FA: Group portrait of 11 "lost towns" in Arkansas
The Ink Company
Harington, Donald: LET US BUILD US A CITY: ELEVEN LOST TOWNS
San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1986. First edition.
Amazon.com
Let Us Build Us a City is a group portrait of 11 "lost towns" in Donald
Harington's native Arkansas. Yet this is no mere backwoods travelogue. His
book, the author tells us, is "the story of communities that aspired to
dignity and achieved serenity." These are towns, in other words, whose
ambitious founders never quite managed to merge imagination with reality.
"How does a once-flourishing town aspiring to call itself 'City' endure the
long days of its decline?" asks Harington. The answer, in most cases, is
quite well--though not perhaps in the way its inhabitants intended. One need
not be familiar with Arkansas to appreciate this tour of lonely highways;
there are lost towns everywhere. But seldom are they explored with such joy
and wonder as in this gem of a book.
For all its brilliance, Let Us Build Us a City is nearly impossible to
classify. It fuses the travel narrative with history and cultural
studies--yet it reads like a novel. It's also a love story that is in no way
fictional. Harington begins with a letter from a woman named Kim, who writes
to praise his earlier book, Some Other Place, the Right Place. (Since the
latter work is itself about a young couple's exploration of ghost towns and
their subsequent romance, things immediately get off to a metafictional
start.) Kim's letter leads to regular correspondence, in which she details
the research she's conducting in one-horse towns throughout Arkansas. The
author encourages her, she inspires him, and they agree to collaborate on a
book--this one. By the time they meet, they too have learned something of
expectation and hope. (Yes, they do get married, although you'll have to
read the acknowledgments for details of the ceremony.)
Ultimately, Harington's book is a search for the spirit of each individual
place--which is to say, the people. These lost towns are populated by dreame
rs, outcasts, prevaricators, drunks, madmen, and hermits. There are tales of
floods, fires, gold rushes, gunshots, feuds, booms and (mostly) busts, along
with other tidbits so strange they could only be true. By themselves, these
would be deeply entertaining yarns. In Harington's hands, however, they
amount to eloquent requiems for all his stunted cities. And perhaps these
Arkansans traded in their dashed dreams for something better. After all,
serenity is an admirable quality in a town, even if it happens to be an
accidental one. --Shawn Carkonen
Very Good with Very Good dust jacket. Remainder stripe on top edges. Book
cocked. Dust jacket soiled and lightly edgeworn.
staring bid: $4.00
http://tinyurl.com/ow78
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Don and Meg Jernigan
The Ink Company
5930 Dillingham Avenue
Shreveport, LA 71106
Phone: 318-773-2153
FAX: 253-369-5197
http://www.inkcobooks.com
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