Twenty Favorite Books of Southern Fiction
(The first ten of these fall so squarely within the traditions of Southern fiction that it’s hard for me to imagine anyone arguing they don’t belong here; the second ten aren’t so obvious, either because they adopt a non-Southern setting, or because they traffic in fantasy, or because their authors were raised in but then left the South, or moved South after they were raised elsewhere, or because they come from Florida, which is either just inside the cusp of the South or just outside it depending on who you ask. I’ve arranged the books alphabetically by author.)
Incontestably Southern
A Death in the Family by James Agee
Jujitsu for Christ by Jack Butler
Here We Are in Paradise by Tony Earley
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys by Chris Fuhrman
The Cockroaches of Stay More by Donald Harington
The Dixie Association by Donald Hays
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Sharpshooter Blues by Lewis Nordan
Around Centralia Square by Dennis Vannatta
Many Things Have Happened Since He Died by Elizabeth Dewberry Vaughn
Contestably Southern
Abbott Awaits by Chris Bachelder
Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
Florida by Lauren Groff
Nobody Is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
True Grit by Charles Portis
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
The Dragon Griaule by Lucius Shepard
The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis
— December 25, 2020