SOURCE: Starr, William W. “Alnilam: James Dickey's Novel Explores Father and Son Relationships.” In The Voiced Connections of James Dickey: Interviews and Conversations, edited by Ronald Baughman, pp. 258-62. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989.

In the following essay, which was initially published in 1987, Starr considers the major thematic concerns of Dickey's Alnilam.

James Dickey's second novel, Alnilam, is definitely not another Deliverance, which created a storm of acclaim and readership when it appeared seventeen years ago.

But that's just fine with Dickey, author of two dozen literary works and holder of a host of prizes to go with them.

… The University of South Carolina poet-in-residence and a Columbian for nearly two decades said, “This is no Deliverance 2 or Son of Deliverance. I'm not going to do that kind of thing. People will just have to take it for what it is.”

And what Alnilam is—once the...