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BRIGHTEN THE CORNER WHERE YOU ARE gives us ample evidence of this legerdemain. It is the second part of Chappell's quartet of novels involving Jess Kirkman and his indominatible family in the mountains of western North Carolina. Whereas the first novel, I AIM ONE OF YOU FOREVER, focuses on the boy Jess, this second book concerns his father, Joe Robert, schoolteacher, storyteller, scientist, prankster, and eternal child at heart whose guiding principle is a "priority of delight"
The novel's "plot", such as it is, centers on one day in Joe Robert's life - and it is quite an eventful day! He chases the notorious "devil-possum" - a figment of his wild imagination- up a tree to impress his buddies, only to encounter a real life panther which sends Joe Robert tumbling to scrapes and bruises. He saves a little girl from drowning. He coaxes a recalcitrant goat off the school roof. And he faces the school board, with expulsion a real possibility, for his unapologetic teaching of Darwin.
These set pieces allow for much humor in the good old Southern Applalachian tall tale tradition of Joel Chandler Harris, George Washington Harris, and William Gilmore Simms. Yet more importantly they draw an indelible portrait of a good man, a bit times too childish perhaps, but with the proper animating spirit of life.
This is a marvelous novel by a marvelous writer.
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