BOOKS
The King Who Made Paper Flowers By Terry Kay (Mercer University Press) One of the greatest
things about being an author at Mercer Uni- versity Press has been meeting so many other authors, including one of Mercer’s best-selling
writers, Terry Kay. I have enjoyed every Kay book that I have read, especially The King Who Made Paper Flowers. Kay’s writing is always colorful and easy to
read. Dare I say poetic? The setting for the novel is the beautiful
city of Savannah, Georgia, where one Arthur Benjamin arrives via Greyhound one day and triggers a series of events that will change his life, and many lives around him forever. Stepping off of the bus, he is greeted by a
pick-pocket street magician, who immedi- ately steals his wallet. As only Kay could write the tale, the thief, Hamby Cahill, ends up inviting the new arrival to stay with him and a small group of quite interesting people in an old abandoned warehouse they call the “Castle,” with the “queen.” She is an elderly woman they call “Lady,” and her mind seems to be rapidly approaching insanity. The other characters who live there include Leo, Gerty and Carrie, along with Hamby, and now Arthur. The character development and relation-
ships keep the reader turning pages. I actually looked at the clock one night and it was 3 am. I had been reading since 10 pm! That’s how well Kay draws you in. Arthur becomes a kind of local celebrity
because if his flowers that he places around town. Actually napkins, construction paper and other papers that he folds into colorful flowers. When Lady is involved in an acci- dent, the story moves into high gear. Terry Kay dedicate the book to Pat Conroy,
one of the South’s finest authors who we re- cently lost. It shouldn’t be very long at all be- fore another writer dedicates his book to Terry Kay, another of the South’s finest writ- ers. Perhaps it will be my honor to do so.
-Michael Buffalo Smith
Conversations with the Conroys Interviews with Pat Conroy and His Family Edited with Introduction by Walter Edgar (University of
South Carolina Press) I became a diehard
fan of Pat Conroy after reading The Great Santini. From then on, I made it my goal to read everything the South Carolina author wrote. With Conversations with the Conroys,
Carolina historian Walter Edgar presents a series of revealing interviews he conducted for SCETV Radio’s Walter Edgar’s Journal. Through several conversations with Pat Con- roy and four of his siblings, Edgar gives us fans a look inside the author’s life and career. I must admit, it is a little bittersweet for me personally, as I started reading this book after the passing of Pat Conroy earlier this year. I am still digesting that one, as fans
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