518-482-6683
The Moaner's Bench
Book Promotion
Itinerary:
Oct. 6
SUNY; Albany, NY
Oct. 9, 10, 11
Nashville, TN
Oct. 12
Little Rock, AR
Pine Bluff, AR
Fayettville, AR
Jonesborough, AR
Arkadelphia, AR
Chicago, IL
Mars Hills
The Moaner's Bench
Release Date - September 1998
I"Hot June spat dragon fires showering Baptist business around-about our farms, our rolling hills, our low lands, our creeks and bayous in forest country. Weeping willows that sat quietly on sloughy banks shared the watering rains, drank deep from creeks, unseen substrata, and springs slowed their givens. Joints from growing stalks popped at night and the smell of fresh earth rose to greet every nostril. Sweet potato vines spread their azure quilt across each row, and pole beans climbed high towards the heavens and drooped their wings laden with ripened lobes. Quiet sprinkles continued earth's ritual plan, and its living and growing exceeded its dying and decaying. Bumblebees buzzed among berries and bushes. Horseflies galloped among the "stock," drawing blood, growing big, brave, and ugly. Everything that crept or crawled gathered at the watering holes. Fresh tenders replaced tender "earlies." Earth's evangelism sprung to full pump, and witnesses were everywhere. Fields and gardens were deep green, speckled with white, pink, and blue. The heathen sun was relentless in its savagery. Snakes crawled night and day, and there were rumors of slobbering mad dogs running loose in the roads. "
The Moaner’s' Bench is a young boy's "rite of passage" novel of a young boy’s growing up in Arkansas, in a fundamentalist society, during the Depression. It is written in two parts (books). In the first chapter of Book I, Sun’s father had died, and he came to live with his well-to-do, strict Uncle Pet where he experiences going to the moaner’s' bench, getting religion, and falling in love with his cousin Saravania. There is a love scene between Sun and Saravania in chapter two that gets them into trouble. They are discovered. In the third chapter, Uncle Pet beats Sun severely, after which, he suddenly sends Saravania to her grandfather in Detroit. Sun hurts from the beating, and is emotionally devastated. Additionally, Sun has to adapt to his new environment as a fatherless boy, and the hard discipline of Uncle Pet that is foreshadowed. The flashback is Sun's escape, as he lapses into remembrances of life with his family.
It’s about his earliest memory of Papa and Mama, who would wrestle demons for him. Of Ben, his playmate, who was always helping him get something done. Of Black Nelson, Elbert and Mr. Durbey his heroes. Of Professor L. Carrington Woodside, who showed him about as much warmth as a woolly mammoth, but he taught Sun arithmetic and English. It is also about his troubles and losses at an early age: his puppy Spot, the snake bite at six, and the dog bite at seven. It ends with the death of his father.
Hopefully, the book is about redemption, in metaphorical terms. Redemption is not an event, but a lifetime process. The racial problems in this country stems from the fact that we don’t admit that slavery was wrong. Denial and hypocrisy prevents us from admitting that a horrible crime was committed against the descendants of a continental people. The country won’t begin to heal until we make that admission. The crime continues. As individuals, and as a nation, we must do our time on the moaner’s bench.