The Shining Shining Path

by Carroll Dale Short

Turner, a rock promoter and Vietnam vet, is improbably chosen by a sect of Buddhist monks as the "Hope" -- a spiritual warrior picked to battle the forces of darkness and evil in times of millenial world crisis

Genres: Fiction

400 pages, fiction

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Carroll Dale Short, a native of Shanghi, Alabama, has published fiction and non-fiction in Redbook, The New York Times, USA Today, The National Observer, Newsweek, American lawyer, The Runner, The Oxford American, Birmingham, Southern Humanities Review, UAB Magazine, Roanoke Review, Medical Center, Country Music, Appalachian Journal, Arts and Sciences, The Runner, Business Alabama, South Carolina Review, Aura: Southern Fiction, Country America, Appalachian Ways, Southern Exposure, and dozens of other periodicals. His writing has been anthologized in the textbook Sanctuaries: Readings for College Writers, and he is a contributor to the international reference volumes Magill’s Literary Annual and The Sixties in America and a book reviewer for Kliatt Librarian’s Journal.

Short was chosen as the top young writer in the U.S. in Redbook’s first annual fiction contest. He has twice been named the state’s best newspaper columnist by the Alabama Press Association, and is a five-time winner of the Southern Literary Festival Prize. A radio adaptation of his short story Evening Glass was featured on National Public Radio, and his plays Reunion and A Mountain Chord were staged by Berea Kentucky College and community theater groups around Alabama.

He has worked as a newspaper and magazine editor, a television producer, book editor, layout designer, advertising photographer, radio DJ (the show "Saturday on the Front Porch on WVSU-FM, featuring traditional Appalachian, gospel, and blues music), corporate communications consultant, and teacher—a journalism instructor for 17 years at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and an instructor in fiction and playwriting at the Alabama School of Fine Arts—and has done readings and seminars at colleges across the U.S.

Short’s first novel The Shining, Shining Path (1995) was praised by Publishers Weekly as "a boldly imaginative adventure," and by author Dennis Covington, whose Salvation on Sand Mountain was a National Book Award finalist, as "a wise and compassionate book by a major Southern writer". Short’s essay collection I Left My Heart in Alabama (1988) was called by novelist Jesse Hill Ford, "a work reflecting purity of aim and purpose that is rare in literature . . . superb entertainment, by one of our best contemporary writers"

His third book, a collection of poetry and essays titled A Migration of Clowns, was published in April, 2000. A work of non-fiction, The People’s Lawyer: The Life and Times of Julian , was published in September 2000. In this book, Short turns his hand toward the biography of a colorful Southern lawyer who refuses to fit into any convenient pigeonholes. Short's subject, a former Alabama assistant attorney general who is now one of the South's prominent plaintiff's attorneys, gained a reputation for taking unpopular and often controversial cases. This authorized bio tracks McPhillip's career from collegiate All-American heavyweight wrestler to equally dogged watchdog of the public trust.

Reviews

[Ramey Channell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my family, we make frequent use of the saying "Toad's wild ride!" I believe after reading Carroll Dale Short's book, I'll refer to it as "Turner's wild ride!" This is a surprising, impressive, ambitious and totally original work. While reading The Shining Shining Path, I repeatedly asked the question "How does he know all this?" as the author explains the unexplainable and describes the indescribable. The creative depth and the metaphysical complexity of this adventure, whether factual or fictional, are totally amazing. A battle of good vs. evil, a plunge into the recesses of the soul of the protagonist, and plenty of fun and delightful humor: this is a great story by an immensely talented author.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts as a mildly amusing personal zen journey, but leads into Ultimate Evil, Mystic Confrontation territory. A fine read. Hard to categorize ... and that's a good thing.

Roger Zelazny would have liked this book.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun adventure combining elements of Buddhism, memories of the 60's and the Viet Nam war and lite magical realism.

[R. Rasmussen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a fond memory of a comic book I read as a book. It may have been about Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck. I'm not sure, but the characters don't matter. What I do remember clearly is that the comic's story revolved around an incredible invention--a magical printing machine that could create any kind of story one wanted--Western, romance, mystery, or whatever. At the end of the comic book, the characters order the machine to combine all the genres in one book. After spitting out hundreds of pages, the machine breaks down in exhaustion, never to work again. Not trusting their own literary judgment, the characters then pull all the pages together and take them to a librarian to get her opinion of the book. A few days later, she issues her report: It is the greatest book she has ever read! The characters are naturally thrilled; however, their exultation is short-lived when they realize the book has been printed with disappearing ink.

Fortunately not cursed with disappearing ink, Dale Short's brilliant novel is a lot like that book in that old comic: It combines a wide range genres within a single seamless story. It is at once a war story, a religious story, a musical story, a road-trip story, a romance, a comedy, an adventure, and much more--all with traces of magical realism. This book is so good that it has virtually killed my own ambitions to be a novelist, as I know I haven't a chance in hell of ever writing anything this good myself.