The News Courier will begin a five-part serialization in Sunday’s Lifestyle section of “Willie,” a novella by local author Bill Hunt.
Hunt, the retired owner of Limestone Health Facility, Limestone Manor and Limestone Lodge, has devoted his spare time since retirement to writing. Two years ago the News Courier reviewed his “fictionalized memoir,” “Last Witness From a Dirt Road,” which has since met with critical acclaim.
Hunt has read excerpts of “Last Witness,” the story of an adolescent coming of age on a Louisiana sugar cane plantation, to literary groups in several states.
As in “Last Witness,” Hunt’s thesis in “Willie,” set in 1920 New Orleans, concerns race relations in the Deep South.
“Willie is the story of letting go and letting live, pride, courage, love and forgiveness,” said Hunt. “Willie is a strong woman ahead of her time who crosses the threshold of hope in old New Orleans.”
“Willie” has been an on-and-off writing project of Hunt’s several years.
“I first wrote the story with a Birmingham setting, but then Katrina devastated the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and I decided to recast the story in New Orleans to try to boost that city in any way I could,” said Hunt.
Hunt has vivid memories of New Orleans. A native of Bunkie, La., about 100 miles north of New Orleans, he lived two years in the Crescent City.
“It was in 1960 and 61,” he said. “I worked for Shell Oil Company right downtown and lived on the edge of the Ninth Ward, right off St. Claude Avenue.”
Hunt said he was fascinated by the personality of the city and what he calls its “iridescent” faces evolving from the port city’s French, Spanish, African American forebears. The shades and variations of the races intermingle to what Hunt writes, “a parade of people strolling almost in rhythm with the music that flowed endlessly from the crumbling walls of the cafes and coffee houses of the Vieux Carre.”
But below the surface of seemingly colorblind relations, Hunt writes of the strictly enforced social strata that demarcated neighborhoods more strongly than solid brick walls ever could.
“I hope the mature subject matter of ‘Willie’ doesn’t offend either my black or white friends,” said Hunt. “But this is the way things were—and still are in some places.”
“Willie” will be illustrated by a painting by Hunt’s daughter, Claire Kayser, who lives in St. Paul, Minn.
Succeeding chapters of “Willie” will be published in the News Courier Sunday editions over the next four weeks.
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