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A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth

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Styron revisits old themes in this collection subtitled "Three Tales from Youth" and set, two thirds of the way, in Tidewater Virginia in the earlier part of the twentieth century. In it we see three episodes from the life of Styron's autobiographical protagonist Paul Whitehurst at ages twenty, ten, and thirteen.

In "Love Day" Paul, a young Marine lieutenant, experiences intense homesickness in the Pacific Ocean during the waning months of WWII. This is well-written but perhaps the least impressive of the three tales. Next is best. "Shadrach" is a wonderfully affecting, funny, and touching story of a 99-year old former slave who walks all the way from Clay County, Alabama, to Virginia to die and be buried in his homeplace. The title story shows Paul's struggle to accept his mother's approaching death from cancer and pays especial attention to the complex relationship between his parents.

Despite Styron's wonderfully indulgent and rococo style, these stories make for fairly quick reads, as we are carried along on a stream of telling detail and crystalline reminiscence. Not that the work lacks complication. As with his larger-canvased works, Styron deals with issues of race, Southern identity, heterosexual love, courage, cowardice, religion, and art. Here and there the stories are marred by facile liberal pieties and stilted dialogue, but for the most part it is a pleasure to watch this old master cast perhaps one last look at the familiar but still-fertile landscape of his heart and imagination.

Styron raises enough intriguing issues and questions that A Tidewater Morning could have been a full-bodied novel. Instead, we are treated to three short stories that, while somewhat disjointed, do manage to flow with relative ease. There's little new material addressed here: Styron returns to his favorite themes of slavery, war, and death, but he does manage some fresh twists that allow Tidewater to stand memorably on its own merits.

This book is a beautiful intermingling of past memeories and present strife. The war time world of Paul Whitehurst is made apparent; his childhood battles were fought just as passionately as any battle in WWII. Paul is a fictional character full of wit and wisdom. He comes alive in the three separate stories of his life. Your only thought at the end of this (way to short) novel is that you wish there was some kind of continuation or sequel to Paul Whitehurst's story.

I first met William Styron when a mutual acquaintance - Sophie's Choice - introduced us at The Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels. I bumped into him later with his friend Darkness Visible at The Modern Library's list of Top 100 Non-Fiction Books. I thought I knew him by the time he told me all about The Confessions of Nat Turner.

And so it was that I chose to meet him again on A Tidewater Morning at my local Salvation Army bookstore. My cost of admission was $0.25 and I decided to meet him again because his alma mater, Duke University, won the 2010 NCAA Basketball Championship.

Styron's an interesting dude. Both he and his father suffered from depression and his mother died from breast cancer when he was 14. He was a Marine, an editor at McGraw-Hill, and once provoked an employer to fire him so he could write his first novel. He died from pneumonia in Martha's Vineyard at the age of 81.

Above the door to his studio he posted a quote from Gustave Flaubert: "Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work."

As I read the three stories that make up A Tidewater Morning I was struck by how unreal his descriptions, characterizations, and dialog were to my senses. Yet, it all works beautifully in the end. The greatest triumph of this book is the way these three stories create an arc of experience that rips your perceived ideas of meaning from the fabric of your life and then sews them back together with even stronger stitching because you made the effort to reach, and read, the title story.

I didn't think A Tidewater Morning compared very well to his other writings until I sat down to write this. But it does. I can tell you this because, although I've never literally met him, I feel now I've not only met him, but know him in a way that was impossible before reading this little book.

I'll tell you what. Let me know if you don't like this book. I'll gladly repay you the quarter I spent on it.

