Synopsis
Set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, Red Mountain: Birmingham,
Alabama, 1965 is the coming of age story of Eddie and Chrissy, young white
Southerners trying to be true to what they believe in.
In this new novel, author, Charles Entrekin masterfully evokes the great struggles of the
early 1960’s-from the civil rights movement, to the anti war campaigns, to the sexual
openness of “free love”. These tumultuous times are experienced by ambitious, eager
Eddie Anderson, oldest son of a working class Alabama family desperately trying to
escape his blue collar constraints and Chrissy Lee Williams, a girl who knows where
she’s going. She is going to college; she is going to make a difference.
Red Mountain is a story of young love, idealism, ignorance and tragedy set against
changing times in the American South. It is a story of a young couple who struggle to
nurture love and sanity amid the backwardness of early 1960’s Birmingham and then
through the intoxication of bohemian New York City and the sexual revolution.
Filled with racial and sexual tension Red Mountain tells the story of what it means to
attempt to stand alone against the beliefs of a culture. To find some semblance of
clarity and wisdom where there is none and to be honest in the face of lies.
Book Reviews and Links
Compelling and thoughtful- a must read! In Red Mountain, Charles Entrekin has masterfully crafted the personal journey of one young man backdropped against the complicated and painful landscape of Birmingham, Alabama, 1965- the unrest, the growing civil rights movement, the tension that simmered in everyone's hearts during this complex time.
read review booksaboutbirmingham.blogspot.com, 11-25-2009
Charles Entrekin’s Red Mountain, Birmingham, Alabama, 1965 is a portrait of the artist as a young man, and the story of a doomed group of friends coming of age in the repressive South of the 1950s and 1960s.
read review Anne Whitehouse, gentlyread.wordpress.com, 5-1-2009
A brilliantly written period piece.
The south has always been viewed as more conservative as a whole versus the rest of the country - how did they deal with the cultural revolution of the 1960s? "Red Mountain: Birmingham, Alabama, 1965" is the story of a young couple of this era standing against the backwards thinking, ignorance while pushing for their own idealism, love, and sexual liberation, keystones of the era. A brilliantly written period piece, "Red Mountain: Birmingham, Alabama, 1965" is a top pick for community library collections.
More reviews on amazon.com review by Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
RED MOUNTAIN is a huge accomplishment. It perfectly captures a lost time, the early 1960s in Birmingham and on New York's lower east side. A gifted couple's struggle to nurture love and sanity, their personal story framed by racial violence and family bigotry, is portrayed with the authenticity of memoir, yet shaped through suspenseful, inventive fiction. I loved this novel
read review Luke Wallin, spdbooks.org
America is about to change beyond recognition as Eddie, the young Southerner who is the protagonist of Charles Entrekin's new novel Red Mountain: Birmingham Alabama, 1965, sets off for college. There in the brave new world of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, Eddie and his new friends reconsider everything they've ever been taught.
read review Anneli Rufus, eastbayexpress.com
Charles Entrekin developed a love of poetry at a time and place when boys and poetry weren't considered a good mix. In mid-1950s Alabama, where Entrekin was raised, boys weren't encouraged to embrace the arts. "The thought was that writing poetry was for sissies," Entrekin said.
read review Janice De Jesus, Contra Cost Times, 9/24/2008
A Study Guide To Red Mountain, the Novel
A passion for ideas is the original glue which binds a group of young Birmingham
students, circa 1965. For about 7 years, we follow this group of college
friends. They regard conventional views on family, religion, career, social
and sexual mores, as false and hypocritical. The Civil Rights struggle,
including events in Birmingham, provides the background, as our characters
struggle to balance elements within themselves to achieve happiness, while
also striving for social justice. The first person narrator, is a student
of philosophy and literature.
Study Guide to Red Mountain, by
Paul Dolinsky, Ph.D
Charles Entrekin: Poetry Flash Video from Diesel Bookstore
Watch Poetry Reading on poetryflashvideos.blip.tv
Eric Tomb interviews Charles Entrekin, who recently moved from Nevada County to the Bay Area, about his new novel Red Mountain.
Listen to Interview Eric Tomb, archive.org, 5-26-2008
Three Cows by Charles Entrekin
Read Poem Charles Entrekin, berkeleypoets.com, 10-17-2009
Thanks to Charles Entrekin for this good book. The descent of Chrissy is heavy stuff, so difficult to do without sentimentality, and Entrekin handles it awfully well. There are characters here that the reader really attaches to … wants to know more about. After the novel is finished and they are long gone from the page, they linger in the mind, and one keeps wondering how they are faring.
Oakley Hall, author, Downhill Racer, Warlock, etc.
This fine, deeply felt novel will have a permanent place in the literature documenting the massive upheavalsof those tumultuous times
Ed McClanahan, author of Famous People I Have Known
Reading this novel, you will feel it as if it were your
own life, your own wounds, being lifted up from the
well of memory.
Alicia Ostriker, author of No Heaven
An absolute page-turner.
Linda Watanabe McFerrin, author of Namako: Sea Cucumber and The Hand of Buddha
Red Mountain is a huge accomplishment.
Luke Wallin, author of Conservation Writing: Essays at the Crossroads of Nature and Culture
A gripping and enlightening read from someone who lived and breathed and wrote his way through
one of America’s most tumultuous times.
Sands Hall, author of Catching Heaven
Red Mountain shows how we’re all capable of transcendence and self-transcendence, even in the
worst circumstances and among our most hectic mistakes.
Louis B. Jones, author of California’s Over
