Look Back All the Green Valley

by Fred Chappell

A Southeast Booksellers Association Best Book of the Year

Jess Kirkman returns to the North Carolina mountain town of his boyhood to tend to his ailing mother, and clean out his deceased father's workroom. What he discovers there leads him―and the reader―on an unforgettable journey through the secret life of Jess's father, Joe Robert, which culminates in a moment of profound mystery and comedy.

Genres: Fiction, Southern

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Fred Davis Chappell retired after 40 years as an English professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was the Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1997-2002. He attended Duke University.

His 1968 novel Dagon, which was named the Best Foreign Book of the Year by the Academie Française, is a recasting of a Cthulhu Mythos horror story as a psychologically realistic Southern Gothic.

His literary awards include the Prix de Meilleur des Livres Etrangers, the Bollingen Prize, and the T. S. Eliot Prize.

Reviews

[Lanea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth novel in a semi-autobiographical series, which also includes four volumes of poetry: River (1975); Bloodfire (1978); Wind Mountain (1979); and Earthsleep (1980); all of which are available as a collection entitled Midquest (1981). The previous novels are: I Am One of You Forever (1985); Brighten the Corner Where You Are (1989); and Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You (1996). The first and third are, hands down, two of the best books I've ever read. The novels track the life of Jess Kirkman, who grows from a beloved teacher's child into a writer and professor. There's been a fair amount of discussion in the Appalachian Lit community over the years about just how close to Chappell's life these books cleave. Chappell gets a well-placed jab in this time around: In Look Back, our hero Jess Kirkman has a heated discussion with his ailing mother, who is offended both that he has a pen-name at all, and that he chose one as obnoxious as "Fred Chappell."

This novel follows Kirkman as he plans for his mother's death and copes with finding a new burial plot for his father, long dead. Kirkman also frets over his translation of Dante's Inferno, and over his family's supposed lack of understanding for his poetic spirit. I think Look Back is the weakest novel in the series, though that's one of the limpest attacks I could make about a book, considering Chappell's skill. It falters when Jess broods over his mother's disdain for his writing or his assumptions that his father never read his work. We writers stew over such things constantly, but they don't generally trump our need to learn more about our loved ones who have passed or make the heart-wrenching plans for our parents' deaths. Jess has always struck me as a loving man--this peek into his narcissism sours him a bit for me. Chappell may have been running out of steam with this one, or he may have been so absorbed into working a bit of sci-fi into the novel (I won't give away more than that) that he lost the thread on Jess a bit. Or he may have been self-flagellating.

Whatever the reason for that glimpse at Jess's narcissism, it certainly isn't enough to wreck this sweet little book. We get more of Joe Robert, Jess's wonderful, enigmatic father. We get some lovely glimpses into mountain culture. We get a few more words than we need, here and there. Personally, I see the luxury of finding fault with a writer as fine as Fred Chappell proof of an embarrassment of riches.

[Stephanie Ricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look Back All the Green Valley sadly was not as beautiful as the other Chappell novels that I’ve read and loved so much. Boring isn’t an adjective I typically apply to Chappell, but unfortunately it is apt for much of this book. Instead of the usual string of funny, tragic, and lovely stories that comprise his other novels, this one is more of a contemporary chronicle of the author’s quest to understand his father’s life, with far fewer digressions. The digressions were my favorite part, though, and the excessive detail that plagues Chappell’s minute-by-minute recounting makes for a slightly dull reading experience. The ending did redeem things a bit, and it’s still Chappell, which means it’s still worth reading.

[Bernadette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably not a book for everyone, because the story lacks conflict and plot, but the writing is lyrical, poetic and beautiful.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the first two-thirds of this book, when it revolved around a son's attempt to find out more about his deceased father's inner thoughts. Abruptly it changed into a sci-fi book with a flashback (I think) to when the family went on a trip to the moon via the father's homemade spaceship. This incident wasn't mentioned again, and could easily be lifted out of the book without causing any plot disruptions.

Overall I think the book was mediocre, and putting in a random chapter that was pure sci-fi did nothing to make things better.

[Sheldon Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice job with place & time. Nostalgic. A son's tribute to his father.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The death scene of the father becomes even more touching because of its surreal approach. All four of these related family novels link wondrously.