Here are the three most telling quotes from William Styron's A Tidewater Morning:

* "... whenever I was overtaken by a spasm of metaphysical creepiness, and the sheer unreality of this endless war enfolded me like a damp, mildewed shroud, I thought of my father ... How did he ever imagine that his son would grow up to be a killer, not only willing but eager to kill - to anticipate killing with crude, erotic excitement? - Love Day

* "`Death ain't nothin' to be afraid about,' he blurted in a quick, choked voice. `It's life that's fearsome! Life! ... When you're dead nobody knows the difference. Death ain't much.`" - Shadrach

* "Repeat these words after me. Are you listening? Although earth's foundations crumble and the mountains be shaken into the midst of the seas, yet alone shall I prevail." - A Tidewater Morning

William Styron has penned a remarkable trilogy of tales which are an "imaginative reshaping of real events." His word-craft is both highly engaging though over-wrought at times. Nevertheless, his recreations of scenes are palpable. The last tale, "A Tidewater Morning", is a tour-de-force of the short story medium. His command of the movement of the events, punctuated by inserts of past dialogue between key characters, sensitively sets up the reader for an emotional cascade of grief as shared between father and son. Styron approaches the veil of the mystery and vividness of childhood events with a delft mind and hand conceived of respect and midwived with love.

I purchased this book for a short holiday read, and it was excellent. The book is composed of three short stories which take the reader back to 1930s Virginia. The stories are absorbing and Styron's writing style is beautifully evocative.

William Styron, perhaps best known for his novel, Sophie's Choice, was a consummate story-teller, a talent which he demonstrates amply in these three tales. All three stories are told from the perspective of Paul Whitehurst, a character who clearly represents Styron himself. The first Story, Love Day, is reflective of Styron's war experience (not WWII, however). And A Tidewater Morning parallels the tragic death of Styron's own mother from a long bout of cancer.

Of the three tales, the most successful is the second, Shadrach, the story of a former slave who returns to his birth place in the last days of his life. This is where Styron truly lets out the stops and plunges into Southern life during the Great Depression. Styron's prose is fluid, natural, and almost musical in its cadences. The characters are lifelike and thoroughly convincing, with voices that ring clear and true. By turns tender, poignant and humorous, this is a story that will stick in your mind.

The first and third stories, Love Day and A Tidewater Morning, while engaging, don't quite measure up to Shadrach. Love Day, the story of a Marine facing battle during WWII is well told but suffers from a curious lack of substance. It simply does not stand on its own. In direct contrast, A Tidewater Morning is densely structured, but loses its momentum during the stilted, and overly expository arguments between Paul's (Styron's) parents. (Writers always tread on dangerous ground when they include real people in a work of fiction.)

In spite of its flaws, A Tidewater Morning is still a thought-provoking and highly enjoyable read. If you have not read any of Styron's novels, this short collection will give you a taste of one of America's truly great writers.

More than anything, the three stories in A Tidewater Morning are tales from youth narrated in the voice of a boy and young man from the Tidewater region of Virginia. The first, "Love Day," comes from a young Marine going off to Japan in WWII, trying to maintain the bravado of young manhood and remembering his father's role in building ships similar to the one carrying him across the Pacific. The third and title story tells of the death of the boy's mother and the relationship between her and his father. The second story "Shadrach," is a considered by many to be the best. The tale of a 99-year-old ex-slave who walked all the way from Alabama to die where he was born evokes pity and wonder as it shows devotion and kindness in a world where one might expect prejudice and fear.

These stories evoke a time long past but dear in the memories of those who lived then and even more so who lived in that area of Virginia, and indeed, who were children in the Old South. Death is the common thread, that and the voice of the narrator.

"A tidewater morning" was truly the most inspirational and exhillerating short story of the decade. The closing two pages when the boys father breaks down and goes to his knees and asks his son to repeat a certain song or quote. This will bring any person with somewhat of a sensitive side to their knees. Possibly, one might never recovering from the titilating experience.

"A tidewater morning" was truly the most inspirational and exhillerating short story of the decade. The closing two pages when the boys father breaks down and goes to his knees and asks his son to repeat a certain song or quote. This will bring any person with somewhat of a sensitive side to their knees. Possibly, one might never recovering from the titilating experience.