Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite American novels
Review: "A Short History of a Small Place" is on my personal list of ten best American novels. Mr. Pearson is a Southern story-teller to the bone, interrupting himself, digressing, supplying minute detail, but always focusing on the main thread of the story, always evoking a sense of place, and always, always depicting characters whose eccentricities are both endearing and defining. I first became acquainted with Mr. Pearson and this, his first-published work, in the mid '80s when I was living in North Carolina and heard this novel read on a radio program, a medium which suited it perfectly, given Mr. Pearson's conversational style. Soon after, I read it for myself, and have since reread it in entirety and in part, enjoying it even more with each new visit. Through the eyes of young Louis Benfield, who though apparently innocent is a keen observer, the reader meets the inhabitants of Neely, NC and learns some of the history that causes them to do the things they do. The ancient Miss Pettigrew, who has never recovered from being jilted is a not-too-distant cousin to Miss Haversham. The Epperson sisters with their petition and seemingly unending quest, Louis's mother who washes dishes and stares out the window (behavior that the reader comprehends immediately, but Louis only gradually), the town Sheriff who is not as fearless as he seems to Louis, all are fully drawn portraits of endearing people. Every year, close to Christmas time, I take out "A Short History" and re-read the Christmas pageant section in which Miss Pettigrew's appearance causes such a stir that the dog (that would be the dog playing the part of the donkey in the Christmas play) knocks over a candle and nearly sets fire to the whole church. It is both uproariously funny and completely recognizable for anyone who grew up in a small place (regardless of geography) and participated in the yearly church Christmas pageant. Since "A Short History", I've eagerly awaited each of Mr. Pearson's successive novels and have enjoyed all of them;his humorous observation of human frailty remains keen. With each successive novel, he has tightened his style and honed his descriptive abilities, which is admirable, but I must admit that it was the expansive, langorous style of his first story -- a style of story-telling that took me back decades to a front porch, summer heat, and my grandmother's voice -- that I most admired and enjoyed.
Rating:
Summary: One of My Favorite Books!
Review: After reading the other reviews on this book, I decided that I must give it a try and I am so glad that I did! What is really a very simple story of an older spinster who kills herself by jumping off the local water tower, is actually a side-splitting yarn about life in a small Southern town. The narrator's voice is pure and authentic, telling tales told to him by his daddy, about the local inhabitants. Yet every character will become etched in your memory. This book reminds those of us who really love to read, why we love it so. While this book could easily be filmed as a movie, only a book can relay the more subtle emotions which not only make it funny but indeed wistful. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Whatever you do, treat yourself to his masterpiece of American literature.
Rating:
Summary: fabulous book!
Review: I reread this book about once a year, and I have given perhaps
10-12 copies to friends. This is storytelling at its very best.
If you have ever been in a small town and listened to the locals
gossip at a sewing circle or on the porch of the general store,
you'll understand the writing style. It's rambling narrative,
told by the young boy Louis Benfield. One thread leads to
another thread, which leads to a third thread: eventually you
return to the first thread and make some progress before going
off again to another thread. At the general store in your small
town Fred will be talking about his sister Betsy: well, Betsy's
husband Will is one of the Smythville Jeeters, the ones whose
father JimBob stole Joe Parker's prize hog. So the locals will
talk a bit about Joe Parker, and eventually we'll get back to
Betsy. This is most definitely NOT a book that you can read if you have
a lot of distractions, are generally fidgety, etc. You need time
and patience--it's like the finest coffee or wine--you sip it
rather than gulp it down. I gave a copy to a colleague: she
started it 5 times and could never get through more than a few
pages. Then she had some time free of distractions, read the
whole book, and loved it. You have to listen to the sentences
in your mind, just as you would listen to the locals at the
general store. Every small town has its characters: those who are eccentric,
those who are "peculiar" (there's a difference). There is Miss
Pettigrew, whose pet monkey Mr Britches climbs the flagpole in
his coat and porkpie hat. There are the three Epperson sisters
who live together and dress identically, and who one day decide
that they are triplets, and start circulating petitions to have
people acknowledge their triplethood. There are plenty of
people who are not eccentric or peculiar, but who manage to
do things which attract comment. A young friend of Louis
Benfield has a pet guinea pig named Artemus Gordon. When
Artemus Gordon gets sick, the boy's friends speculate on the
cause: one friend insists the guinea pig has gonorrhea, a
disease he heard (vaguely) about from his older sister. When
Artemus Gordon dies, the boy wants to ensure that he goes to
Heaven, so at an open-casket funeral (very common in the South)
he quietly places the dead guinea pig in the coffin when nobody
is looking. The furry dead beast, nestled beside the dear
departed, is soon discovered, causing quite a flurry. The book
is full of such stories. You find yourself developing a real
affection for Neely, North Carolina, and its people, and you
feel that you know the town and people well. A real treasure!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Disappointing Indeed
Review: I was recommended this book by a friend. He said, "Get that book. I promise you it will be the funniest thing you've ever read." It definitely wasn't the funniest thing I've ever read. I only found some of the anecdotes mildly amusing.
