Books Set in the Place That You Live?

I love books that take place on the Gulf Coast -- in towns with sin and fish and bars and people with odd accents and humidity and neon signs glittering on drawn knives in the damp, whispering night. And then, of course, I have to go there. Movies in those places get to me too. (I'm from spiny cold Maine originally -- and upper NY state. So go figure!)

"Double Down" by two Barthelme brothers, is non-fiction, but concerns their gambling habits in several of Mississippi's fine off-shore casinos. A good read!

I remember hearing them interviewed about that on (probably) Fresh Air. If I'm right, then that interview is probably available in the Fresh Air archive for you to listen to, D'art.

Oh them sticky bayous.

I'll have to look for that, Tartarin.

Speaking of Upstate NY (a place we've both lived), have you read anything by Richard Russo? I haven't, but have meant to. I saw the film made of "Nobody's Fool" (I think that was the title) a few years ago, and I thought it was quite good.

I wrote about Michigan songs. There is a new Massachusetts song that I love. I haven't caught the name of the singer/songwriter but he has a rather gravelly voice. It sounds like a typical lost love song until you reach the chorus, which is, "I can't stand the sound of rain falling on your grave." It's a chilling but beautiful song. One of the details is about the couple encountering Norman Mailer on the beach. I have heard lots of Mailer stories so the song has a certain familiar ring to it.

plainoldme--Getting back to Michigan, are you familiar with the writer Jim Harrison? He grew up there, and his memoirs, Off to the Side, are evocative of what it was like growing up in rural Michigan. I enjoyed it. It's not my home turf and Harrison isn't always the most graceful writer, but every now and then he hits a home run!

Jim Harrison has a terrific reputation and every time I see his name I think, must remember to get one of his books! Still haven't. Living in the south makes one kinda s... l.... o..... w.... Must be the 100 degree heat we are blessed with today...

No, I haven't heard of Jim Harrison. I will look him up.

Since Michigan is so close to Canada, a book my kids and I enjoyed was "The Incedible Journey," about three animals that cross Ontario in the 1950s to find their family that was totally bowderlized by Disney and made into an unpalatible suburban Cal cutesy vehicle for John Revolta and the vomitable Kirsti Alley. As a person who grew up in the 50s, I appreciated the depiction of the rural northern midwest in the book:lonely little girls living on farms, Finnish immigrants and more. Lovely book.

I think you might like Harrison--what he describes in that book sound like a real place, with farming and hunting.

Harrison might make me nostalgic!

still getting the hang of this...as you can see i'm new to the A2K family...

I wanted to say that it is fun to read books from locations with which I am familiar...something comforting about that...but I also enjoy reading books that take place in other locations...France, England, any other place in United States. Yes, I loved the McDonald books about Travis McGee, wanted to go to the Keys and experience them myself...I like books by Elizabeth George because I get to "see" the back places in England...and even though I have never been there, in some ways i feel as though I have...the books i have read make me want to go there and help me to know where I would like to travel...

Welcome, Petunia! Looks like we're on the same wavelength. John McDonald was an ace and may be in control of my feelings about Florida and the Gulf Coast. A kind of hot, sticky, alluring unpredictability!

Hi Petunia, and welcome!
I love books about places I know, from Bratislava especially - they are written in Slovak though. But John Irving's charecters always end up in Vienna one way or another, and in Germany, those are all nearby and I love to see he fate of the similar characters in his different works.
I lived in Providence and enjoyed one short E.A. Poe's mystery story, I had to read it outside, to be able to soak in the atmosphere. One of the works where the actual setting works and enhances the text. Same, even much more so, for Kafka's Prague. When you read Kafka, you can just feel the cobblestones, and see the old wells and buildings.

Hey Dag -- haven't seen you in a while! How was the trip?

I, too, love Lawrence Block's Bernie...I laugh out loud when reading them, so human

Welcome, Petunia, it's nice to meet you.

Dasha, it's great to 'see' you again!

Welcome, Petunia!

Dag's back; dag's back! <dancing and singing>

I have to admit that I went through a phase (perhaps about three years) when I read little beyond Julie Smith and Anne Rice. The bulk of each author's work is set in New Orleans. The more I read the more I HAD to see the city for myself. I think it was my third day there when I hopped the St. Charles streetcar and took the two dollar tour through the Garden District and back to the French Quarter. My travel companion and I stopped for a walk down First Street to Anne Rice's house. Because of the many novels she wrote that took place in and around the house, I recognised it before I saw the street sign that told me I was in the right place. It was quite a different experience from reading about a place with which I'm already familiar.

Yes, welcome, Petunia!

I was recently (a few years ago) in New Orleans myself, Terry. Didn't have as much time as I'd like to explore, because I was there for a conference, but I did have the chance to take the same streetcar journey you describe. It was at night--rather evocative!

I haven't read many books set in my town. Only a few kids books by some writer that went to the same school as me and a book about the Ebro Battle (spanish civil war)