Synopses & Reviews
Born and raised in Mississippi, Carter Ransom came to New York as a young man and has risen to become a columnist with a major city newspaper. But when his life in New York falls apart and he heads back home to recover, the still-live conflicts of his youth in the civil rights era rise up all around him again. A twenty-five-year-old murder case has just been reopened, a church bombing that killed Carter's first love. Carter's father was the judge in the case, and now there's evidence that the trial was flawed, even fixed, and the case's reopening threatens the foundation of Carter's identity, as well as his relationship to his family.
Moving between New York City and the New South of the early 1990s, with flashbacks to Mississippi's Freedom Summer of 1964, Magic Time is at once a powerful love story, a courtroom drama, and a complex portrait of the civil rights revolution. Doug Marlette has won every major prize for editorial cartooning, including the Pulitzer. His first novel, The Bridge, was honored with the 2002 Book Award for Fiction by the Southeast Booksellers Association. He died in 2007. Carter Ransom has left his past behind. Born and raised in Mississippi, he has come to New York and established himself as a columnist and muckraker with one of the city's big newspapers. But when his New York life falls apart, and he heads back home to recover, all the conflicts and compromises of his youth instantly surround him again. A twenty-five-year-old civil rights murder case has just been reopened, a church bombing that cost Carter his first love. The judge in the case was his own father, who's still dominating the household Carter has come back to.
Moving between New York City and the New South of the early 1990s, with flashbacks to Mississippi's cataclysmic Freedom Summer of 1964, Magic Time is at once a powerful love story, a courtroom drama, and a complex portrait of the civil rights revolution.
The storytelling is involving and the plot wondrously complicated . . . With his caricatures in Magic Time, and in that phrase, Marlette has captured something essential about the spirit of our age.”Christopher Dickey, The New York Times Book Review
Marlette unravels a powerful plot that straddles every genre from historical fiction to love story.”Halley Bondy, New York Daily News
[A] sense of history in the everyday, and that what we do matters, is what he captures in his un-put-downable novel.”Kathleen Parker, Orlando Sentinel
This new book has an urgency and timeliness all its own . . . Its an intricate piece of work: multi-layered, interwoven and even Dickensian . . . Magic Time ultimately succeeds as both a heartfelt novel and a serious one too, under-girded by a keen eye for historical and social detail, driven forward by a sense of justice, and revealing in so many instances a sometimes-surprising optimism and a generous sense of humanity.”Art Taylor, Metro Magazine
Marlette presents a sketch of the South . . . with skill . . . His story . . . invites us into a personal memory of the South told . . . as only a Southerner can tell it.”Adera Causey, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Marlette demonstrates again that he is a first rate writer . . . It has a wonderfully drawn character and is a good tale all around.”D.G. Schumacher, The Sun News
Marlette draws a classic story . . . . Marlette is a smart writer . . . .His words are vivid, distinct, and shot through with real fondness. Every once in a while he lays down a perfect observation about human nature.”Duncan Murrell, The Independent
"Marlette is a storyteller . . . His novels have that sine qua non, energy, with characters one comes to care about, who learn and have real experiences that change their lives."Don Noble, Tuscaloosa News
"Doug Marlette takes us deep into the heart of America, and deeper into the American heart. His past and present not only lives and breathes, it lingers and haunts your soul."Joe Klein, author of Primary Colors
"Doug Marlette asks urgent questions about society and directs us to look for the answers within our own hearts. His kind intelligence shows through in every word."Kaye Gibbons, author of Ellen Foster
"A middle-aged New York columnist re-explores a personal tragedy that occurred during the Civil Rights era . . . Perfectly captures a time of epic change. An exceptional work of Southern fiction."Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"In Marlette's second novel, investigative journalist Carter Ransom returns to his deceptively quiet hometown of Troy, Mississippi, after a mental breakdown only to face ghosts from the Sixties. At that time, local Klansmen had burned a church, killing both worshipers and civil rights activists. One hit man was sent to prison by Carter's father, Judge Mitchell Ransom, but now, decades later, he has been paroled and after a change of heart turns states' evidence to convict others at the top. The trial for the accused, Sam Bohanon, a local businessman and former imperial wizard, opens old wounds and puts Troy in the media spotlight. Carter fears that his father covered up the real killers' identity to protect an old family friend, and he even suspects his father was being blackmailed over his affair with one of the Klansmen's wives. Childhood friends, memories of a more 'magic time,' and an attractive federal prosecutor help Carter sort through his uncertainties. Marlette, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, has written a powerful and eloquent novel filled with all the emotions and fury of the early Sixties. Highly recommended for all public libraries."Donna Bettencourt, Mesa City Public Library, Grand Junction, Colorado, Library Journal
"Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Marlette fulfills the literary promise of his debut novel, The Bridge, with a panoramic saga that revisits an ignominious chapter in Mississippi history. A terrorist bombing in New York City during the 1990s plummets outspoken newspaper columnist Carter Ransom into a paralyzing depression, forcing him to return home to the small southern town where, as an impressionable college student, he fell in love with Sarah Solomon, a civil rights volunteer who was among several workers killed in a Klan-instigated church bombing during the freedom summer of 1964. All local men, the murderers were brought to trial before Carter's father, a conservative judge who may have covered up information, thus allowing the mastermind to go free. With the surfacing of new evidence, Carter must confront painful memories as he determines who his father was protecting and why. A tenacious legal thriller, touching remembrance-of-youth novel, and spicy love story rolled into one, Marlette's majestic and detailed second offering communicates the assured finesse of a seasoned author."Carol Haggas, Booklist
"When a terrorist group bombs a Manhattan museum, New York Examiner columnist Carter Ransom suffers an emotional breakdown and returns to his Mississippi hometown, Troy, to convalesce. Carter's father, Judge Ransom, has just retired after 40 years on the bench there; his most famous case was presiding over Troy's national disgrace: the Shiloh Church bombing, in which four civil rights activists died in 1965. At the time, Carter was a local rookie journalist who met and fell in love with Sarah Solomon, one of the volunteers who died. One man was convicted, but the instigator, Samuel Bohanon, the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, went free. Now, as Carter begins to understand that he has never fully come to terms with Sarah's death, an ambitious young state attorney is reopening the Shiloh Church bombing caseand she's going after Bohanon, along with anyone who stands in her way, including Carter's father, who, rumors say, threw the first trial to spare Sam . . . Pulitzer Prizewinning Kudzu cartoonist Marlette . . . writes of the South with such affection that the novel becomes one of those stories a reader doesn't mind revisiting."Publishers Weekly
Review
"[A] compelling legal thriller, touching tribute, and zesty love story, rolled into one. Marlette has crafted an exceptional work of Southern fiction." Boston Globe
Review
"[T]he storytelling is involving and the plot wondrously complicated: a tall tale about terrible times that were, in memory, magical and magnificent." New York Times
Review
"[A] realistic portrait of the collective amnesia of the South and the generational tensions that the civil rights movement stirred up, then and now. It's a real Mississippi story, not merely a faded imitation." Washington Post
Review
"[A] powerful and eloquent novel filled with all the emotions and fury of the early Sixties." Library Journal
Synopsis
Born and raised in Mississippi, Carter Ransom came to New York as a young man and has risen to become a columnist with a major city newspaper. But when his life in New York falls apart and he heads back home to recover, the still-live conflicts of his youth in the civil rights era rise up all around him again. A twenty-five-year-old murder case has just been reopened, a church bombing that killed Carter's first love. Carter's father was the judge in the case, and now there's evidence that the trial was flawed, even fixed, and the case's reopening threatens the foundation of Carter's identity, as well as his relationship to his family.
Moving between New York City and the New South of the early 1990s, with flashbacks to Mississippi's Freedom Summer of 1964, Magic Time is at once a powerful love story, a courtroom drama, and a complex portrait of the civil rights revolution.
Synopsis
Born and raised in Mississippi, Carter Ransom came to New York as a young man and has risen to become a columnist with a major city newspaper. But when his life in New York falls apart and he heads back home to recover, the still-live conflicts of his youth in the civil rights era rise up all around him again. A twenty-five-year-old murder case has just been reopened, a church bombing that killed Carter's first love. Carter's father was the judge in the case, and now there's evidence that the trial was flawed, even fixed, and the case's reopening threatens the foundation of Carter's identity, as well as his relationship to his family.