[Tom Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Fred Chappell's novels many years ago. For some reason, I never read his final story focusing on the Kirkman family. In this final installment, Joe Robert Kirkman has been dead for a decade. Jess and his sister Mitzi are tasked with finding a solution to the problem of burying their parents together since the cemetery where their father is buried does not have space for their mother. The story focuses on Jess's search for his father's past as he looks for a place where his parents can spend eternity together. The ending is perfect based on all that you learn about Joe Robert from Jess's search for answers about his father. I really enjoyed all of Chappell's books about the Kirkman family. I would recommend all of them and start with I am One of You Forever and then proceeding to Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You and then Brighten the Corner Where You Are. He has a charming way of capturing the quirks of the Kirkman family as they navigate life in the mountains of North Carolina. I think that you will enjoy following the joys and heartbreaks and humorous adventures of the Kirkman family as much as I did.

[Ray Metz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fred Chappell is undervalued as an author. This 4th book in his series explores a son’s exploration of who his father was as his mother is struggling with her health. Looking for his father’s mistresses, a trio to the moon in 1949 and a search for a place for his parents to be buried and much more…

The son who tells the story is a poet and professor that writes under the pseudonym of Fred Chappell. Are there other writers that write stories about a writer that uses the actual author’s name as their name? Seems unique to me and the kind of creative wink I really appreciate.

Readability - 7
Characters - 8
Story - 8

Loved the tetralogy. It gets a 9.0 from me.

Manhood is but an hour in the life of a boy. — Fugio
Time has no secrets. You can watch a clock all day and never learn a thing. — Fugio
It takes a trillion yesterdays to produce a single tomorrow. — Fugio
When is everywhere. Fugio

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I pulled this one from my shelf. A book my mom purchased in Savannah a year before she died. I don’t think she got to read it. The author is a southern writer with a unique writing style that I did enjoy. He is a storyteller and a poet, though his stories sometimes when on tangents and could not tell where the story was going at times. Ultimately, after his father died, a son goes to search about the life his father lived in order to get to know who he really was. He reports “I didn’t find a man, I found a boy.” A lot of comical parts. This book also won the SEBA award, an award to southern writers.

[Cecelia Sundell · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What we imagine is what we are; what we desire is what we become. As Jesus told us in a different context, If we have so much as a thought of the deed, then we have committed it. Everything has come true, ladies and gentlemen. Our lives are but poetry, after all, for see how the mighty have bee humbled and brought low at last in the fullness of poetic justice and see how the moon has become an abode for humankind and look how the titanic thinkers of past time console us yet in our present perils.”

Look back look back the Maytime days.
Look back all the green valley.

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full transparency- this book was picked because of a reading challenge & is the only thing I have read from this author.

Did I think this was the best book ever? No. Did I enjoy it overall though? I would say yes. It's a light read that doesn't require much thinking. It felt very slow to me until about half way through- where it was still slow but more interesting. I loved so many of the antics of his father & was cracking up at quite a few things.

[MELISSA WILSON · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had its ups and downs. Parts of the book I found delightful. Other parts I could hardly bare to read. I had the feeling throughout that if I was more familiar with the old classics (Dante, etc) I would have found many parallels but lacking that literary background it left me cold.

[Colette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure I entirely understood this book -- there's one section in it that to me felt out of place in relation to the rest -- but I really liked it all the same, especially that one chapter! Go figure.

[Marianne Mersereau · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel set in the mountains of North Carolina is a quick read with memorable characters and lots of humor. Fans of Southern literature will especially appreciate Chappell's lyrical writing.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given this four stars if not for the sci-fi chapter.

[Chris Daily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe I read this whole book.

[Debdanz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a 2.5. Started out strong, but really went off the rails towards the end.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

(no 28 of 2024)

[Granny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a mixed bag for me. Parts of it had real power as a novelized memoir, calling vividly to mine my own childhood in Appalachia. It evoked the recent past of the region well, the slow pace of life, the initial wariness of the residents, followed by a surprizing warmth when they find you have a connection to the area.

The exploration of the past of the family at the center of the story was both endearing and unsettling, exactly the way memories of family tend to be. The combination of charm contrasted by missed opportunities and misunderstandings rang true, and was very moving.

Where the novel falls down for me was when the mystery which drives the novel begins to appear. The fantasy of the spaceship pulled me entirely out of the story. And even though the novel returned to reality, I felt like I never fully got back into it. The mystery seemed a bit lame, it wasn't as driven by the author's love of the region as the previous portions had been. From this point forward the character's began to seem less fully drawn, although the descriptions of the area still had force.

