Relevant Fiction Reviews: Go South, Y’All

Relevant Fiction Reviews

Southern fiction is a genre that has clear parameters in my mind that don’t quite match the descriptions I’ve been able to find. One obvious definition is books that are set in the southern United States. I’ve read plenty of those, but only a handful, to my mind, are Southern fiction.

Southern fiction, by my definition, is characterized by a particular mood. It includes quirky characters, languid summer days, and secrets. Usually family secrets. It may lean a bit toward the macabre or Southern Gothic.

Whatever you want to call it, these are some novels that fit my definition.

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Interview with Author Michelle Buckman

Turning In Circles is permeated with what is – to me, anyway – a Southern fiction voice. What characteristics do you see as setting Southern fiction apart from general fiction set throughout the United States? (Because I wouldn’t necessarily call everything set in the American south, “Southern fiction.”)

Turning In CirclesBecause I was born in New York and raised in Canada, I arrived in North Carolina as an outsider when I was at the critical teeny-bopper stage. That experience permitted me to observe the South from a different perspective than those who have always lived here. There is a difference in mannerisms, in how families interact, in how people interact in public, and even in the social structure of small communities. Continue reading