Kirjahaku

In this audacious memoir, William Cobb reveals the tumultuous creative life of a distinguished practitioner of southern and Alabama storytelling. As poignant and inspiring as his own fiction, Captain Billy’s Troopers traces Cobb’s early life, education, and struggles with alcohol and the debilitating condition normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH).Like a curving river, the broad sweep of Cobb’s turbulent life includes both startling cataracts and desultory eddies, leading sometimes into shadows or opening into unexpected sunlight. With unsentimental clarity, Cobb recounts coming of age in his native Demopolis in the churning middle years of the twentieth century. It’s there he has his first tantalizing tastes of alcohol and begins to drink habitually. Readers then travel with Cobb to Livingston University (now the University of West Alabama) and then on to Vanderbilt University. Along the way, readers relish his first experiences of love and success as a writer, leading to a career as a professor of writing at Alabama College (now the University of Montevallo) in 1963.From there Cobb’s struggles with alcohol and depression lead to elongated years of tumbling creative output and the collapse of his marriage. The summer of 1984 found Cobb in rehab, the first step in his path to recovery. His unflinching memoir narrates both the milestones and telling details of his intense therapy and years in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). In the sober thirty years since, Cobb has published a string of critically praised novels and a prize-winning collection of short stories. The capstone of his comeback was winning the Harper Lee Award in 2007 for distinguished fiction writing.In 2000, shortly after retiring, Cobb developed NPH, which upset his sense of balance and triggered dementia symptoms and other maladies. Nine years later in 2009, brain surgery brought Cobb a dramatic recovery, which began the third act in his writing career. Vital, honest, and entertaining, Captain Billy’s Troopers captures the life of an Alabama original.

An collection of critical essays on the black experience at the turn of the twenty-first century draws on examples from pop culture, politics, and the arts in a volume that includes such pieces as the title essay, "On the Stroll: The Pimping of Three 6 Mafia" and "The Trouble with Harry." Original.

Fiction. The second novel of The Lily Trilogy returns to a liberal arts college in the seventies. The women's movement is in its infancy and warily catching hold; still, when Lily is promoted from lowly instructor to tenure track, she's taken off-guard. The college's creative writer explains, They promoted you because you make their gonads tingle. But I'm a scholar Lily counters. Folly and intrigue ensue as Lily takes on the stolid, mostly male administration.

A TIME TO REAP tells the story of the Founier family, fractured not only by war but by their own feelings toward themselves and each other. As Patrick struggles through his tour of duty in Vietnam, his estranged wife and three children, at home in Louisiana, are forced to deal with their own very individual troubles. In this coming-of-age novel, Pulitzer nominee William Cobb delivers a mesmerizing portrayal of a household divided by war, addiction and the pains of self-discovery. PRAISE FOR A TIME TO REAP "William Cobb has written his finest novel yet, a beautifully rendered and unforgettable masterpiece of love in the time of war. The battle scenes are the most vivid and compelling I've ever read." - Pat Conroy "A Time to Reap is a stunner, so beautifully written that it takes my breath away. Populated by vivid, highly complex characters, William Cobb's novel brings to life a troubling piece of America's not-so-distant past." - Cassandra King "A Time To Reap is William Cobb's best novel yet. It is a swift and compelling read and its subject and thematic resonances are both fresh and important. Small town life has been written about before, but its ability to limit the scope of its citizens and to compress their horizons has never seemed more convincing and real. It is an expertly written book, gritty, realistic, and moving. The reader will come to identify with every character." - Sena Jeter Naslund "I could not put this suspenseful novel down. Capturing the effects of the Vietnam war upon a serviceman's entire family, " A Time to Reap" also contains deep implications for our own time. The entire family is deeply, brilliantly brought to life---especially the children who manage to grow and survive their dysfunctional parents as they all come to a deeper understanding of their lives. A rich, compelling page-turner." - Lee Smith ** This book contains some adult content **

Dans ce premier des trois tomes de ces aventures, nous nous trouvons dans la p riode troubl e de la Restauration o de nombreux individus sont condamn s pour avoir conspir contre le pouvoir. Dans le prologue, un magistrat ambitieux condamne ainsi mort l'amant secret de sa fille. Puis 20 ans plus tard, nous suivons le sort de diff rents personnages: une m re qui cherche son fils jadis enlev ; des amoureux malheureux qui ont voulu se suicider et cherchent d sormais faire le bien; une belle courtisane, habile s ductrice sans scrupule qui se joue des sentiments d'autrui et n'a de coeur que pour l'argent; des hommes du grand monde peu scrupuleux; des bagnards plus ou moins reconvertis; des jeunes gens candides. Et un tr sor khmer dont l'emplacement secret r siderait dans les fragments d'une statue...

Dans sa fuite d'une petite ville de Chine, Alcide Tr molet finit par tomber dans une crevasse et perd connaissance. Lorsqu'il se r veille, il est dans un Paris d'une autre poque, celui des descendants d' migr s ayant fui la France bord d'un bateau...