Newspaper Page Text
WILD AT HEART
Charles McNair’s Land o’
In many ways, Charles McNair’s novel Land o’ Goshen is
the story of a boy and his dog. We all know the basic plot line:
a young man roams the countryside with his animal friend,
bucks society, falls in love, endures hardship, and learns a little
bit about what it means to be a good man in a world gone
mad. Land o’ Goshen is part Huck Finn, part 1984, and part
Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. His protagonist, a 15-year-old
who calls himself Buddy, and his companion “Sack” inhabit a
grotesque world with an eerie resemblance to our own, a world
that has exchanged the purifying flame of “wildness” for cer
titude, dogma and hypocrisy.
A religious civil war that grips the entire United States in
some hazy, unspecified future. In this war between the “Chris
tian Soldiers” and the “Devils,” the Christians under the lead
of a shadowy, charismatic “Father” seem to have the upper
hand. McNair’s alternate U. S. is a place where cursing is pun
ishable by law, where all alcohol is forbidden, where wait
resses must wear long skirts. The majority of the population
behaves “like they were just plain too good ever to sit naked
in a bathtub.”
By the time we meet him, Buddy has learned some harsh
lessons about his world. His older brother Randy, a hero of
sorts, was gunned down while defending children bom out of
wedlock from a Christian Soldier roundup. The story told in
the papers claims Randy beat up a widow and then shot him
self. It is perhaps this event that leads to Buddy’s mistrust of
this “Christian” society. He knows people are not as holy as
they seem.
“I know a few things about these holy rollings,” he says.
“They might not always fit the government’s idea of what a
sweet-and-light church get-together ought to be.”
This is where “Sack” comes in. I should make clear that
Sack is not technically a live animal. He is a costume, the
smelliest, most hideous costume in the world.
“If you never imagined what a fellow could make out of
cottonmouth moccasins and runover possums and a horse’s
tail and a passel of dried black squirrel guts,” says Buddy, “then
you ain’t really imagined yet.”
Sack is Buddy’s alter-ego, a hideous superhero of the Ala
bama woods who seeks to right the world’s wrongs. Although
technically inanimate, Sack growls when he comes across a
bully, or squeals with delight when a young, pretty girl says
he’s “sort of handsome,
if you look close
enough.” Through
Sack, Buddy seeks to
reintroduce some wild
ness to Goshen and the
surrounding towns.
“Me and Sack want
to blaze up so fierce and
pure and good that
none of these bad folks
with bad ideas taking over the world nowadays can stand up
next to us,” Buddy says.
Sometimes McNair lets his desire to reproduce the work
ings of the 15-year-old mind run away with him. There are a
few too many references to bowel movements. For example,
he describes another scene at Hix: “Chili ran down the fat
arms of these women, like baby job out of dirty diapers.” OK,
it’s a strong image, but unnecessary. Despite these few lapses
in taste, or perhaps in a crude way, because of them, Buddy is
both credible and entertaining as he narrates his adventures.
There are some holes here. Why a scare from a demon,
however convincing, would change people’s behavior I’m still
not entirely certain. But again, effectiveness is not really the
issue here. What Buddy does is at least make a gesture on
behalf of a sort of primal humanity, which most of his neigh
bors had submerged in cowardice. The “wampus cat,” a domi
nant symbol in the book, is untamed, dangerous, endowed
with a horrifying scream and able to rip an elephant in two.
However, it leaves an innocent girl alone. It is this kind of
wildness that Buddy aspires to.
McNair’s book at its best exposes our tendency to ignore
our basic wild humanity in favor of dogmatism and fear. He
suggests, paradoxically, that in wildness we find cur true good
sides. In the Alabama woods, encountering wampus cats as
well as delicious fruit and warm rain, Buddy holds out hope
that his neighbors will hear “the scary cry in the deepest woods
of all” and be reminded that man and his sociery are not the
measure of all things.
Richmond Eustis
Charles McNair reads from Land O’Goshen and signs copies
at the Old Black Dog Bookstore Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 8 p.m.
