Memphis Afternoons CL

The realization that his father was suffering from Alzheimer's disease provided the momentum for Conaway's ( Napa ) memoir about growing up in Memphis during the 1950s. Conaway delivers sharply etched portraits of members of his large extended family, including his grandfather, J. P. Alley, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons criticizing the Ku Klux Klan, and his Uncle Yank, who spun endless stories of barroom brawls. Conaway's parents were products and propagators of the Memphis class system, where knowing the right people and being able to differentiate between ``good'' and ``bad'' women were vital attributes. He describes a society permeated by casual racism and intense snobbery, where concerns about pledging the best fraternity eclipsed news of an emerging Civil Rights movement. His world widened by literature, Conaway left Memphis in the 1960s and here looks back at his southern boyhood with humor, and affection. Author tour. (May)