On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

Begin our discussion of Long Man by Amy Greene here.

Author Amy Greene

Amy Greene was born October 2, 1975, in Morristown, Tennessee and grew up in Whitesburg, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. She graduated from Vermont College in 2008.

Ms. Greene's first novel, Bloodroot was a national best seller and a New York Times Editor's Pick. Not a bad showing for her debut novel.

Long Man was published in 2014. It was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The novel deals with the people of a small Tennessee town about to be flooded by a dam authorized by the Tennessee Valley Authority founded in 1933.

The "TVA" was a New Deal Project of FDR's administration, begun in the early 1930s.. It brought jobs to an area hard hit by the great depression. It would bring electricity to the area and was thought it would grradually improve the harsh life style of poor Americans who called the Tennessee Valley home.

Not only are the people in the town set to lose their homes, the daughter of one couple goes missing. It's a race against the clock to find the missing child before the flood waters rise.

Long Man has received outstanding reviews. Following is a link written for the New York Times Book Review by Daniel Woodrell. High praise, injeed. You can read the review here.a href="http://s1151.photobucket.com/user/mmc..." target="_blank">

My grandmother was raised in Sevier County (home of Dolly Parton) where her father owned a general store. This is maybe a county over from where Greene was born. My grandmother and family relocated to Knoxville when the building of the Douglas Dam took over their family farm. I never remember any harsh words spoken about TVA by my grandmother. That could be because her son is an archeologist for TVA and/or I didn't know the right questions to ask back then.

I'm not too far into the novel yet, but enjoying so far.

I just started this last night, but didn't get much read. Thanks for the background, Mike.

I have finished and I'm anxious to get everyone's assessment. I will be back to comment when the discussion begins. For me, it was great.

I started reading Longman yesterday. I had marked this book "to be read" months ago (I can't remember where I saw it) and have been anxious to read it. I'm enjoying it immensely.

I just realized I haven't taken it out of the library yet, but just put a hold on it now.

I'm really enjoying it so far. I've gotten confused a couple of times but overall I like it.

I just got this book, but need to finish Carrying Albert Home, which I am enjoying and also is due back at the library Monday.

I like this more and more as I read. Hoping to finish tonight. I have to give up reading because I'm sleepy and my eyes are drooping, then lie in bed wondering what's happening, and why.

Started reading this yesterday. The descriptions are so evocative that I found myself reading passages out loud. Beautiful writing.

My vision of Annie Clyde is just like the picture of Amy Greene. The power of suggestion, I suppose.

I started listening to this yesterday. The prose is stunningly beautiful yet I'm not too sure about the story. The relocation of mountain people during the TVA dam projects is one of the saddest tales in American history. Few people have had roots as deep as those who crossed the Cumberland Gap with Daniel Boone and made their homes in the mountains and hollers of Tennessee and Kentucky, and for them to be forcible relocated and have the only homes they have ever known sunk under hundreds of feet of water must have been emotionally devastating. Even so, where does a storyteller go with such a story? I guess I'll just have to keep reading and find out.

Tom, I was the same way in the beginning. The story develops slowly, but her characters do give you a sense of how devastating the flooding was to these people.

When my family had to move off their land, approximately 525 families were forced to relocate.

I'm excited to start this later today - I'm encouraged by the discussion so far. Like Tom, I'll be listening.

People move so much today and few of us have any true attachment to the land we live on...probably because most of us own an acre or a lot, but the land was everything to these people. They were born there, their ancestors were buried on their land, the land gave them everything they used in everyday life, including their food. I understood completely why Annie Clyde wanted her daughter to pick apples off that tree and explore those woods and glades. Sharing the land was like sharing the blood.

Sara wrote: "People move so much today and few of us have any true attachment to the land we live on...probably because most of us own an acre or a lot, but the land was everything to these people. They were bo..."

A beautiful observation, Sara. There is a wonderful history of the great depression, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes. It reflects the sense of despair felt by those displaced by the general conditions of the depression and projects such as the TVA. Amos is the perfect characterization of the forgotten man who demands that Yoonetah be recognized and its way of life be considered of worth. So ironic that he is considered a target of suspicion among his own people. He is much closer in thought to Annie Clyde than she would ever care to admit.

Suzy wrote: "I'm excited to start this later today - I'm encouraged by the discussion so far. Like Tom, I'll be listening."

Thanks for nominating this one, Suzy. It was a great read.

How about a book and a movie? Wild River, directed by Elia Kazan, was released in 1960. It dealt with the same issues in this novel. The story was so big it took a screenplay by two southern novelists, adapted from their original novels: Dunbar's Cove by Mississippi author Borden Deal; and, Mud on the Stars by Alabama author William Bradford Huie. The film starred Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick.

A TVA bureaucrat comes to the river to do what none of his predecessors have been able to do - evict a stubborn octogenarian from her island before the rising waters engulf her.

In 2002, The National Film Preservation Board entered this film on the National Film Registry. It has been chosen for restoration and preservation. It should be. Just my opinion. This is available for streaming from Amazon. It's an interesting companion film for this read.

Never seen this movie, Lawyer, and it sounds like it would be quite good. I can't stream, but I will keep my eyes out for it now that I know it is out there.

You are so right on your comment regarding Amos. He and Annie Clyde are more alike than she would think. Interestingly enough, I don't think that would be a surprise to Amos. I think he sees the others much more clearly than they see him.

Lawyer wrote: "Suzy wrote: "I'm excited to start this later today - I'm encouraged by the discussion so far. Like Tom, I'll be listening."

Thanks for nominating this one, Suzy. It was a great read."

