River Reads

The River Reads program is a reading program for adults. The selection in 2012 is Amid the Swirling Ghosts and Other Essays, by local author William Caverlee.

"William Caverlee's writing reminds us that there is always a need for insightful, probing, and eloquent criticism even when talking about works we think we know. Take William Faulkner s The Sound and the Fury. Caverlee s playful approach to this improbable novel and his brisk, lucid insight into Faulkner s ridiculous syntax . . . obsessions, oddities . . . and lofty talk of honor, family, the past suddenly render Faulkner a little more understandable or understandable in a fresh way no mean feat.

In taking on another well-known work of Southern literature, Flannery O Connor s 1953 A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Caverlee does the same thing he did with the Faulkner book he ponders the familiar with so much fresh verve and intelligence that he will likely prompt readers to quickly revisit this well-worn masterpiece.

Caverlee is a writer of vast enthusiasms and range. His general essays, which cover everything from the assassination of Bonnie and Clyde to the mundane evolution of the staple, are as thoughtfully delightful as his literary criticism. It just so happens that I m a sucker for penetrating and well-written literary criticism. I ve learned that there s something oddly enduring about that kind of literary criticism: it can last as long as the literature it examines, and it can even take on the name of literature itself. 

Read on and see for yourself." --Marc Smirnoff, editor of the The Oxford American

Born in Chicago in 1950, Caverlee has lived in Monroe, Louisiana, since he was one year old. He attended Louisiana State University from 1968-1971, where he studied journalism. His short stories began appearing in literary quarterlies in the 1980s and 1990s, while he was making a living as a carpenter and cabinetmaker. His first nonfiction article, an essay on William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, was published in the Oxford American in 2006. He later became a contributing writer there, where he has written about Bonnie and Clyde, Pistol Pete Maravich, New Orleans chess master Paul Morphy, country music, and numerous literary subjects.

Currently, Caverlee freelances for a number of national magazines and literary journlas, writing on subjects such as Gen. Clair L. Chennault, photographer Larry Burrows, a hardware store manager in Jackson, Mississippi, and a sandlot baseball game in France. On the web, he's a regular book reviewer for the travel webzine, Perceptive Travel. And in The News-Star of Monroe, Louisiana, he profiles local citizens and landmarks; an eighty-two-year-old welder; an opera soprano; the artist who created comic book hero, Captain America; a tiny, storefront Coney Island hot dog stand.

Want to read more by Caverlee? Follow this link.

To sign up for River Reads Click here.

Read with us and win a prize!

*For every 100 pages read, the patron gets one ticket in the prize drawing.
*For every 2 programs attended, the patron gets a ticket in the prize drawing.
*Read Strong finale, program attendance and pages will count double.
*Amid the Swirling Ghosts and the other Top Five books (listed in the brochure), will count double pages.

River Reads begins in May 2012.

• Adult Programs
• Young Adult Programs
• Children's Programs

If you have any questions or comments, email us at River Reads

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