William Styron
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William Styron's stunning debut: a classic portrait of one Southern family's tragic spiral into destruction. First published to wide critical acclaim in 1951, Lie Down in Darkness centers on the Loftis family - Milton and Helen and their daughters, Peyton and Maudie. The story, told through a series of flashbacks on the day of Peyton's funeral, is a powerful depiction of a family doomed by its failure to forget and its inability to love. Written in...
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Styron's stirring account of his plunge into a crippling depression, and his inspiring road to recovery In the summer of 1985, William Styron became numbed by disaffection, apathy, and despair, unable to speak or walk while caught in the grip of advanced depression. His struggle with the disease culminated in a wave of obsession that nearly drove him to suicide, leading him to seek hospitalization before the dark tide engulfed him. Darkness...
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In "Love Day" a young Marine, about to invade Japan, remembers the role his father played in building one of the ships. "Shadrach" is about a child's recollection of what happened when a former slave came home to die in the place where he was born. In "A Tidewater Morning" a boy describes the hot summer day on which his mother died. The stories all take place in Virginia.