THE LONESOME TRAVELER AND OTHER STORIES

by John W. Corrington ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 1968

Mr. Corrington's short stories are much more tempered, focal and involving than his novels. Again the concerns are with the South, in particular the Civil War and its effects. ""First Blood"" is a sparse, urgent affair as the Yankees lay siege to an old man's house where he is sheltering four Confederate wounded. His young son arrives, a victim of other, senseless violence turned into a rapacious killer because of it, and the old man must draw his first blood. A later ""Reunion"" at Gettysburg contrasts the innocent awe and wonder of the young with the reminiscences of their grandfather and other men who lost a part of themselves there. ""A Time to Embrace"" is an excellent little melodrama which tells the story of a scandal--one woman and two men who lived out their scarred postwar lives in a curious menage a trois that left a son and cured a life-long enmity. The title story travels a familiar road as a young reporter is ordered to the scene of a possible lynching of a Negro. He becomes involved in helping the Sheriff spirit the Negro out of the county and is almost a victim himself after witnessing the deaths of the two men. His story, predictably, turns out not to ""mean anything"" as the death of Will Rogers fills the headlines. Old landscapes, fresh dialogue and some surprisingly good efforts here; an assurance that we are all, in a sense, ""travelers without maps,"" at times alienated and alone.

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1968

Categories: FICTION