 "White
Trash"
by Beulah Poynter
Uni-Book, 1952
Forget the witty title-- the
ones with a shocking or risqué play on words. Nope, this book just
comes right out and says what it's about--white trash. The back cover reads:
"Mattie Horn might be a bawdy and direputable--but she was still beautiful
enough to draw the town's most respected citizens down to the Hollow where
she lived. And if her own charms failed, there was always her daughter
Hagar--not yet eighteen, and pretty as a picture. The trouble was, Hagar
wanted to be a respectable citizen herself. Tiring of visits on the sly,
she took up right out in public with the preacher's son. Her boldness,
and a slight dip into sin by Deacon Elihu Spry, brought down the wrath
of the whole brutal community on the heads of the scarlet
woman and her
daughter." This book hits all the required themes for a tawdry rural story:
the wanton woman who sells hooch on the side, the beautiful daughter who
wants to make a name for herself, the ambitious son of a preacher man,
and an ending with the always welcome tar and feathering scene. White
trash is a mix of Li'l Abner and every Erskine Caldwell novel you've
every read with a pinch of Faulkner thrown in for good measure.
Book Shelf Archives>>>
|
