THE REDNECK WAY OF KNOWLEDGE by...

THE REDNECK WAY OF KNOWLEDGE by Blanche McCrary Boyd (Vintage: $10; 160 pp.). Boyd “left South Carolina fifteen years ago, as if it were a burning building,” but has found it difficult to escape her upbringing: “Being a white Southerner is a bit like being Eichmann’s daughter: People don’t assume you’re guilty, but they wonder how you’ve been affected.” Her sardonic account of returning home to a madcap group of Charleston aristocrats--they inadvertently caused false reports of an alligator stampede at the Seabrook Jazz Festival to appear in the news--makes very entertaining reading.