Edisto : a novel
(Book)

"Portions of this book appeared in the New Yorker"--T.p. verso.

Simons Manigault lives with his mother, an eccentric professor known locally as the Duchess, who is convinced her twelve-year-old son can become a writer of genius. She has immersed Simons in the literary classics since birth and has given him free rein to gather material in such spots as a nightclub called Marvin’s R.O. Sweet Shop and Baby Grand. At the center of Simons’s life on Edisto is an enigmatic character who tutors the boy in the art of watching the world without presumption. "Taurus," as he is dubbed by Simons, acts as a father surrogate as well, taking his precocious young charge in stride. The way Simons sees the world will change radically when he leaves his ad-lib life among the denizens of Edisto for the private schools and tennis tournaments of Hilton Head, South Carolina--the territory of his father, "The Progenitor."