In new novel 'Indigo Field,' North Carolina's present communes with its ancient history
Down South, as William Faulkner reminded us, the past isn't dead; it isn't even past. Piedmont author Marjorie Hudson reminds us of this in her long-awaited novel, "Indigo Field," as North Carolinians come to terms with their history.
First we meet Randolph Jefferson Lee, a retired Army colonel who's just moved to Stonehaven Downs, a ritzy gated community somewhere near Chapel Hill.
Rand, who grew up in West Virginia, hates the place, with its faux Old South airs — girls in hoop skirts, a Rhett Butler lookalike — put on for retired Yankees. But his wife, Anne, a Long Islander, loves it.
To escape, Rand jogs through the surrounding pine forests — right past the home of Miss Reba Jones, a local subsistence farmer and herb lady.
Miss Reba's embittered. Her beloved niece, Danielle, her last living relative, was murdered by a no-good redneck who got off on manslaughter charges.
Alone, Miss Reba communes with the spirits of her dead, who are thick on the ground, especially around Indigo Field — sometimes called Indian Field — where she gathers her herbs.
The present comes back to haunt Miss Reba, though, when the Guardian Ad Litem folks ask her to take in TJ, a red-haired teenager whom Danielle had been raising. The boy's daddy was the thug who killed Danielle.
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Meanwhile, Rand's life is upended when Anne drops dead on the Stonehaven Downs tennis courts. Gradually, he discovers she was much more than the social butterfly he thought she was.
Eventually, Rand and Miss Reba collide, literally, and their stories intertwine like kudzu. Eventually, they involve Jolene, a tree-hugging goat farmer and single mom who's caring for Bobo, her son with Down's syndrome.
And everything spills over onto Indigo Field, where secrets stretch back to the days of the Tuscarora Indians. Miss Reba literally knows where the bodies are buried, and when they come to life, Rand's son Jeff, a sometime archaeologist, comes in handy.
"Indigo Field" starts slowly, but it rewards readers who stick with it. The plot meanders toward a form of redemption.
A former copy editor with Algonquin Books, Hudson has written one volume of short stories and "Searching for Virginia Dare," an investigation of the Tar Heel legend and its implications. "Indigo Field" is the major work of fiction her fans have been waiting for.
Book review
'INDIGO FIELD'
By Marjorie Hudson
Raleigh: Regal House, $22.95
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Indigo Field by Marjorie Hudson is magical work of historical fiction
