New South

Dr.Aaron Johnson, a fifty-two year old black American professor of literature returns to his native South after a long absence to teach in a historical all white prestigious university in Greenville, South Carolina. Anna Smith, a pretty nineteen year old white blonde student whose father is a far-right wing fundamentalist Baptist minister in Macon County, Georgia, falls in love with the professor and the two of them have a secretive torrid unethical sexual affair with each other. Remembering a tragic racial event that had driven him from the South years prior, Aaron Johnson is fearful when Anna announces to him that she is going to Macon Country, Georgia to confess her love for the professor to her father. The basic question in the novel is: How deep can one scratch the surface of the "New" South before exposing the horrifying racism and especially the black and white sexual taboo of the "Old" South? Anna, in many ways, is the "New" while her father and his generation is the "Old." The novel examines the Biblical notion: "And a little child shall lead thee." Further, what is the effect of Dr. Johnson's and Anna Smith's on family relationships, customs, and culture?