Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams by Paul Hemphill (Viking hardback). This sparse bio is both a joy and a disappointment, but mostly the former. As a straightforward biography of the country music giant, it’s well-crafted but too short and lacking in detail. But Hemphill, a native Alabaman who has written for years about the blue collar South, gives the book a twist by relating his own life to Williams’, beginning with his enchantment with Hank during his childhood in the late 40s, and continuing through Williams’ impact today. In short, Hemphill creates a portrait of the changes in our region via a half-formed bio. Somehow it works. — John Grooms
The Children’s War by Monique Charlesworth (Anchor paperback). One of my favorite novels of 2004 is the story of two children caught in the middle of history, in this case World War II. It’s also a nuanced tale about sacrifice, fate, persistence and love. At the start of the war, a half-Jewish German girl of 13 is sent to live with her uncle in Morocco, then to France to live with her hapless, Bolshevik father. When he’s arrested, she has to fend for herself in Paris. Meanwhile her mother befriends a German boy who, as the war progresses, finds his own country morphing into a nightmarish landscape. That’s the bare bones of the plot, but Charlesworth’s beautiful, spare writing and her clear insights into the subtleties of human nature take the novel to a whole other level. Highly recommended. — Dana Renaldi
Hard Line: Life and Death on the US-Mexico Border by Ken Ellingwood (Vintage paperback). Ellingwood, an LA Times reporter, started to write about the impact of Operation Gatekeeper, the US’ effort to seal the 1,952-mile border with Mexico. In the end, he wrote much more: a searing, unforgettable portrait of the people whose lives intersect near the border. Ranchers, migrant workers, drug traffickers, border patrol agents, and Native American tribes all tell their stories, giving the book a you-are-there, real-life feel that’s mercifully free of liberal/conservative ideological battles. This is complex and enlightening reporting at its best. — Billy Dunn
This article appears in Oct 5-11, 2005.
