Reviews
"To make history—place—beat with the pulse of blood is perhaps the most difficult of all the writer's alchemy and, when it is done well, it is the most rewarding. Cauthen has rewarded us with the eye, ear, and memory of the natural writer. Pick up Southern Comforts and read it all in one sitting, as I did."
—Harry Crews, author of A Childhood: The Biography of a Place
Description
Part self-reflection, part meditation, and part social analysis, Cauthen's work threads through the stories of blacks, whites, and Native Americans—men and women—including her own family members. Through their words and hers, Cauthen explores northern Florida's unique history, culture, and geography while she seeks a greater understanding of herself and her surroundings.
Cauthen's journey takes readers down dirt roads and city streets, to her people's tobacco fields and churches. She sifts sand at an archaeological dig for the lost Spanish mission of Santa Fe de Toloca, peers into an aboriginal grave, and everywhere marshals evidence for the primacy of place in determining who we are. One story takes us on a fox hunt; another reveals lingering racial problems. Permeating the book is the ever-present menace of growth and development and what it holds for Cauthen's Florida.
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Sudye Cauthen, founder of the North Florida Center for Documentary Studies, directed Florida's first Folk-Arts-in-the-Schools program. She is also the author of The Salvation of Maggie Rider: Stories from Nokofta. Her awards include two state of Florida Individual Artist Fellowships in Literature. Her work has appeared in such publications as the Chattahoochee Review, Florida Review, International Quarterly, Kalliope, and The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Cauthen lives on the Suwannee River near White Springs, Florida.
