In a Sweet Magnolia Time

Judge J. Waties Waring (1880–1968) was a South Carolina federal judge in the old-school mode, until, sometime in the 1940s—following an unseemly divorce and instant remarriage—a slow progressive conversion took hold. First-time novelist and journalist Wintner looks mostly at the aftermath, not for Waring but for his protégé Arthur Covingdale. Covingdale was supposed to follow Waring to the federal bench, but after Waring's shift destroyed that career path, Covingdale helped burn a cross on Waring's lawn. Wintner's novel takes place mostly in the fractious 1960s, focusing on Covingdale's struggle to understand why he terrorized the judge, and how Covingdale himself fits into a social structure whose foundation is crumbling. Wintner, who lived in South Carolina, uses phonetic spellings to getting at its dialects, but the narrative's setup is flat and long-winded. Once Covingdale begins an intimate relationship with a woman of color, all of his inner turmoil is externalized and his demons and dilemmas leap out of the shadows. Wintner ends up nicely illuminating a corner of a turbulent era. (Dec.)