Hill of Beans: Coming of Age in the Last Days of the Old South

In this moving memoir, Snyder documents growing up in the Carolinas during the Great Depression and offers a detailed look at that fascinating period of American history. Presenting remembrances from three geographic locations that shaped his young life, Snyder explores Cedar Mountain, N.C., "a remote place inhabited by mountaineers" who lived in rough cabins without electricity until the late 1930s; Greenville, S.C., "the textile center of the world" in the early 1940s; and the Snyder family farm in Walhalla, S.C., where sharecropping was the primary means of agriculture. Snyder also expertly profiles a wide range of family and friends%E2%80%94most notably his father, a hard man given to arcane phrases ("Cut that racket!' he shouts, %E2%80%98or I'll come down there and transmogrify your paraphernalia'") and his Aunt Bess, whose streak of cruelty is displayed in her love of killing chickens and telling Snyder and his brother extremely scary bedtime stories%E2%80%94all of whom seem to have walked straight out of a Flannery O'Connor story and into Snyder's life.