cover image Home in the Tall Marsh Grass

Home in the Tall Marsh Grass

Roy Attaway. Lyons Press, $18.95 (156pp) ISBN 978-1-55821-254-1

In the 1940s, the South Carolina low-country was a wonderful place to grow up: Beaufort and the barrier islands had not been developed; saltwater marshes and swamps offered all kinds of adventure. Attaway, former editor-in-chief of Yachting and Boating magazines, has written an engaging memoir that focuses on his relationship with his father, ``Big Roy.'' Though theirs was an affectionate family, father and son had divergent interests and goals; their common bond was fishing. Together, they explored and fished the myriad waterways of the low-country, mountain streams of North Carolina and Atlantic beaches. Although the author's lack of interest in athletics disappointed his father, they reached a tenuous truce during the author's high school years. Attaway pere died in 1961, a few months before retirement. In remembrance, his son has produced a charming evocation of time and place. (Nov.)