Synopses & Reviews
The world turns upside down and everything goes a little crazy in Mark Childress's fabulous tale of a hot, restless summer in Alabama and an unforgettable woman who looks for salvation in Hollywood. "A writer of almost uncanny stylistic ability and clear vision," says Stephen King of Mark Childress. "His eye for detail is extraordinary. It makes you want to holler Oh Yeah!" Over the course of three very fine novels, Mark Childress has had readers across America hollering Oh Yeah! at his exuberant storytelling, his sixth sense for characterization, and his ability to stir powerful memories.
Now, with Crazy in Alabama, Childress delivers the touching and vastly entertaining tale of Peejoe, an orphan boy who comes of age during a racially restless summer in the Deep South, and Lucille, his zany aunt who flees from a soul-numbing marriage a union she can't entirely escape in the end. For both Lucille and Peejoe, the summer of '65 will live on as the time when everybody went crazy in Alabama. By turns puckishly comic and disturbingly poignant, Crazy in Alabama gets everything right, and then some. This is the novel that Childress fans have been waiting for.
Review
"With gentle, self-mocking humor, this coming-of-age novel describes memorable people, in a vivid time and place." Library Journal
Synopsis
Comic and tragic, unique and outlandish, CRAZY IN ALABAMA is the story of two journeys--Lucille's from Industry, Alabama, to Los Angeles, to star on 'THE BEVERLY HILL BILLIES' and her 12-year-old nephew Peejoe's, who is about to discover two kinds of Southern justice, and what that means about the stories he's heard and the people he knows.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
A FEATURED ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE LITERARY GUILD
About the Author
Childress was born in Alabama, grew up in the Midwest and the South, and graduated from the University of Alabama.