Sitting Up With the Dead: A Storied Journey Through the American South - Hardcover

Petro, Pamela

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559706120 ISBN 13: 9781559706124

Publisher: Arcade Pub, 2002

Synopsis

Including Jack the trickster, boo-bags and plat-eyes, ghosts, and singing turtles, an enchanting and entertaining collection of tales, culminated from the author's journey to the South and filled with the rich history and culture of each location, from some of the most colorful and creative storytellers in the world celebrates the South's oral tradition. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Pamela Petro's travel in Sitting Up with the Dead is a voyage, not a road trip, through the myths and memories of the American South. Her signposts are the storytellers who, by profession or proclivity, keep alive a history that is unique in the United States.

The American Deep South is a country of its own, one where the sounds of the cicada, the mocking bird, church revivals and banjos mark time. But it is particularly in the cadence of voices--a variety of accents as indecipherable to an unaccustomed ear as that of Glaswegian or Geordie--that is the heart of Petro's journey. Petro's travels take her through the Carolinas, the Appalachian mountains, Louisiana and the Florida swamps. Each chapter features a storyteller peppered with information on the region, the folklore and, often, the politics of race that is so grounded in this part of the country.

The author of Travels in an Old Tongue brings the same keen ear to the personalities of the storytellers such as Ray Hicks and David Holt. She knits her own narrative in an online conversation with budding performance artist Vickie Vedder who has worked the problems of her "dirt poor" southern family into terrific characters.

One warning: many of the tale and some interviews are written in dialect. They demand to be read aloud. "Mah gran'father tol 'em (stories) when I'us little. An' I tried to tel 'em at fivh yay-yrs ole'..I liked 'em. Loved th'stawries. An' do yet," says Ray Hicks after telling Petro a couple of yarns.

Skip Petro's introduction and just jump in but do save the title story for last. As a narrative on a dying art and for the pleasures of laughing and reading aloud, Petro has stitched together a lasting tale of her own. --Kathleen Buckley

Review:

‘Enthusiastic and indiscreet, funny and learned, Petro is about as good a travel companion as you could get’ Spectator

‘Petro is the sort of writer you really look forward to meeting. Entertaining and informative, she writes with such disarming frankness that you feel you know every intimate quirk about her.’ The Big Issue

About this edition

• Publisher: Arcade Pub
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1559706120
• ISBN 13: 9781559706124
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 414