 A
Story of the South:
“ Colored
Glass” by Noel Tramontana
On WSKG Radio’s
OFF THE PAGE
L I V E Tuesday, January 11 at
1pm
(Repeating at 7pm)
 Listen to the program
now
in RealAudio© format
(requires free RealAudio© player)
In the diversity of American life and American literature
the South occupies a special place. Until recently, Dixie’s
economy and educational level lagged far behind most of the
nation. Social custom, often backed by corrupt political
power, kept blacks “in their place” through racial
segregation that was ultimately recognized as debilitating
to people of all races.
Despite these drawbacks – and maybe because of them – the
South developed a distinct voice in American culture, creating
some of the most powerful and enduring expression in music
and literature. The region that gave the world William
Faulkner, Arna
Bontemps, and Harper
Lee is in many ways different from the rest of the nation,
and Louisiana is
different from the rest of the South.
Noel Hatton Tramontana is
originally from Liddieville,
Louisiana. She has lived for many years in Towanda, Pennsylvania
with her surgeon husband and seven children. But her personal
and literary sensibilities have remained Down South, especially
in her novel Colored
Glass. It is set in the early 1950s in the cotton
fields of the fictional town of Willow Bend. Tom Bainbridge
grows cotton and is one of the most skilled workers at the
local cotton gin. Even with the uncertainties of farm life
in a humble rural home, his wife Annie knows that she “married
up”. They have a son and a daughter, and it is the
six-year old “Baby Sister” who is the prevailing
voice of Colored Glass. Tom has always tried to be
fair to the “colored” people in the community,
but now tensions are growing with the first stirrings of
the civil
rights movement and the white backlash.
The supposed relationship of Ike, an “uppity” black
man, with a retarded white woman he befriends brings a resurgence
of the Ku
Klux Klan in Willow Bend.
In the south, everyone, man woman and child, knew of the
existence of the Klan. But it was carried deep inside their
secret selves like a cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die secret.
Little boys might dress in cowboy hats and chase each other
with cap pistols while make-believe Indians died terrible
deaths at their hands. But never, not once, did they cover
their heads with sheets and play Klansman. Unseen, unheard,
unspoken, it lay at the core of their lives, a wild thing
waiting to pounce.
--from "Broken Glass"
Ike suddenly disappears and Tom Bainbridge is suspected
of protecting him and helping him flee north. Tom, Annie
and their children now face mortal threats, although the
Klan’s wrath is initially turned against a young Catholic
priest who is almost lynched and whose church is burned to
the ground. In Colored Glass there are clergy both
for and against segregation, a sheriff and a business leader
who quietly hold a “southern moderate” point
of view and family members whose quest for status is reflected
in their racism. A mysterious black man called John Boley
acts as a guardian angel and a “fool” in the
Shakespearean sense. Noel Tramontana seems to have known
them all.
Ms. Tramontana will join Bill
Jaker on OFF THE PAGE to discuss Colored Glass.
To join in the discussion phone during the live 1pm
broadcast 1/11 (toll-free) to 1-888/359-9754 or post a
question or comment
here or directly to WSKG@stny.rr.com.
Listen to the program
now
in RealAudio© format
(requires free RealAudio© player) |