If I had to say the story had a main character, I would have to say it was the young Louis Benfield, the narrator of the story. The book is pretty much a narration of his, first, second and third hand accounts of the goings on in his hometown of Neely, North Carolina. However, I never get an in depth look at young Louis Benfield or at any of the characters he describes. I also found that he threw so many characters at me that I didn't have the opportunity to get emotionally attached to any of them. The closest I came to an emotional connection would be to the character of his mother, and even then the emotional depth of her character fell short.
I also had a hard time fixing a time period to the novel. At some points, I felt like I was reading a story set in the 30's and at other times, I'd notice years placed in, such as 1975 or 1980. This made me a bit more frustrated with the story because I found it hard to believe that anyone in the South could be that ignorant and simple minded during that time period. I never lived in the South, but both my parents were from small towns in the South and when I visited the South, I never saw instances like the ones described in this book. The people in this book just seemed too simple and bored for my liking.
Overall, I was greatly disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: A Short Review for a Long Book
Review: T.R. Pearson's novel, a Short History of a Small Place, takes the reader by the hand down a winding path through the history of a family and life in a small town. The narrator, Louis Benfield, is a child retelling the stories told to him by his father. The story is told through the eyes of a child but from the perspective of an entire town.
The story rambles along but the reader is never lost. Louis will start a particular story and then sidetrack to another story but he always returns to the first. Also, there is always a reason for him to divert off track. Background information is usually given in the ramblings that add to the original story. If Louis were not to go off on tangents at some points, the story itself would suffer.
These stories are the history of the town but they are never told by the people they happen to. Louis is telling the stories his father told him. However, Louis' father didn't even experience every story he tells his son. The stories are colored with the opinions and observations of an entire town. This gives the reader a little insight into what small town life is like.
However, the more the reader learns about life in a small town, the more obvious it becomes to the reader that everyone at some point in their life has experienced what living in a small town is like. Even if you've never lived in a small town, any high school can be compared to small town life. In the novel, whenever something highly dramatic happens, a mob is conveniently around to witness every aspect of everyone's life. And those who had the unfortunate luck to have missed the event hear about it so often that they have trouble remembering whether they were really there or not. High school life can be the same way at times. If something happens to you on Monday night it is amazing how many people know exactly what happened by Tuesday morning.
What is so great about this book is its use of humor. Never during the highly dramatic points does the reader ever feel like the situation is serious. This goes back to the perspective the novel is told in. Because the novel is told from the perspective of the town, serous situations can be transformed so the reader can see the humor in it. Also, the reader is shown the humor in everyday life as well.
Reading T.R. Pearson's novel, A Short History of a Small Place, is an experience that cannot be missed.
Rating:
Summary: A Short Review for a Long Book
Review: T.R. Pearson's novel, a Short History of a Small Place, takes the reader by the hand down a winding path through the history of a family and life in a small town. The narrator, Louis Benfield, is a child retelling the stories told to him by his father. The story is told through the eyes of a child but from the perspective of an entire town.
The story rambles along but the reader is never lost. Louis will start a particular story and then sidetrack to another story but he always returns to the first. Also, there is always a reason for him to divert off track. Background information is usually given in the ramblings that add to the original story. If Louis were not to go off on tangents at some points, the story itself would suffer.
These stories are the history of the town but they are never told by the people they happen to. Louis is telling the stories his father told him. However, Louis' father didn't even experience every story he tells his son. The stories are colored with the opinions and observations of an entire town. This gives the reader a little insight into what small town life is like.
However, the more the reader learns about life in a small town, the more obvious it becomes to the reader that everyone at some point in their life has experienced what living in a small town is like. Even if you've never lived in a small town, any high school can be compared to small town life. In the novel, whenever something highly dramatic happens, a mob is conveniently around to witness every aspect of everyone's life. And those who had the unfortunate luck to have missed the event hear about it so often that they have trouble remembering whether they were really there or not. High school life can be the same way at times. If something happens to you on Monday night it is amazing how many people know exactly what happened by Tuesday morning.
