Carolina Moon

Carolina Moon by Jill McCorkle (Algonquin, $18.95) Postman Wallace Johnson has been handling "dead" letters for 25 years. Letters addressed to Santa or to God, letters without stamps or addresses, he files in dusty limbo. But those letters posted to the "Wayward One" Wallace reads and keeps for himself.

The first such letter arrived in 1969. It was written in red, doused with cologne, and told a sorrowful story: "You were just waiting weren't you, waiting to get up and kill yourself without any thoughts about anybody else. Truth be told you never wanted to be loved. Well, you screwed up didn't you? For somebody so unworthy of love, you had yourself some folks who did. You had me."

Carolina Moon gradually reveals how and why Wayward One died, as well as the identity of the mysterious letter-writer. In lively, lyrically written scenes set in busy Fulton, North Carolina, orphans fall in love, marriages die, and hearts are healed. In this, her sixth book, author Jill McCorkle has assembled some of her most memorable characters. And-as always-she presents them with humor, wisdom, and tender insight. Susan L Duncan

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Oct 1996
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