Erskine Caldwell takes us on a journey in search of a childhood friend whom he never forgot. Erskine and Bisco were good friends as children but were torn apart due to the segregationist mores of their times. Bisco was a so-called Negro and Erskine a so-called White. The two were destined to inhabit a land and culture which promoted inequality and friendship for both young people.

In Search of Bisco is a chronicle of Caldwell's search not only for his friend (now that he is an adult) but also an examination of the root sources of hatred and racism that separated the two. He takes us to South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana and their varied communities and asks about his friend. He gets a wealth of information about attitudes both black and white concerning Bisco.

Caldwell's south as he knew it doesn't exist today but the attitudes that it nurtured still persist. Bisco is more than a mistreated Black man but for Caldwell has become a metaphor for the oppression of Blacks throughout the south. In every state, whites share their contempt for the Biscos of this world. When encountering Blacks Caldwell finds rebellious Biscos, conservative Biscos and proud Biscos who refuse to bow to the conventions of their day. The reader is given a superb portrait of the struggle of African-Americans in the south prior to the civil rights movement and the attitudes of their white counterparts.

Bisco is a commentary on race but most of all it is a look at a friendship that could have blossomed but was stunted early in these men's lives. Bisco and Erskine show us the possibilities of what could have been in the south in terms of enduring friendships. Erskine presents us with the harsh realities. This is an excellent book worth your reading and reflection over a time and a friendship that is no more.

A beautiful, young teacher comes to a small southern town to teach high-school. Within a week's time, a student, a married man, and several bachelors fall in love with her and ask her to marry them. A little far-fetched, but interesting and fun. Crux of the story was the woman always wants the man she couldn't and shouldn't have and that is her downfall. In addition, the women are jealous and start scandalous rumors about her. A tense tale.

Enter into the world of TyTy, patriarch of the Walden family, who is obsessed in finding gold. His obsession is so great until he digs holes throughout his farm and foregoes the necessity of doing his planting. TyTy isn't the only one with an obsession. His son-in-law Will is determined to re-open the closed mill in his South Carolina town. Will thinks TyTy is a fool and TyTy believes the same about Will. Once again, Erskine Caldwell, takes us behind the scenes of southern poverty in the depression through his use of outlandish characters with impossible dreams. TyTy is a man of the land who is unable to sow a crop while Will is a son of the industrial mills. The mill exploits its workers and the soil refuses to yield a crop. Both men and their families become victims in a system neither one can understand. Yet these men refuse to give up their dreams.

Witness the foolishness of TyTy as he captures a white, white man to divine a gold lode. The sensuousness of Ty's daughter, Darling Jill, gets to be rediculous as well as his passion for Griselda, his daughter-in-law. Throughout the book you will be confronted with adultry, rape and ignorance. The female characters are clueless and use their sexuality to get what they want. Except for Rosamond (Ty's daughter) neither of the females exhibit any type of strong character and even Rosamond falls short.

The positiveness of this book is that it shows the sociological and economic impact of the depression on the lives of poor people. You witness their exagerated behavior and begin to shake your head. The weakness of the work is its repetition, pointless scenes and weak plot. After awhile the story gets to become a bore as you're wondering where is it heading. It is a fair read and I would say by all means read this work and move beyond its stereotypes of exagerated southern culture.

I bought Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre because one of the gang, that I respected, said that this was one of his favorite books. And since I like expanding my horizons, especially on the literary front, I bought God's Little Acre. I was surprised. I expected to find Jed Clampett and his family instead I found a man who lived by his own sense of morality, social status, all told in a prose that at times switches from brutally honest to poetry of the highest order. Sure the frank sexuality is present. What isn't usually stated, when people are discussing God's Little Acre, is the basic principal of Ty Ty Walden behind it. With all foundations of social behavior, God's Little Acre, is an example that there are deadly consequences because not everyone that is subject to, or born and raised in that social theory will act accordingly to the theorist imaginings. The novel is about men living up to their own definition of manhood. It is about the clash of social mandates and personal morals. It is the telling of truths that dares to put a reason behind societal misdeeds. Caldwell wrote a splendid back.

