Talk:Elmer Kelton

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Mr. Elmer Kelton is my first cousin, once removed; that is he is my mother's first cousin. My mother's name is MELBA LOUISE FRANCIS ANN KELTON YOUNCE, and she's from Pecos, like me. I am Bobby Younce, whose daddy was JOSEPH EDGERTON YOUNCE, and a Army Air Corps trainer who came to Pecos in that capacity from among other places, Wheeler Field, near Pearl Harbor on the day living in infamy.

Why does the set of facts concern fans of Elmer Kelton at this belated point? Well, it seems that the national character has been skewed by war. Wouldn't it be nice to have a world not dependent on various wars to produce its geniuses? From the specimens of recent leaders we might say war has killed off a good crop, too.

There is in the works I know of Elmer Kelton's a pattern of not directly writing about official Congress-declared war. No direct tome nit-picks the battles of the Civil War, and so on. In this way he not only avoids north-south or up down arguments, but by detailing the affected characters on the generational fringes, he sculpts a face on the people developed by the events. The wars are evolutionary engines, and the people are the fuel and exhaust.

Very good work, for it is not only a reflection of the Texas past, but a mirror of now. We are still here, despite our efforts to exterminate ourselves, and my good cousin is recording very accurate microcosms of the forced edges of change. It's like life just outside one's comfort zone.

I've read lots of his books, and I'm happy to say my only disappointment is in waiting for another title. --70.241.16.10 08:04, 30 July 2006 (UTC)