THE MOST THEY EVER HAD

Rick Bragg warns us in his introduction that these are not happy stories, and he is right. They are, however, stories worth hearing and knowing, in the tradition of James Agee's LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN. Bragg’s work memorializes the community of Jacksonville, Alabama, and its way of life, and he reads it in its own voice and language. Southern speech doesn't rush, and it may take awhile to get used to Bragg's pace and pauses. But he grew up among the mill hands he writes about, and while he doesn't distinguish the different characters as an actor would and doesn't always make clear where quotations begin and end, he does bring them lovingly to life. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2009]