Cheap Walking Across Egypt (Book) (CLYDE EDGERTON) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Walking Across Egypt

Some butterbeans, a few biscuits, and a helping of schmaltz.
All to often, "Southern" novels seem to dwell upon the darker side of humanity and to be fascinated with the macabre. Faulkner and O'Connor immediately come to mind. Walking Across Egypt is the antithesis of this reputation. The novel is sweet, full of wholesome characters, set in a Mayberry RFD-like community where even criminals have their good side, and is full of descriptions of good home cooked Southern meals.

Mattie Rigsbee is in her seventies "and slowing down." She is the mother of two unappreciative (and unmarried) children, goes to church regularly, and loves to cook for anybody who happens to drop by. She also has a propensity for helping the unfortunate and gets another chance to help when she becomes involved in the life of a juvenile delinquent. The story of that encounter is told with humor and with a genuine affection for the characters involved. If the story is somewhat schmaltzy and the ending is predictable right from the start, this only lends to the charm of the novel.

The book is very simply written and can be read by readers of all ages. Edgerton doesn't have one bone of pretentiouness in him and his story is related in a straightforward manner chiefly through dialogue and the thoughts of his characters. The dialogue is excellent -- it is as if the author turned on a tape recorder in his grandmother's house during Sunday dinner and later transcribed the conversation.

---

Clyde Edgerton puts on quite a dance with Mattie & Wesley
First I read Raney. Then I read everything Clyde Edgerton has written. And I don't know why this book is classified as YA; I'm a good 5 decades removed from YA status, and I loved this book.
Walking Across Egypt, the title of church-going Mattie's favorite hymn, is southern folks, southern setting, southern cooking, and southern humor at their best. Once she's finished watching her soap operas, Mattie Riggsbee, a 78yo widow, decides to take in Wesley, a small-time juvenile delinquent, and determines to see if her pies and biscuits can make an honest young man of him. They need each other in wildly different ways, as rapidly becomes apparent. The plot gathers speed when Wesley high-tails it to Mattie's house when he escapes from a detention center - and the sheriff comes a-calling.
Highest recommendation - for adults, and yes, for YAs, too.

---

Honest, Lighthearted Storytelling
Because I'm a complete and total idiot I read this book and its sequel in reverse order. However, I found that my blunder didn't spoil the plot in the slightest bit. The two plots were completely individual--you needn't read one to understand the other.

Egypt tells a story of an old woman named Mattie who's "slowing down." At 78 she fears she's getting careless and senile, however has too much pride to give up the lifestyle she's become accustomed to: watching her soaps at 1 PM everyday and making sure no one knows it. She won't even keep a dog because she's so set in her routines that she fears she won't have time to mind it.

You know the sort: those Southern women whom would tell strangers fixing their shutters or delivering their mail what time they should stop by on a given day so that they can have a hot slice of pie waiting for them when they come by. Those strangers will inevitably show up, too (wearing a bib and carrying a paper plate and piece of tin foil to take some home with them).

Mattie reminded me so much of my ever-servicing grandmother that I had to cringe. The monkey-wrench that gets thrown into the works is Wesley: a juvenile delinquent who oddly enough is willing to change his heathen ways in exchange for a piece of "the best pound cake ever" and the ability to take a hot bath.

This blend of sinner and saint in novels is nothing innovative, but the extent to which Edgerton stretches it out it seems to be almost hyperbole. (I can assure you from my own experiences that it's not!)

I loved this book. There's so much of the North Carolina I know in it that it makes me giddy