Love in a Dry Season

Most people seem to come to Shelby Foote's novels after becoming aware of him through his Civil War books. For me it will be the other way around. If anything will get me to read his Civil War histories, it will be because I loved this book so much. I love that he subtly acknowledges towards the end of the novel that he cribbed Amanda from Faulkner, James, and Balzac, giving a kind of knowing wink to his readers. As one reviewer said, I never wanted this book to end. It had a fascinating and well written combination of plots that intersected poignantly, and it had intense, colorful characters ranging in scale from the introverted and soft hearted to the sociopathic and exploitative. This book reminded me at times of East of Eden, which was published a year later. I can't say why exactly. I suppose just the spectrum of human nature played out against a bygone time in America.

Shelby Foote is a revelation and a wonder. I knew him, as do most people, from the K. Burns Civil War PBS series; I had no idea he wrote fiction, and had turned out several novels. "Dry Season" was the first one I read, and I think the best. This is Faulkner's material and place without all the Faulknerian drunken excess: Foote stays on topic, makes sense on every page, is not in love with the sound of his own voice, and tells a story that is not predictable. When you read "Absalom, Absalom", is there any doubt after the first fifty pages or so who Charles Bon really is? I mean come ON ... that plot is as guessable as any by-the-numbers TV drama. Not so with Foote: he tries harder.I disagree with the reader who said there is no "identifiable" character for the reader in this book. First of all, liking a book because you "identify" with the characters is the stuff of English 101, and better suited to those novels with raised letters on the covers, in the supermarket rack. Secondly, who could not empathize (a better word than "identify") with poor blind Jeff and his horribly curtailed existence? What woman, and I include myself, would not be tempted to cheat on a blind, helpless, and impotent husband, just because it would be so easy? (Of course, acting on the temptation is another matter altogether -- but that's what fiction is for, isn't it). Both main protagonists are fully human, fleshed out to where one can almost see their pores, a welcome contrast to Faulkner's lurid cardboard cutouts and ambulating Symbols. As the accumulation of catastrophes became an avalanche, I began to wish -- perversely, I know -- that the book would never end. I know no higher compliment.

Shelby Foote... I love you and your writing. This is a relatively short novel, for all that it covers about 12 years. It started off a little slow for me when introducing the characters, but then the language and story telling took over and I couldn't put it down. The book centers around Harley Drew and his arrival in Bristol, Mississippi. He's just not a very nice man...skeezy is an appropriate description... and is always looking for the next way to make a quick buck. He becomes engaged to a semi-recluse who lives with her father and crazy sister. The engagement lasts a number of years before it ends in dramatic fashion because he is involved with the wife of one of his business clients. That relationship also ends in a dramatic way. I know this is vague - but I'm trying not to give too much of the plot away, which would be easy to do in this review. :)The end of the story ties up the lives of the characters... no one really has an "and then they lived happily every after" moment, but I feel their lives turn out satisfactorily for them. It was nice to read a book where the sex scenes weren't minutely described and a great deal was left to the reader's imagination. I've not yet read anything by Shelby Foote that I didn't like... recommend as a good read for lover's of Southern Literature.

I selected this novel because I’m drawn to Shelby Foote. In fact, this book is only one of several books that I’ve selected based on my interest in him. I think many people having watched Burns’ Civil War documentary find Shelby Foote pivotal to the success of that series. He is a keen observer of human nature and frailty and how fate is entwined with character. This novel showcases that well. It could perhaps have been easier to follow at times than it was if not for his need to take into account the significance of lineage in shaping an individual’s personality, forcing us to keep looking back with him as he is moving us forward, but once you get the rhythm of his mapping, it flows. I have seen where other readers were dissatisfied with the ending, but I think to have anything too perfect would have taken away from the book. Nothing is perfect in life. I remain a Shelby Foote fan.

Shelby Foote writes nonfiction books. He also writes fiction as dry as nonfiction. Cannot imagine why he wrote this except he must have been testing himself to see if he could do it.The story is purely plot driven with only thinly sketched characters that are stereotypes of every “Southerner” ever created by pen and ink. There is no love or humanity, it is all about the money and what happens to it. Ho hum

This story has all the requisite southern characters; a rigid overbearing father, weak obedient children, a crazy housebound relative, and an opportunistic weasel seeking to marry money. Add an unsympathetic hatefilled rich married couple, and you have the perfect stereotypical southern book. Did no one grow up in the south normal and happy? I found this story fairly depressing.

I immensely enjoyed this well written book. It was such a treat to read a book of this caliber and the depth of the characters made them come to life. Shelby Foote has always been a favorite of mine, but now I appreciate him even more.

I never read anything by Shelby Foote until I read his Civil War series.I was enchanted by his way with a phrase and of course ,the story was so well developed.I have since purchased two mor e of his novels and am now reading "Follow Me Down".I am only twenty pages into it and am drawn in and eager to read more as soon as I have an hour to give to it.

I love his writing style and I intend to read all his other books.

This is an excellent read. It takes you back to the American South. It's as if Shelby Foote is talking as you read.