So Red the Rose Book

After all these years, I had never read "So Red the Rose", Stark Young's classic novel of the Old South's Planter Class entering into, living through, and coming out of the Civil War era. Right out of college in 1970 from Mississippi State College for Women, I landed a job on the weekly, soon to be daily, newspaper in Oxford, Miss., where one of the "historic houses" is, or was, "the Stark Young House." For some quirky reason, this was one of the old timey classics I read about, but hadn't actually read, until this past week. I had acquired a throwaway copy some time back at the local library and came across the copy I'd taken home ($1 the copy, hardbacks) and read it as if on literary assignment! I had to rearrange some brain cells and mind bents to get into the rhythm of Young's writing style ... but this I did do, and so appreciated the novel and especially the characters' takes on certain historical matters and cultural observations. Young was, after all, much "closer to the day" than am I. I would recommend the local library not throw away this classic, but to keep it close. After all, having it on hand is not the same as recommending that we all return to those days of the horrors ....