Author Agee reads her 'Resurrection'

In contrast to many University professors who write novels set in upper-middle-class academia, English professor Jonis Agee writes of places further afield, where women drive pick-ups cross-country and hog farms abound.

"South of Resurrection" is the third in Agee's trilogy of novels, centered around three states in which she spent time growing up.

PREVIEW
	Jonis Agee Shaman Drum Saturday at 8 p.m. Free

"I wanted to take on the borderlands of the Midwest," Agee said. Having previously tackled Nebraska and Iowa, she set this novel in the middle of Missouri, near the edge of the Ozarks. Agee's family spent much of their lives in this region.

"South of Resurrection" tells the story of a middle-aged woman, Moline Bedwell, who returns to the home she abandoned when she was 16. In the meantime, she has worked to put herself through college, married a baseball player and settled in Minneapolis for more then 20 years. After her husband dies and leaves her nearly penniless, she must try and sell her parents' house in Missouri to get money.

Yet, as Thomas Wolfe and anyone else who has tried to return home after a large chunk of time knows, it's really not that easy. Moline must face the question of how to remake her life and come to terms with the disparity between her Southern Methodist roots and her former husband's pristine Catholicism. In addition, she becomes entangled in the current town politics towards an invading factory hog farm, which are divided between those who value economic prosperity and those who value environmental quality of life.

"It's a social drama," said Agee. "And a love story. Along the way, Moline gets mixed up with her ex-boyfriend, who had somehow ended up in jail."

"It's a love story about two characters who should have gotten together but never did."

Much of Agee's work seems to be influenced by the landscape and culture in which she's lived. She acknowledged travel as a hobby, and as a way to gather material for stories. In fact, she originally wanted to write "South of Resurrection" as a road novel, to make up for the lack of female travel narratives on the bookshelf.

"There are no road books for women like Kerouac's 'On the Road,' and I think there should be," she said.

In fact, it was her own move to Ann Arbor that influenced "South of Resurrection" the most.

"It changed the way I thought about it. I moved here in the middle of the first draft, so I lost about a year."

Agee will read from her new novel Saturday at 8 p.m. at Shaman Drum.

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