Qamtari^ 25 f 1995
• Gear Some Shelf Space for Sufism: Coleman Barks
proclaims Jelaluddin Rumi 'the bestselling poet in
America' in the Jan. 9 issue of Publisher's Weekly. An
increasingly widespread attraction to Sufism in
America has caused a steady rise in the number of
Sufi-related books coming from Harper in San Fran
cisco and Boston's Shambhala to the State University
of New York Press and Barks' own Athens-based May-
pop imprint. Barks helped initiate the Rumi surge with
his and John Moyne's Open Secret: A Vision of Rumi.
a 50,000-copy bestseller from Threshold and with nu
merous other translations by that small press as well
as Omega Pub., Copper Beach and Maypop. All of
these translations are designed to make the work of
the 13th Century Persian more accessible to 20th Cen
tury readers. Barks is currently touring in India, mak
ing Rumi more accessible to audiences there.
• Hiatus for Jigsaw: Jigsaw Pieces Poetry is taking a
winter break due to the lack of heat upstairs at the
Globe. Organizer Todd Mortenson assures Flagpole
that the series will continue in the Spring. In the mean
time, look around town for signs and in these pages
for notices of Jigsaw readings taking place at tempo
rary locations in the upcoming months.
• Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black
Women, edited and with an introduction by Patricia-
Bell-Scott has just been released in paperback by W.W.
Norton & Co.. bell-Scott, professor of child and family
development and women's studies at UGA also has
an article in the Jan./Feb. issue of Ms. magazine titled
'Home Girl with a Mission: An interview with Barbara
Smith." Life Notes is the first collection devoted exclu
sively to writings from the journals, diaries and per
sonal notebooks of contemporary black women. Fea
tured here are works by such well-known authors as
Alice Walker and Rita Dove, as well as by emerging
writers, including Athenians Evelyn C. Rosser and
Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander. Rosser teaches language
arts at Cedar Shoals High School, and Bennett-
Alexander is an attorney teaching law at UGA's Terry
College of Business. Her daughters Jeniffer and Anne-
Alexis are also contributors.
• Discussion of Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is
Hard to Find and Other Stories takes place Satui day,
Jan. 29, from 3-5 p.m. at the Athens-Clarke County
Library. Jackie Markham is the discussion leader.
Judy Long
5th Annual
Mental Health Benefit
Art Show and Art Auction
Jan. 23, 7-9 p.m. Feb. II, 5 p.m.
Show ard Auction at The Globe
Benefit Rock Concert
Friday and Saturday Feb. 3 and 4,
lOp.m., 40 Watt Club.
Bands:
Hazel Virtue, Asa Nisi Masa, Fuzzy
Sprouts, 5-8, Hayride and guests.
••• Tickets on sale January 30 at Big
Shot Records for S5.
Sponsored By:
•V- ♦
Cookies &'Co.. Last Resort Cirill.
Gyro Wrap. Lumpkin Cafe. Big Shot
Records. The Engine Room. Phconix
Foods. Lock Nest. Junkman's
Daughter's Brother. Rage. Helix.
Dream Catcher. Dixon’s Bicycles.
Jackson Street Books. Guaranteed.
Jittery Joe's. The Abyss. Local Color.
Athens Coffee I louse. DePalma's.
Compadres. R F.M/Athens Ltd...
Homegrown Graphics. T he Grit. Bel
Jeans. Daily Groceries. Kinko's. 40
Watt Club. T he Globe. Flagpole
Magazine. Athens Observer. Athens
Banner I lerald. The Red and Black.
Revolution Promotion. 90.5 IM
WUOG. Barry Stock Graphics.
Creativ e Consultants. Washington
Street Tavern. Roadkill Enterprises.
Frontier. Burman Printing Co
GOAT CHEESE & PINE NUT SALAD Seasonal lettuce mix, a
medallion of grilled goat cheese, sliced tomato, homemade croutons,
and toasted pine nuts.
GRILLED CHEESE ASPARAGUS Cheddar cheese, asparagus spears,
and sliced tomato grilled
on country Italian bread.
NAPA VALLEY BURGER
A 6oz. burger mac > with ground
sirloin, fresh basil, sundried tomatoes,
garfic and red zinfandet. ...
CHICKEN & ROASTED
PEPPER PIE Grilled chicken
& red peppers, sliced carrots and celery
with a mushroom sauce all baked into a pie
THENS
OFFEE
OUSE
ESTAURANT
CORNER OF CLAYTON & JaCKSON * 208-9711