The eventual denouement of the mystery was an excellent surprise, but the route to it was tepid. All in all, not a novel I will want to read again.

[Gloria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jesse Kirkman has a problem. His mother is dying and wants to be buried next to her husband, but there has been an unfortunate turn of events. That space is no longer available. What to do?? Thus begins the search for a new resting place, and in the course of that search, Jesse must revisit his roots, something he has never really wanted to do. He grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and left all that behind to become a writer and lecturer at the University in Greensboro. The story takes us to his old haunts and introduces us to his larger than life father Robert who was a visionary with ideas far beyond what the locals themselves could comprehend. The description of the moon landing on July 20, 1969, is the ultimate expression of that. Jesse is also a translator of poetry and is in the throes of translating Dante, and I found these interspersed writings a bit jarring. Maybe they added something to the narrative, but I was not in tune enough to appreciate that. Refreshingly, there seems to be no discord in the family. The story focuses on Jesse's re-entry into the Appalachia of his youth and brings a renewed appreciation of the heritage he was raised in. All in all a pretty good read with a tidy outcome.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book because Fred Chappell is from the same county I grew up in and because I worked with a bunch of MFA students in the writing center at UNCG, where Chappell has taught forever. Alas, I was a bit disappointed. It was an okay story-the interweaving of the Dante was kind of annoying-but overall it just seemed contrived to me. Though, to his credit, Chappell did a great job of making the reader feel like the main character, Jess, was a fish out of water going back to the mountains trying to recapture who his father was in the midst of kind of family crisis over a mix up at the cemetery where his father was buried-and someone was buried in his mother's spot. Jess hadn't been back in basically 20 years and he felt out of place-but the story felt forced-awkward I guess. I felt the awkwardness of Jess in meeting with the mountain folk and trying to understand them, himself, and his father. Eh, it felt contrived. I think Chappell did a good job with the emotions, but in the end I just didn't really like the story.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year.Being city girl, I never had much patience with good ole NC folklore,country people..this is not that at all..alot of great tales along the way, no different than any of those stories we toss around as a family..

I laughed out loud on the first chapter or so, nothing like a good ole family competion., contest and games..just too funny..brought back a great memory of a "shell contest " we once had as a family.

Fred keeps it together with this book,main character he uncovers is his father, now passed of course.. but we ride along with all the crazy stories, and his father's ramblings and special hobbies of such...

should stop while I'm ahead,most of what the author has published are poetry collections, but there are 2 more novels..my next library list..

[Jonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a wonderful book, it is well-written and the characters are interesting and the writing is so lyrical you feel like you are talking with your best friend, no reading a book. It's one of those books that you just want to hug against you, it makes you feel so good. I think I'll add it to my 'to read' list - haven't read it since '99. Definitely read this book, it will make you feel all warm inside.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiction about an Appalachian family in North Carolina- the adult writer son returns home to help his mother deal with some things before her death, and figures out some things about his father in the process. Not heavy or depressing though, lots of detective-type activity that leads him to some interesting towns and characters. Almost felt like a good travel novel.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Follow up to Brighten the Corner Where You Are. My little assisted living reading group enjoyed the author's father so much in that book we decided we would read this book this year that tells you more about him.
3 and 1/2 stars. Right in line with style of first book. Likable people, fun stories of another era.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the book was beautifully written, although I didn't enjoy it as much as its prequel, I Am One of You Forever. Parts were slow going. Upon finishing it, I felt like I'd enjoy it more in the context of a group discussion.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

It appears that this book was the last book of a series. Perhaps I would have appreciated it more if I had read the first books, but all in all I'm glad I didn't. A "man trying to figure out his father" novel, when there really wasn't much to figure out.

[Krenner1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only recently found Fred Chappell and I admired and raved about his tender stories and wonderful use of language. But on this one I felt his eloquent language got in the way of the story and plot. It was overdone.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

2012-01-24 -- Whimsical, nostalgic and bitter-sweet. Beautiful language and enough twists and turns to excite the senses. Could almost visualise the characters and settings, and it made me really want to visit the area myself.

[Chuck McGrady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a charming story---set in the North Carolina mountains, Chappell is just great story-teller. I wasn't sure where the story was headed, but I loved the pace and the comedy. Glad I picked up this book!