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"In
[his]distinguished first book, James Autry has vividly captured the sensual
textures of childhood. His characters and places form a common boundary of
sensibility for his readers, whether they grew up in city or town or countryside.
Autry's world is part of all of us.
Nights
Under a Tin Roof is a gentle journey into the past across the terrains
of youth. James Autry has written a verse-tribute to the people who reared
him, to the invaluable connection between the generations. What we learned
from our forebears - the simple truths of civilization: doing things well,
keeping a sense of humor - are debts that can never be fully repaid, but
Autry has helped us to pause and to remember.
James
Autry's voice comes through with such gentle authority, his family in their
particular landscape with such affectionate detail, that even the reader
to whom growing up in the rural South seems most exotic will take for his
own.
An
astonishing new voice is heard in the land. Jim Autry's extraordinary evocative
recollections of growing up in Mississippi express a universality that will
touch many hearts. I have never laughed and cried so much over poetry.
"Whether
writing about his boyhood experiences in Mississippi and Tennessee or about
pressures of corporate life Autry's poems are the products of a man gifted
with something positive to say and the talent to say it."
Like
the best country music, it draws its life from an ancient vein of
strength....This is a book to read aloud."
"There
is much in today's South, many other physical and metaphysical terrains,
that merits exploration. From the evidence of his first book, Autry has it
in him, if he chooses, to be that explorer."
"For
all those who were lost in the shuffle to the city, who like the look of
red clay dirt under their fingernails, who have ever sharpened a Barlow knife
by 'spitting on a whetrock,' Nights Under a Tin Roof is one
big but vicarious roll in an open field."
"Here
we join the hardy, friendly neighbors of an earlier era, as they gather at
funerals, reunions, church socials and revivals, and meet the large company
of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and extended family who cared for
and left their mark on the lad who was lucky enough to be related."
"The
landscape of [Autry's] memories is familiar to anyone who has heard the voice
of the whippoorwill or the baying of hounds in the night or who has savored
the smell of fresh turned earth."
"No
wonder writer Willie Morris, upon hearing [Autry's] works, declared: 'Come
home, Autry. Come home and publish.'"
"Once
is enough for most books plugged on television. But not Nights Under
a Tin Roof, Recollections of a Southern Boyhood. I heard James A.
Autry's reading from the collection of his poems on Channel 13. I bought
a copy and turned to it time and again. I sent copies to friends, who sent
copies to friends. The poignant poems bring back the language of our grandparents
and a time gone by." |
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