Brighten the Corner Where You Are--A Novel

September 1, 1989
This gentle, wryly comic look at one day in the life of a rural North Carolina schoolteacher, Joe Robert Kirkman, is narrated by his son Jess (seen in Chappell's earlier novel, I Am One of You Forever ). The year is 1946, and Joe Robert is no ordinary schoolteacher. He is a farmer, a hunter, a dreamer and a philosopher whose innovative teaching methods and evenhanded approach to the theory of evolution have irked the local school board--they have summoned him to a late afternoon meeting. His ideals and livelihood imperiled, Robert feels--understandably--apprehensive, and to make matters worse, that day's bizarre series of events (an unfortunate encounter with a treed bobcat, a courageous rescue of a drowning child, and several unsettling metaphysical discussions) have left him battered in mind and body. The meeting is hilarious, if inconclusive. A finely drawn series of minor characters, including stoic farmers and wives, tale-spinning coon hunters and a shrewd local reporter, enriches this modest yet deeply satisfying chronicle.

August 1, 1989
Narrated with wit and engaging high spirits by his son Jess, this brief, sparkling novel re-creates the comic episodes that constitute Joe Robert Kirkman's last day as high school teacher in Tipton, North Carolina, in 1946: running afoul of a bobcat high in a poplar tree; rescuing a child from drowning; accepting a tribute from the parents of a suicide; coping creatively with the touchy subject of evolution in his general science class; discovering the humanity of the black janitor; coaxing a goat from a roof; and losing a Socratic argument to the shyest student in his world history class. With his open, Marxist (Harpo) view of the postwar world, Kirkman is a riotous, riveting fictional creation. A superb comic work.-- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.

Copyright 1989 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.