While Gail Godwin would rather not be known as a writer on social issues, she admits to a fascination with class, especially in the South. A Southern Family is not only about class in the South; it is an indictment of a class-stratified society that imposes devastating effects on those who are trapped in it. At a time when Americans are becoming ever more aware of this class difference and the increasing difficulties of upward mobility, A Southern Family offers an especially topical exploration of this social imbalance and its victims. Set in the South where few have ever denied the existence of class and many have reveled in it, this book reveals as much about the America of the future as it does about the South of the past. All of the characters muse on the effects of social class on themselves and those around...