What is so great about this book is its use of humor. Never during the highly dramatic points does the reader ever feel like the situation is serious. This goes back to the perspective the novel is told in. Because the novel is told from the perspective of the town, serous situations can be transformed so the reader can see the humor in it. Also, the reader is shown the humor in everyday life as well.
Reading T.R. Pearson's novel, A Short History of a Small Place, is an experience that cannot be missed.
Rating:
Summary: A Short Review for a Long Book
Review: T.R. Pearson's novel, A Short History of a Small Place, takes you by the hand and leads you down winding path through life in a small town. The story is told through the eyes of a child but it is really his father's perspective. Whenever an opinion is given, it is always preceded by "Daddy says..." This is understandable considering that the child is usually discussing events that occurred years before he was alive.
Using his father's stories, the narrator gives us a history of the people in his town and the town itself. Louis Benfield, the narrator, tells the tales in a rambling manner but there is always a sense of cohesion to the different threads of the story. Never does the reader feel lost in the book. Louis will start a story, go off for what could be a chapter or more on something related to the story, and then go back to the original story. Everything is connected and every story is told for a reason.
Louis' history of his family and town give the reader insight into his life but the reader can also identify with Louis as well. Everyone has experienced the small town environment at one time or another. Even if you never lived in a small town, anyone's high school experience could probably be compared to small town life. In the book, whenever something dramatic was happening there always seemed to be a mob handy. And those unlucky enough to have missed the great occurrence usually have it talked about so much to them they forget whether or not they were truly there. High school life is the same exact way. It some mysterious way, if something happened to you Monday night, everyone in school knows by Tuesday morning. Thus, identifying with a Louis and the other characters in the book is quite simple.
However, the best thing about this book is the humor involved. Every turn of the page delivers a new crazy situation for the reader to laugh at. The author has the great ability to make even serious issues comical. He is able to do this by telling it from the perspective of the town. The narrator, Louis, retells the stories his father has told him. These stories are a combination of personal experiences and stories told by other people to Louis' father. Therefore, some of seriousness is taken out of situations.
Reading T.R. Pearson's novel, A Short History of a Small Place, is an experience that cannot be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Hearsay to History
Review: The idea of reading a novel about someone else's childhood simply does not appeal to me. I don't even know if I would like to read a story about my own childhood. It was fun to live, but to read about it so many years later would undoubtedly be a little dull. However, A Short History of a Small Place by T.R. Pearson is anything but boring and unexciting, despite its nostalgic nature. This novel is told by Louis Begley who recounts stories from his father, mother, neighbors, and some firsthand. The small town of Neely, North Carolina appears to be inhabited by a myriad of lunatics and meddlers. Almost all of the stories in this novel have been passed down orally from a so-called eyewitness to some sort of relation to neighbor to cousin, and eventually landing on the ears of young Louis.
The story takes place around a prominent family in Neely-the Pettigrews. This family, due to its wealth and mystery, is the object of a great deal of speculation and gossip. The Neelyites are a hilarious group of people, prone to insanity and rash behavior. For instance, one member of the Neely community, Pinky, becomes obsessed with "jurisprudence." His hobby is to take people to court and sue them. Pinky makes the mistake of suing the mayor, Mr. Pettigrew. It seems that the mayor's sister's chimpanzee happened to land some pee on Pinky's shirt while relieving himself atop a flagpole in the Pettigrew's yard. For some reason, Pinky thought he might actually win the case against the mayor, despite the fact that he was outside the mayor's house in order to place a bet as to where the monkey's pee would land. The judge reminded Pinky that gambling is illegal. This "imbroglio" ended Pinky's love of "jurisprudence."
This novel is filled with humorous stories like Pinky's. From the very first page, I fell in love with Louis' innocence. His dad, Louis Benfield, sr., maintains an air of levity even at the most sacred of moments. One can't help but become trapped in the Neely world where ducks are God's greatest creatures, a monkey peeing from a flagpole becomes a social event, where neighbors desire to know exactly how their dead princess looked in her casket, and where gossip is not only hearsay, but history.
