A Spring of Souls

By William Cobb

Book Overview

Setting out on a journey to the town of Piper, Alabama, Brenda Boykin encounters a Southern world of racial turmoil and mysterious events. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1575871378
• ISBN13: 9781575871370
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Crane Hill Pub
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

A reader from Villa Rica, Georgia

A Spring of Souls is the kind of book I love to read. I can see bits and pieces of people I know in my life, but a book about the life of normal people would not be very interesting. I love Cobb's characterizations: I snicker at the pathetic characters, cheer for the ones I like, and grin at the outlandish behavior of others. GIVE me a book that entertains me. I don't want one based on my life or the lives of anyone I know. Give me some characters that I can really detest or really wish I could reach out to.This book speaks out against hatred and bigatry. It does it in a manner that allows you to see into the minds of those who hate and those who suffer from that hatred. I enjoy a book that foils the acts of spite and hatred, especially if it exposes the fools in the process.Above all, if you like to be entertained by unusual characters, and if you like a plot with spins and twists, you will enjoy this ficticious story about a town in Alabama.... It is a story. Not a historical novel...Read it and enjoy the humor, tragedy, and the great characters.

A Spring of Souls

Byron Bailey stands by the road in the sunshine, waiting for the church bus. Three sticks of dynamite are taped to his skin beneath his plaid shirt. An electric fuse in his pocket is attached to the dynamite by two thin wires that snake up through the hairs on his belly. Byron squints in the harsh August sunlight.So begins William Cobb's A Spring of Soul. From the first page Cobb had me and did not let go until the last. A Spring of Souls is a well-crafted collection of every myth and stereotype rumored to inhibit the south and Cobb parades them before us with dry wit and ironic humor. Brenda Boykin left Piper Alabama, as the homecoming queen with a secret past and is only lured back years later by the prospect of the headmistress position at that all white Christian Academy the white folks of Piper are so proud of. Unbeknown to Brenda, she has been brought back to be the future queen of Piper -- a town on the verge of succession -- by Roger Cole, the very person that crowned her all those years ago. Cole rules Piper and it won't take Brenda long to realize why she left in the first place. There's a war coming as well as the millennium as far as Cole and his followers are concerned and you are either with him or against. This is the south I love and fear, full of haunts and spirits and all those real and imagined crazies so compelling to fiction writers.

A thrill of a read

"A Spring of Souls" sizzles with a rare and wonderful electricity: every page is packed with the writing of a master craftsman. There's a whole gallery of characters you will never forget because you enter their lives so deeply: teachers, football players, parents, children, ghosts, criminals. There are comic scenes that make you ache and insights so perfectly expressed, you feel your heart begin to hurt. It's a wonderful. extraordinary reading experience.

Something for everybody.

This big book of millenium mayhem has it all, wild and wooly characters, a love story, (steamy stuff, too), a fascinating plot, and plenty of action to keep the pages turning. If you've not read William Cobb (Pulitzer nominee for an earlier book), you've missed a real treat.

Millennium fever siezes small town in Alabama

In a fine satire, Cobb shows what life would be like under the rule of Posse Comitatus whereby a Probate Judge would hold all the power. The fictional town of Piper, Alabama is split into the haves and have-nots, the racists and everybody else. Bigots, crazies and extremists have enrolled their youngans in the Christian Academy to feast on a pablum-based diet of creation science and non-controversial books. The Black students attend the public school, Piper High, where football, not Jesus, is king. Everybody in town acts like all is well, but as the millennium approaches, folks are as edgy as a cat in a roomful of rocking chairs. The town festers like a boil ready to pop. Cobb has packed everything in his novel straight from today's headlines. He has the banners declaring, This is Militia Country. He brings the former beauty queen home to be the headmaster at the Christian school. There's the alcoholic football coach trying to figure out a way to get the Black superstar from public school enrolled in his academy so the guys can have a winning season. He has the lovely Darlene visited by the Virgin Mary, and thousands of folks coming into Piper to witness the miracle. There's a group trying to get the county to secede from Alabama, and Alabama to secede from the Union (didn't we do that once?) In a frenzy of activity, some folks think the government will make a Waco-style attack on Piper, and they're armed to the teeth to protect themselves. Holy Moly, bring 'em on! In an apocalyptic ending, Cobb weaves all the loose threads together, demonstrating his mastry over the written word. Readers will have many thoughts to ponder and hard questions to answer. There will be other millennium books, but this one is the one to take home.