If Andy Griffith and Hugh Heffner were to co-author a Shakespearian tragedy it would be a lot like "God's Little Acre." When there ain't no money in planting cotton and the mill's shut up there ain't but one thing for men and women to do to keep their minds off of their troubles: SEX!

TyTy Walden is as obsessed with finding gold on his land as Captain Ahab was about finding the great white whale. Greselda Walden has to be one of the most desired and fought over women in all of American literature. And what red blooded American male would not have wanted a date with Darling Jill. This book alternates from being light-hearted and silly to being very serious and profound. There is great pathos in the description of the desperation of Will Thompson and the other starving mill workers to re-open the mill and go back to work. The death of Will Thompson is a great reminder of the struggle of working people to be treated fairly in this country. This book accurately recounts the hopes and fears of the thousands of working class people who were forced to live in "company towns" and who "owed their soul to the company store."

Although I found some of the more explicit sexual content of this novel to be silly and somewhat overdone (I don't think that most people in rural Georgia in the 1930's were this open about their sexualty!), this is a great American novel and Erskine Caldwell should be remembered as one of the great American writers of this century.

In this small book Erskine Caldwell shares with us his memories of his father and the world of southern religion. You are transported back in time where the more bizarre the religious expression was in the south, the better. Caldwell shows the excesses of religion and the struggle for southern churches to acquire more respectability as their economic status becomes more stable.

Caldwell sounds like an amateur sociologist on his observation of the religion of his region. His ignorance is especially telling when he attempts to describe the life in the Black churches. He is obviously not a church historian. His critique on southern religion of his time is interesting but at times he beats the dead horse to the ground. He dwells to much on the excesses and doesn't see to much good.

The most interesting character in this memoir is that of the author's father. Ira Caldwell,a presbyterian minister of a small sect of the denomination, is a man far ahead of his time. His social consciousness, intellectual acumen and liberal ideas were far out of step with the social and religious milieu of his time. How he survived in such an environment is an interesting story within itself. It is Caldwell's father who keeps you riveted in wanting to know more about his thoughts and ministry.

Deep South is a good book to have in order to gain insight on Caldwell's thoughts about the church and religion. It is also a text which gives tribute to the work of Caldwell's father. For those wishing to gain some idea of southern religion during Caldwell's childhood, this is an ideal book.

The main points of the review: the writing is good and Klevar's research and citations are thorough. Yippee--I love that in a biography. Though not a hagiographer, Klevar excuses Caldwell the inexcusable based on unlikely reasoning. For instance, Caldwell's "sense of duty" required him to leave one wife after another to "make an honest women" of his mistress of the moment. Huh? This bit of (unnecessary) bowlderdization diminishes Klevar's otherwise competent exposition of Caldwell as a man and a storyteller.

From the moment of his birth, Erskine Caldwell was destined to wander all over the world. Born of a school teacher mother and itinerant Presbyterian minister for a father, Erskine never lived in a place for more than two years. Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee were just a few of the states in which the family resided. In the first half of his autobiography, Erskine gives us a look at his uncoventional family. His mother insisted upon him being home schooled while his father taught him to become a free thinker in a fundamentalist southern environment.

Through his early experiences we see through Erskine's eyes the poverty, religious excesses, suppressed sexuality and ignorance that he encountered. It is through those experiences that Caldwell grows into manhood and develops a deep curiousity about people and the world. You will be astonished and amazed at the various escapades of life in which Caldwell finds himself.

The first part of his life is interesting but as we get into his life as a writer, the momentum fades. Very little is said about how he developed his style and its impact on the literary world. He doesn't reflect on the controversy surrounding Tobacco Road nor God's Little Acre. In fact he says much of nothing about himself other than his failed marriages, travels and disputes with agents and publishers.

With All My Might is not a detailed reflective tome of a man's life in literature. Rather we receive snippets of his life that are uneven and sometimes you are left wondering how did this man become a prolific writer? You won't find the answer in his work. He wanders everywhere in describing his life. For fans of Erskine Caldwell, this is a book to have in your library. It is a good read but not brilliant.