Marius’ Paradox of History: The Coming of Rain by Tom Conway A man is being hanged. He has killed his wife for no apparent reason. Now he is to pay. Bourbonville is to be vindicated. The people of the valley are gathered to witness justice. However, something beisdes BourbonviUe is to be vindicated. The Coming o f Rain by Dr. Richard C. Marius rises out of the dust of a drought-ridden Bourbonville, Teimessee, to lay bare the defects of memory— the memory of the people. The novel is set twenty years after the Civil War. Reconstruction is over. Bourbonville has been fairly prosperous in the past, but this year an oppressive drought is broadcasting economical ruin. The society is wearing thin; the binding force of the past seems to be cracking. But perhaps the drought and the time are not the causative factors of the strain distorting the society. The personahties of Bourbonville ride through the novel as if they were still coughing from the dust kicked up by J.E.B. Stuart’s horse. John Wesley Campbell, attorney at law, had been in the Mexican War and afterwards stayed on in the West awhile. But an irresistible force eventually drew him back to Bourbonville. There, to study his law and stand in awe at his son after his wife died. There, to be transported into the Civil War and lose a son. And back to Bourbonville to live out a meaningless present and an illusive past to become bitter. “You go to hell, Bazely.” The Reverend Thomas Bazely has no pubUc past. The town idiot claims he saw him in the Civil War with the
infamous Quantrill’s Raiders. But people like to hear Preacher Bazely describe week after weekthe horrors of hell. “Then damn you to hell!” Samuel Beckwith, Jr., was a legacy of Samuel Beckwith, Sr., and Sarah Crittendon Beckwith. Sam Beckwith was haunted by a nameless entity which determined his every thought and action. It was prophesied that he would go West one day. But the prophecy was not the nameless entity. “I think he’s just bad. He’s the most evil man I ever knew!” Sarah Crittendon Beckwith was the living remnant of the time when the South was a fine upstanding aristocracy, days when life was sumptuous. The madness of life was to be cauterized by preserving the sanctity of the memory of those who were good while annointing their whips with illusion. The seeds no longer existed, but Sarah Crittedon Beckwith had stored the chaff. “The boy still thinks of his father,” she cried. “You see, he still loves his dear father!” Emily was a foreigner. Bourbonville was too old to remember that once everyone was an intruder. But it was Sarah Beckwith who opposed Emily’s relationship to Sam Beckwith. After all, the South had fought for a certain “purity” in the War. A Prussian blonde with a decidedly different countenance was, of course, unacceptable. It was a matter of principle. “When I leave I want it all to be a part of me because the more you have in your heart, the bigger your life is.” The characters continue to ride through the valley of P h o m ix : F all 1 9 6 9
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