Rating:
Summary: Hearsay to History
Review: The idea of reading a novel about someone else's childhood simply does not appeal to me. I don't even know if I would like to read a story about my own childhood. It was fun to live, but to read about it so many years later would undoubtedly be a little dull. However, A Short History of a Small Place by T.R. Pearson is anything but boring and unexciting, despite its nostalgic nature. This novel is told by Louis Begley who recounts stories from his father, mother, neighbors, and some firsthand. The small town of Neely, North Carolina appears to be inhabited by a myriad of lunatics and meddlers. Almost all of the stories in this novel have been passed down orally from a so-called eyewitness to some sort of relation to neighbor to cousin, and eventually landing on the ears of young Louis.
The story takes place around a prominent family in Neely-the Pettigrews. This family, due to its wealth and mystery, is the object of a great deal of speculation and gossip. The Neelyites are a hilarious group of people, prone to insanity and rash behavior. For instance, one member of the Neely community, Pinky, becomes obsessed with "jurisprudence." His hobby is to take people to court and sue them. Pinky makes the mistake of suing the mayor, Mr. Pettigrew. It seems that the mayor's sister's chimpanzee happened to land some pee on Pinky's shirt while relieving himself atop a flagpole in the Pettigrew's yard. For some reason, Pinky thought he might actually win the case against the mayor, despite the fact that he was outside the mayor's house in order to place a bet as to where the monkey's pee would land. The judge reminded Pinky that gambling is illegal. This "imbroglio" ended Pinky's love of "jurisprudence."
This novel is filled with humorous stories like Pinky's. From the very first page, I fell in love with Louis' innocence. His dad, Louis Benfield, sr., maintains an air of levity even at the most sacred of moments. One can't help but become trapped in the Neely world where ducks are God's greatest creatures, a monkey peeing from a flagpole becomes a social event, where neighbors desire to know exactly how their dead princess looked in her casket, and where gossip is not only hearsay, but history.
Rating: 
Summary: A Winding Path
Review: The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
(The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R.Tolkien) Just as a path can slowly wind itself around a mountain, stories do not always take the quickest route from page one to the back cover. Sometimes they slide away from the main narrative and drag the reader into unmapped territory without any sign of when they might break back onto the plotted course. But books hope to be more like adventures-more interesting and meaningful then the final destination. T.R. Pearson's, "A Short History of a Small Place," demands its readers leave their navigation equipment at home and just follow the story's path as it serpentines its way through 80 years in the history of a quaint-make-believe-town in North Carolina named Neely. While Pearson's account is comedic in tone, his story should not be taken lightly. Neely's people, places, and happenings are fanned out before the reader by one of the town's younger residents, Louis Benfield. The nucleus of his tale recounts the death of Miss Myra Angelique Pettigrew, the towns most prominent and richest citizen. Swirling around this event, Louis delves into the lives of other Neely residents and the towns many noteworthy occurrences. While the actual voice in the text is Louis', the bulk of "A Short History of a Small Place" is told through the words of the townspeople, particularly Louis' father and mother. It is his parent's voices that shape the novel and allow us to witness events that transpired years before Louis and his parents were born.
The book's title does a perfect job in summing up the story's primary strength and overall weakness. A short history does in fact wrap itself around the tale of Miss Pettigrew's death. While the entire narrative is related through the various events it describes, we spend little time in what is essentially the "present." By taking place mostly in the past, a deeper understanding of all the characters is gained, which in turn fleshes out the circumstances surrounding Pettigrew's suicide. Had the book taken a more linear path, Pettigrew's death would have seemed exceptionally silly and played out for comedy's sake. That is not saying "A Short History of a Small Place" should be taken completely seriously. Pearson is obviously spinning a comedic tale riddled with tragic elements, while poking fun at many aspects of Southern life. Still, this is a true piece of literature. It is only because we are fully aware of the history of Neely that we can take all its eccentricities with a grain of salt.
Unfortunately, the story does get lost along the way. Pearson does an amazing job of populating his fictional town, but it feels as if he gets tangled up in his own imagination. Many of the sub-stories have a tendency of branching off into even shorter pieces. Coherent plot lines are separated by large chunks of text, making it difficult to remember what you were originally reading about. Even when the reader doesn't lose sight of the whole narrative, following the separate stories and piecing everything together can become somewhat tedious. Also, the cast of characters is large and remembering who they all are and their family ties can get confusing.
Pearson's novel is a entertaining read that should keep most peoples attentions even though the myriad of stories contained in the book can become confusing. Readers should expect to spend some time with the book if they want to get a through understating of what is going on.
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