Safe from the Neighbors [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Steve Yarbrough (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 26, 2010

Luke May teaches local history—his lifelong obsession—at his old high school in Loring, Mississippi. Having been mentored by his hometown newspaper’s publisher, a survivor of the civil rights turmoil, he now passes these stories along to students far too young to have experienced or, in some cases, even heard about them.

But when a long-lost friend suddenly returns to Loring, where years ago her family had been shattered by an act of spectacular violence, Luke begins to realize that his connection with her runs deeper, both personally and politically, than he ever imagined. Just children in 1962, they had no sense of what was happening when James Meredith’s enrollment at Ole Miss provoked a bloody new battle in the old Civil War, much less its impact on their fathers’ ambiguous friendship.

Once his daughters leave for Ole Miss, and with his marriage at an impasse, Luke’s investigation of this decades-old trauma soon spills over into his own life. With his parents unwilling, or unable, to help him unlock secrets whose existence he’d never suspected, this amateur historian is soon entirely consumed by an obscure past he can neither explain nor control—a gripping reminder that the past isn’t dead, or even past.

Once again Steve Yarbrough powerfully evokes—as David Guterson put it—“not only historical grief but the grief of our own time.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Yarbrough's tightly constructed latest is hobbled by the ordinariness of its characters and the situations they find themselves in. The story is told from the point of view of Luke May, a high school teacher and history buff living in a small Mississippi River delta town where he and his wife carry on a passionless marriage. During Luke's childhood, a family friend killed his wife, and Luke never fully understood the circumstances. After Maggie, one of the slain mother's children, returns to town as the new high school French teacher, Luke begins to unravel the murder, which coincided with one of the key moments in the civil rights movement. He also begins an affair with Maggie, providing a bit of tension as the reader wonders where the affair will lead and what Luke will learn about the shooting. The book's pacing and language are superb, and while Yarbrough (The End of California) is terrific at getting inside the head of his protagonist, what's inside isn't very special. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Our lives are inextricable from history. In his new novel, Yarbrough intertwines James Meredith’s enrollment at Ole Miss with a town’s not-so-admirable response. Decades later, local historian and high-school teacher Luke May struggles with his father’s involvement in Meredith’s enrollment. May also initiates his family’s crumbling. Being a historian, or perhaps simply by being human, May is incapable of forgetting, which he recognizes as both blessing and curse. Yarbrough wonderfully displays the social upheaval of a specific era and the often-overlooked complexities of small-town life. He also intelligently wrestles with whether or not actions require condemnation of the whole man or just his actions. The relationships are real: simultaneously complex and simple. They are built out of pain and joy. Luke May dislikes some elements of the past but realizes condemnation of his father is futile. Luke’s family may have fallen apart, but he will get along. Reading the novel hurts, but in a way that you know things will be okay. --Blair Parsons

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (January 26, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307271706
• ISBN-13: 978-0307271709
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,469,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Nothing escapes neighbors in small towns, 3.5*s May 20, 2011

By J. Grattan TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Set in fictional Loring, Mississippi, a small Delta farming town, this book is a bit of a hazy exploration of the breakdown of local high school history teacher Luke May's life as the scenes swing between the present and the highly contentious period some forty years prior in the fall of 1962 when James Meredith, supported by a massive show of federal force, became the first black student at the U. of Miss.

Luke's twenty-something year marriage to Jennifer, an English instructor and poet wannabe, has been limping along for quite a while, compounded by their two daughters leaving for college. But the sudden appearance of the head-turning Maggie Sorrentino, hired as a French teacher, throws Luke squarely into the past as he realizes that she is the young girl whose family abruptly left Loring just after the Meredith incident when her father's shooting of her striking mother was ruled to be a case of self-defense.

Initially, Luke sees Maggie as a window into understanding events from that time including the involvement of his father in the all-white Citizens Council along with Maggie's father Arlan Calloway and their participation in the Meredith affair. However, Luke soon finds Maggie to be far more than merely a resource in discovering the past; he knows that he is on a path that cannot turn out well.

The book is more broadly commentary on the nature of life in small towns. Behavior changes are almost sensed more than observed by the community. The exercise of social power is more personal than the anonymous corporate forces in large urban areas, from enduring lectures when attempting to borrow money to the difficulties in getting equal consideration in obtaining services from family-owned firms. Outward non-conformity towards community standards is scarcely tolerated.

The book is well constructed, is easily read, and is not without its insights However, the characters are not necessarily particularly compelling. The wife Jennifer seems distant and judgmental. Maggie is mostly an enigma. Luke is a rather passive sort. Ellis Buchanan, now eighty, transcends both eras and was a voice for racial moderation when that was a dangerous view to have. He also was an integral part of developments in the Calloway family. Curiously, black characters are virtually non-existent. At first, the story seems ambitious, but finally it almost grinds to an unresolved halt.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to Put Down November 22, 2010

By rbrown

Format:Hardcover

I read this after I read The End of California (Vintage Contemporaries) and I really liked this one as well. The way the characters are so intertwined is great and its hard to stop reading once you get involved. Keeps making you think who is watching in Loring and who knows what its great . Best book I've read in a while truly well crafted.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Safe" is a Relative Term July 4, 2010

By Arzurama

Format:Hardcover

Luke May is a likable high school history teacher leading an unremarkable life in Loring, Mississippi, a small town with a dubious history. Luke's marriage is at a dead end and his parents' health is deteriorating, but his own love of local history and his realistic compassion and understanding for the townspeople keep him going. Into this inertia steps Maggie Sorrentino, a glamorous French teacher with a mysterious and tragic past, which Luke eventually learns is closely tied to his own family's history. His attempts to learn more and unravel the events of a long-past night lead Luke & Maggie into an affair, which...as these things will...eventually enmeshes far more than just the two lovers.

Yarbrough has a genuine gift for dialect. As a reader, I could detect which characters were speaking, even without seeing the names. The conversations played through my mind, as if I were a shadow in the rooms. He never allowed any of the key players to wander from their true character...rather, they simply became more deeply drawn as the pages progressed.

Publishers Weekly notes that Safe From the Neighbors is "...hobbled by the ordinariness of its characters and the situations they find themselves in." I disagree with the use of "hobbled." The characters' very ordinariness is what makes the story resonate. No one is a hero, no one is entirely a villain. The bombastic barbershop proprietor, the redneck members of Loring's Citizens' Council, the overbearing, dismissive banker are all recognizable to anyone who has lived in a small farming town, particularly in the southern reaches of the US. Luke's attempts to learn more about his father...a man far more complex than his son ever suspected...also ring clear and true.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it as a thoughtful, considered read.