Author of the Week:

Rick Bragg        photo: Ben Flanagan / al.com

Rick Bragg

Once in a while, someone comes along who can put words in a particular order and change your life.

I first encountered the genius that is Rick Bragg when an unsolicited advance copy of ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN' came to the Waldenbooks I was managing in Valdosta, Georgia.  As is my
wont, I offered the book to anyone on the crew but there were no takers.  I finally took the book home and it sat on the table next to my sofa for a month or so, untouched.

One day I picked the book up out of boredom and began to read, seeing if it caught my fancy.  From the first words, this amazing book had me in its grip.  Here is the opening vignette of ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN':

  "I used to stand amazed and watch the redbirds fight.  They would flash and flutter like scraps of burning rags through a sky unbelievably blue, swirling, soaring, plummeting.  On the ground they were a blur of feathers, stabbing for each other's eyes.  I have seen grown men stop why they were doing, stop pulling corn or lift their head out from under the hood of a broken-down car, to watch it.  Once, when I was little, I watched one of the birds attack its own reflection in the side mirror or a truck.  It hurled its body again and again against that unyielding image, until it pecked a crack in the glass, until the whole mirror was smeared with blood.  It was as if the bird hated what it saw there, and discovered too late that all it was seeing was itself.  I asked an old man who worked for my uncle Ed, a snuff-dipping man named Charlie Bivens, why he reckoned that bird did that.  He told me it was just its nature."

What I didn't know, reading that paragraph, was that Bragg was foreshadowing the story I was about to read.  SHOUTIN' is a story about his family, specifically his beloved mother, entwined with the sad, all-too-common story of his drunken and defeated father.

I know now that I love Bragg's story so much because of how parallel it is in many ways to my own story.  But Rick Bragg writes about the terrible in a beautiful way.  I have never, ever, read words so lyrically put together.  To that point, he also has a book of his Pulitzer-Prize winning newspaper feature writing for the New York Times, called "Somebody Told Me."  In one of the early stories, Bragg writes about a devastating tornado that rips though a small Alabama town.  His ability to make the reader feel the emotions of the characters in his pieces is palpable.  Put it this way: the title of "Somebody Told Me," comes from Bragg's response to the often-asked question, "Where do you find these stories?"

Bragg's voice is one that comes from a place few authors can reach.

ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN' is the first of what ended up being three books about his family.  I highly recommend all of them.  The man can write no wrong.

I have met and talked to Rick Bragg on several occasions. The man probably recognizes me on sight now.  He also puts to rest the worry of meeting one's heroes.  He is genuinely funny and appreciative of his fans.  I get the feeling that he takes it as a compliment to his mother when people rave about his work.

I always keep several copies of the family trilogy at my house. I have given away more copies of those three books than I care to remember.  It is my go-to for gifts if I think the person can appreciate them.  I have probably hand sold more copies of SHOUTIN' than any person alive.  I am proud to have my own hardcover inscribed by the author:  "For Tim, Thank You, Rick Bragg."

No, Rick Bragg.  Thank YOU.