mystery, good historical stuff and a good twist in the end although I think I saw it coming. I cannot get enough of Cuddy and Justin so please carry them on into the future. Please????

Malone's skill with prose -- and knowledge of southern women -- are well doemonstrated in this wonderful collection of short stories. While not the stories are not all of the same even level of writing, there is a good range of character types and plot twists to tease and stimulate the imagination. Malone is a good story teller. Some of his lines are memorable -- and quotable. Enjoyed reading it.

I tend to shy away from short stories, but this one is making me reconsider my habit. Michael Malone's red clay, blue cadillac has twelve short stories, and each features a headstrong woman whose story seem to be totally unrelated to the others at the surface. However, more than one woman end up killing their husbands, and in these stories, a good portion of the story explains why she did it, and you will probably sympathize with her! Malone has that writing talent to do so.

One of my favorite stories is "Charmain," one of the many in this book who kill her husband. She is in court and you might think that she was stupid to kill, but after she relates (but not to the court) just how much of a jerk her husband Kyle was, I sided with her.

I loved how in the stories, the narrator is usually a man that is somehow connected to the woman, either as a former/current love interest or a colleague. I have read few stories with that interesting perspective, and I love reading in this new light. The third person narrator is often too distant and the first person narrator (with the first person being the main character, I mean) is good but too common.

Malone also is from the South. So am I, and I love his quips about the lazy Southern life. Example: He briefly comments how it's hard to get the Times paper down here. He hints at the idyllic lifestyle we Southerners have to those who are not familiar with it and also to those who live the lifestyle but often do not realize it (while reading this book I realized just how slow it really can be in Georgia). Malone, with his style of writing, made me embrace my Southern heritage because it's so different from the rest of the United States, especially the North (he contrasts the North and South sometimes, which did make me feel grateful for some aspects of the South).

Not everyone's husbands die. Some end up married happily ever after. Others are not married. One woman got married five times. There are so many different women in red clay, blue cadillac. I will admit, some of the stories are okay at best but as a whole, the intriguing stories come together for a fabulous read. I read very few Southern authors' works, and after reading this work, I'm definitely considering reading more! That, and short stories.

Although I'm not prone to reading short stories, anything by author Michael Malone is usually priceless. This collection is no exception. A terrific concept is this, the grouping of Malone's fictional observations of a dozen Southern women, as diverse a group as the real tapestry of women in the south.

Led by Malone's award-winning "Stella, Red Clay" - which is more of a look into the relationship between a father and son, both of whom admire ex-Hollywood star Stella, from a distance, this story was worth the price of the book and definitely deserved the two national awards it garnered. In the collection, about 7 of the pieces are well-developed, and the rest fall a little short of the artistry you've come to expect from Malone's novels. My personal favorite was the look into the soul of a battered woman in "Charmain, White Trash Noir" - Malone perfectly captures the lack of self-esteem, yet the ladylike manner a real Charmain would display when confronted with the dilemma of airing her marital dirty laundry in order to save herself from a conviction.

I granted 4 instead of 5 stars because I particularly disliked the snapshot of Malone's "Justin-Cuddy" series...all about a local deb in Hillston (Patty, Love & Other Crimes). It definitely did not do the series justice.

From the creation of the concept, the cleverness of the cover in the oversize paperback, the ebb and flow of Malone's poetry written as prose, you'll enjoy this collection. And, if you do, be sure to gather Malone's other gems, his novels, which are amazing!