I Will Not Write A Book Of Lamentations

I Will Not Write a Book of Lamentations is a novel inspired by memories from a Carolina childhood and youth. The memories and stories span both North and South Carolina, but the heart of the stories is a small town in North Carolina, Monroe, south of Charlotte and not far from the South Carolina border. But this is not any small Southern town, because you see, the town helped spawn a leader of the modern Conservative movement, Jesse Helms. And the town was the site of the infamous Kissing Case in the late 1950's, which resulted in an appeal for mercy for the two accused black boys by Eleanor Roosevelt, who had visited a few years earlier. Freedom Riders came to town, too, in the early 1960's, with the Klan waiting to greet them Add to all this a bit of whimsy: the "Dukes of Hazzard" story sprung from moonshiners' tales of adventure in the rolling hills of the surrounding countryside. Yet with all the turmoil and strife, the Roosevelts and Carl Sandburg admired the town's progressive elements. It was a complicated place, and there is an untold story: what I saw, the boyhood stories that I heard. The fictionalized stories mostly take place within several blocks of a small Southern town, the fictional town of Madison. Amidst tragedy and despair, there are stories that inspire: stories of courage and humor and hope.

Author: John Fearrington Benton

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: Jul 28, 2016

Number of Pages: 260 pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 1533571260

ISBN-13: 9781533571267