Ten Favorite Novels That Take Place in Little Rock, Arkansas
(When it comes to the landscapes of American fiction, Little Rock isn’t New York or Chicago or even Memphis, which means that a list such as this, even if it’s only ten books long, doesn’t require much paring down; reducing the possibilities even further is the fact that some of the fiction writers who are most identified with the city haven’t set any of their novels here. I myself have lived in Little Rock almost my entire life, yet the only work I’ve written that takes place in an identifiable version of the city is A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip, my memoir of seventh grade, along with two short stories: the displaced autobiographical “Andrea Is Changing Her Name” and a one-third true/two-thirds invented history of the city called “A Little Rock Handbook,” which was published in the Arkansas Times back in 2005 and hasn’t been reprinted. Here, then, are ten titles by writers—other than me—that take place at least partially in the city, arranged alphabetically by author.)
The Last Baby Angel by Sam Calvin Brown
Living in Little Rock With Miss Little Rock by Jack Butler
Dry Bones by Hope Norman Coulter
The Choiring of the Trees by Donald Harington *
The Dixie Association by Donald Hays
Hell on Church Street by Jake Hinkson
A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins
Boys Like Us by Peter McGehee
The Dog of the South by Charles Portis
Any Empire by Nate Powell
* Harington’s first novel, The Cherry Pit, is set almost entirely in Little Rock, while The Choiring of the Trees is set here only partially, but The Choiring of the Trees is simply better.
— August 24, 2022