Edisto

"A novel that has drawn comparisons with the work of J.D. Salinger, Truman Capote, and Flannery O?Connor, Edisto centers on one Simons Everson Manigault, a twelve-year-old possessed of a vocabulary and sophistication way beyond his years and a preadolescent bewilderment with the behavior of adults. These include his mother, who is known as the Duchess, and his enigmatic father-surrogate, Taurus. Imbued with a strong sense of place?an isolated strip of South Carolina coast called Edisto?Padgett Powell's novel is "a tour de force ... Some turn a phase, some flash of humor, some freshly observed detail, some accurately rendered perception of a child's pain or a child's amazement, transfigures every page" ... --Cover, p. 4.