Moving between New York City and the New South of the early 1990s, with flashbacks to Mississippi's Freedom Summer of 1964, Magic Time is at once a powerful love story, a courtroom drama, and a complex portrait of the civil rights revolution.
About the Author
Doug Marlette has won every major prize for editorial cartooning, including the Pulitzer. His first novel, The Bridge, was honored with the 2002 Book Award for Fiction by the Southeast Booksellers Association. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his family.
Reading Group Guide
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the ironies in the novels title. What "magic" did Lige and his team of volunteers achieve? As a locale, what did Magic Time mean to all those who gathered there?
2. What was the effect of the authors use of time lines? Why was it useful to intersperse the 1990s with memories of the 1960s? Does this technique mirror the way your own powerful memories seep into everyday life?
3. How does the E. B. White quote near the beginning of chapter two speak to Carters relationship to New York? How is his sense of identity linked to his sense of place?
4. When have you faced a homecoming similar to Carters and Stephens? What history is always tied to certain locations in your mind, regardless of how much time has passed?
5. What does the history contained in this novel—a fictionalized version of terrorist bombings in New York and of bombings executed by white supremacists—indicate about the way violence has been witnessed in twentieth-century America? How was the SNCC able to gain power without violence?
6. What were the roots of the White Knights racism? Why did so many white supremacists believe they were "protecting" the country from communism? Does race camouflage money, as Carter says near the end of chapter twenty-two?
7. How were so many divergent groups able to unite around the cause of civil rights during the 1960s? What tensions between these groups were illustrated in the novel? At what point does Carter realize that remaining passive is morally unacceptable to him?
8. The parallels between Sarah and Emily are clear. What are the differences between them? Was Carter able to separate his memories of Sarah from his relationship with Emily? Do you agree with Emilys assessment of him in chapter twenty three? What makes Sydney an ideal match for him?
9. Though Magic Time is a work of fiction, it conveys the spirit of recent murder trials of white supremacists who were not brought to justice until three decades after their crimes were committed. In what ways does the book speak to your own knowledge or memories of headlines from this time period? How would you have responded to the cultural turmoil that marked Carters life forever? Why is fiction an important complement to journalism in capturing such events?
10. How did you react to the notion that the Ransoms formed Netties "white family"(last paragraph of chapter nine)? What do you imagine was going through the mind of the African American man hired to tend to Bohannon? What enabled Lige to gain a career in politics, with a level of power never previously held by Troys black citizens?
11. One essential component of civil rights is a citizens access to a voting booth, a cause to which Sarah devoted tireless hours. Did volunteers such as Sarah succeed? Is the American voting system now free from injustice?
12. How does Lonnies background compare to Carters? In what way did fate versus willpower shape their futures? What ties, both tragic and triumphant, bind Carter to his boyhood friends?
13. What is the difference between the power brokers of Troy, such as Glen Boutwell, and the power brokers of New York, such as Marcy Tutweiler? Is status achieved through the same means, no matter where you go?
14. How did your impressions of Carters father evolve throughout the novel? How did you react to his brief affair with Sheppy? What does Hugh represent to the citizens of Troy, and eventually to Carter?
15. In chapter fifteen, we read the story behind Carters name and ancestry, as well as details about the judges war service. How do legacies shape the Ransom family? What did it mean to Carter that he was classified 4-F and therefore disqualified from service in Vietnam? What determines whether we follow or defy these legacies?
16. Discuss the factors in the trial that led to a conviction. What was needed to build a solid case? Besides jury selection procedures, what had changed in Troys judicial system during that thirty- year span?
17. How did Sarahs family respond to Carter? How did his family respond to her?
18. During the chilling hostage scene in chapter twenty-seven, how did you react to the combination of humiliating poses and photographs used to evoke fear and degradation? How did you react to Hullenders use of biblical quotations, particularly in light of Shiloh Church as the crime scene?
19. What do the novels closing events regarding Schlank indicate about new battles to wage, such as environmentalism? What tactics were ultimately successful in that case? What does the future hold for Sydney and Carter?
20. How might the authors career as a leading editorial cartoonist shape his use of dialogue and imagery, and his overall approach as a novelist? What parallels did you discover between Magic Time and his previous novel, The Bridge?