IoS paperback review: Edisto, by Padgett Powell

Striving for The Great American Novel, to comic effect

David Evans
Sunday 09 December 2012 01:01 GMT
Comments

First out in the US in 1984, Padgett Powell’s delightful debut was finally published in the UK this year.

Offbeat, playful and very, very funny, it follows 12-year-old Simons Everson Manigault, a budding author, as he strolls around Edisto, South Carolina, in search of material for his shot at The Great American Novel.

The joke is that Simons is not a particularly promising writer: when we are provided with a snippet of his work it proves to be unreadable doggerel. But Powell’s own prose is wonderfully light and limber, whether he is describing a boxing match – “tiny mortals in a huddle” – or a misty morning on the Atlantic coast – “the ground moon-pocked by the night’s hard rain”.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in