Charlie Geer (MFA, 2001)
River City Publishing, 2005
ISBN: 1579660622
When from the sheer weight of humanity and its assorted accouterments the Charleston Peninsula broke off from mainland South Carolina and began floating out to sea, among the last to notice were those persons trapped on board the unlikely vessel. . . .
So begins the tale of latter-day Charleston and its curious secession. The schism occurs when the Sportsman’s Jamboree (including Hunters for Jesus), the Bravado Arts Festival, and the Tri-County Mini-Storage Convention converge on the city at once. Native Charlestonians (those “born right the first time”) and an accumulation of tourists – or “cumyahs” – and carpetbaggers now find themselves unbound from the conventions of family, community, even geography. Following the course of the errant island and its inhabitants as they wrestle with the new reality of living a life adrift, Charlie Geer presents a masterful and hilarious send-up of the nuances of entrenched society and the foibles of the human condition.