Off for the Sweet Hereafter — T.R. Pearson

From Library JournalT. R. Pearson, author of last year's A Short History of a Small Place , again presents an intimate view of small-town North Carolina, but Neely is no Mayberry, and its residents remind one more of a Southern verison of The Beans of Egypt, Maine than of Andy Griffith. The Neely-ites are a motley crew, known by lineage and physical attributes (the bald Jeeter). Raeford Benton Lynch, of the Chickenhouse Lynches, never has done a great deal with himself, until he hires on with a grave-moving crew and meets hot-blooded Jane Elizabeth Firesheets, whose charms lead him to a life of crime. Pearson has a dense, folksy style all his own, and although his storyline sometimes gets muddled and his prose busy, his originality and unerring sense of place make this book a winner. Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.ReviewAnyone from anywhere should feel a fond familiarity with the citizens of Neely, North Carolina. Even at their most manically comic, they are gentle souls at heart. They have the swarming, entangled look of the crowd in a Bruegel painting, but each face stands out separately, innocent and endearing.  -- Anne Tyler, The New York Times