Reviews for Appalachee Red : a novel
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Rolled hoop-like from the First World War to the integration sit-ins of the early Sixties, Andrews' first novel (winner of the new James Baldwin Prize for Fiction), traverses the back streets of Appalachee, Georgia, to chronicle the rise of a local Robin Hood/wheeler-dealer who takes over the little north Georgia town and isn't about to let it go. Born the reddish-haired, reddish-skinned baby of black little Bit Thompson and her rich white employer, ""Appalachee Red"" returns to Appalachee in the Forties after years up North. He appropriates the cracker police chief's black mistress, Baby Sweet, and remakes a dingy ghetto cafe into a gambling casino and still-liquor distributorship the likes of which the town has never known. Red's vision and command bring everyone to heel--local whites (who gamble one night a week when the cafe is cleared of blacks), country peach-picker rowdies, and the black bourgeoisie. Red never does much with his power except exert it, evenly, so don't look for much sense of development or direction. And don't look for great craft--narrative here is more tell than show; no nuance goes unexplained. But Andrews' inexhaustible energy for storytelling is impressive, so get beyond the tour-guidey tone and you'll find that this north Georgia town is a well-realized stopping place. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
