Trespassers [Paperback]

Meredith Sue Willis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

In this third novel of the Blair Morgan trilogy, Blair and some of her activist friends move to New York City where Blair involves herself in the swirl of political action at Columbia University during the famous student anti-war sit-ins of 1968. At the same time, she works at Bellevue Hospital where one of her patients, a chess playing paralyzed man, becomes the sounding board for her understanding of world affairs and her explorations in love.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Appearing for the first time in this trade paperback edition that matches the first two novels of the trilogy, Higher Ground and Only Great Changes, Meredith Sue Willis' Trespassers is a rich portrait of the nineteen sixties from small town families to racism, careless sex, and anti-war demonstrations. Blair's life and the lives of her friends are woven closely into specific places and times, and the novels move easily from the tragic to the comic, from political power struggles to small acts of kindness, from Blair's ongoing search for self-knowledge to the struggle for social justice.

From the Back Cover

Critical Praise for Meredith Sue Willis "Ms. Willis...provides a[n]...important lesson on the nature and function of literature itself."

New York Times Book Review "Pure, twangy bewitching entertainment."

The Nation "Terrific stories. Rueful, humorous, close to the bone. You cannot help but like and feel for Willis's characters. In these stories you hear the pure mental clarity and honesty of distilled experiences, and a life-long dedication to craft."

Phillip Lopate "The story unfolds in the cadences of a casual conversation overheard on a park bench...."

ALA Booklist "Rich with the traditions of Appalachia and even richer with the wise intelligence of its author...Willis explores her characters' bonds with family, home place, landscape, God, and nation, noting the strength of such bonds and the individual accommodations they so often demand. Willis defines the boundaries between mountain hollows and towns, between rural regions and urban ones, and she uses those boundaries to limn the spiritual reach of her characters....The characterizations are detailed; the dialogue is spry; the prose sings."

Appalachian Journal Hamilton Stone Editions Cover Design by Howard Gilman

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Hamilton Stone Editions (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965404323
• ISBN-13: 978-0965404327
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,000,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Meredith Sue Willis grew up in West Virginia where her parents were both teachers. She has degrees from Barnard College and Columbia University, and her fiction has been published by Scribners', HarperCollins, West Virginia University Press, Mercury House, Ohio University Press, and others. Her book of literary short stories, In the Mountains of America, was praised in the New York Times Book Review as "a[n]...important lesson on the nature and function of literature itself." Her novels for children are Billie of Fish House Lane, The Secret Super Powers of Marco and Marco's Monster.

Her latest books are Ten Strategies to Write Your Novel, and a new collection of Appalachian short stories, Out of the Mountains.

She lives in South Orange, New Jersey where she keeps a four season organic garden and is active in local racial integration politics as well as teaching writing in the schools and at New York University.