And thanks back to you for the background at the top of the thread. Looking forward to starting this book!

Checking back in after listening to about a third of the book. I'm loving it - the writing is so evocative as Nell said. It's almost as if I'm watching a movie. I love the main characters and both the current situation they're in and the back stories that Greene tells us about. There's an ominous feeling to the story. One frustration is that I wish I hadn't read the descriptions of the book because they give away the event that becomes a critical part of the story. I think I would have enjoyed discovering that event on my own as the story unfolds. (a complaint I have in general about books descriptions these days; I should have followed my rule of not reading them before reading the book!)

Tom wrote: "I started listening to this yesterday. The prose is stunningly beautiful yet I'm not too sure about the story. The relocation of mountain people during the TVA dam projects is one of the saddest ta..."

What do you think of the narrator? I think she's a great match for the story and makes it even richer than it might be in print. I thought when she introduced herself, she could have said "Dale Dickey, smoker". :)

Suzy wrote: "What do you think of the narrator? I think she's a great match for the story and makes it even richer than it might be in print."

I think the narration is perfect. I'm most of the way through it and believe this is a story designed to be read aloud. It exudes the essence of the mountain people's story-telling tradition. Listening to it evokes the same melancholy poignancy as Norman Blake's Lonesome Jenny.

I loved this story, the writing, the characters and the slow way it developed. This was a five star read for me too.

@Diane I'm only 1/3 of the way through and I am predisposed to rate this 5 stars for the very reasons you've stated.

@Tom I hadn't thought about it, but you're right this story begs to be read aloud. "melancholy poignancy" perfect! I've had a lump in my throat the whole time. Reminds me of how I felt listening to The Orchardist. While not set in the south, has the same looking back on life feel of a lament that this book does. Thanks for the tune.

Lawyer wrote: "How about a book and a movie? Wild River, directed by Elia Kazan, was released in 1960. It dealt with the same issues in this novel. The story was so big it took a screenplay by two southern noveli..."

I was telling my guy about Long Man last night and encouraging him to read it. He said "wasn't there a movie starring Montgomery Clift about this?". Our library has it, so we're going to watch after we both finish this book. Thanks for mentioning it!

Nice choice !! A solid 4 stars for me, beautifully written and very believable , just a touch too slow moving for me to rate it a five.

I loved the strong sense of place, and the Appalachian Gothic atmosphere. It was a character-driven novel, and I felt like I had spent time with real people rather than characters in a book.

Did anyone else notice we just read another book with unrelenting rain and flooding? First, Rivers, and now Long Man.

Connie wrote: "Did anyone else notice we just read another book with unrelenting rain and flooding? First, Rivers, and now Long Man. "

Maybe we should read The Tilted World next?

Tom wrote: "Connie wrote: "Did anyone else notice we just read another book with unrelenting rain and flooding? First, Rivers, and now Long Man. "

Maybe we should read The Tilted World next?"

LOL! Actually, The Tilted World looks like something I would enjoy reading--maybe on a sunny day.

The new Anna Quindlen book, "Miller's Valley", is about the same subject, relocation of long time families to flood an area for recreational purposes. It takes place in Pennsylvania. I've had enough flooding for a while.

Flooding and fracking seem to be this summer's subjects.

I just finished the first thirty pages, and I found the style not only powerful with its visual and auditory imagery of the place, but that the rhythmic nature of Greene's sentences matches the place. I find that only a few authors can give a sense of a "lost" place with isolated and lost characters (lost in the modern world, and usually the only way to access them is through the imagination of a poet or novelist).

The nobility of the characters is striking since they do know that their time is limited, that any sense of a future in their loved homeland is doomed.

Even the outsider Washburn knows that he is a trespasser upon their land and that his actions, to ask people to leave their homes, is sinful. It might be legal, but it still wrong even if Yunbetah is already a dead town.

The forced relocation reminds me of another Depression era novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

However, the focus upon the characters' memories reminds us of the places we have lost over time, that the places that have changed since our childhoods and adulthoods. For those of us who are older, many of the neighborhoods we spent our childhoods are not the same; they only exist in memory.

You are correct about our childhood being only the same in our memory. I returned to my home in a small Louisiana town after 40 years. The small downtown was dying with only a few stores open. The one theater was long abandoned. It was difficult finding the home that I grew up in. When I found it, I discovered it to be a personal care home.

I'm about 1/3 through the novel now and finding myself with mixed feelings, possibly because of some other books I've read lately. I do think that this is very powerful with often beautiful imagery juxtaposed with disturbing events, memories and people. All of the negativity is not in the flooding which almost seems to be a metaphor for everything that has attacked these people for generations and so many family issues.

I am anticipating what will happen now as the major event has just occurred and I'm sure people will reveal themselves even more. As for Amos, the brief introduction he was afforded left me feeling basically creeped out by him.

I just finished Long Man and it is one of my few yearly favorites.

Click here to go to my Goodbook review.

Amos is a multi-layered character. I was creeped out in some places, felt sorry for him in others.

Diane wrote: "Amos is a multi-layered character. I was creeped out in some places, felt sorry for him in others."

I agree. He was definitely not a one-dimensional character.

Diane wrote: "Amos is a multi-layered character. I was creeped out in some places, felt sorry for him in others."

I agree. The back story helped the reader understand him better. When Annie's daughter disappeared, I knew then who was going to get the blame.

I thought all of the characters were multi-faceted and fully developed, even Washburn. I liked that Greene created sympathy for all the characters and didn't provide pat answers for any of this.

Im cracking this open tonight!!!