Review & Literary Road Trip: Hume’s Fork

Legare “Greazy” Hume and Saul Grossman are philosophy professors at Amworld University in St. Petersburg, FL.  Amworld University is owned by Amworld Enterprises, which is known for it’s theme park in Orlando, so it’s needless to say that it’s not a well respected school.  They’re heading to Charleston, SC for the American Philosophical Association conference.  Saul is excited because he’s anxious to experience the South.  Greazy, a native of Charleston, has explained to him repeatedly that “St. Pete and much of Florida, for that matter, were not the South.”

Since Greazy is trying to distance himself from his family, he doesn’t plan to visit them while they’re in Charleston, but when there’s a mix-up in their hotel reservations (there’s also a big professional wrestling tournament in town), he and Saul are forced to stay with them.  Much to Greazy’s surprise, Saul, an Orthodox Jew from New York, hits it off with Greazy’s Southern, redneck family.

Between the Philosopher’s convention, professional wrestling, and Greazy’s family, there’s a lot going on!

Since Hume’s Fork is written about a philosophy professor by Ron Cooper, who is a professor of philosophy,  each chapter starts with some philosophical musings.  Even the title is a philosophical reference – David Hume was an 18th century philosopher who made a distinction between two types of knowledge and that distinction has become known as Hume’s Fork.  Frankly, most of the philosophical references were over my head.  Those parts dragged for me, but once I got past them in each chapter, I thought the book was lots of fun – it was filled with a buddy road trip, an eccentric Southern family, professional wrestling, a great location and even some suspense.  Both Greazy and Saul were great characters and Ron Cooper got the South Carolina lowcountry accent perfect.

Ron Cooper was born and raised in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.  He earned his BA at the College of Charleston and his MA at the University of South Carolina.  (He has a Ph. D. from Rutgers.)  His wife, Sandra, is from Gloverville, South Carolina.  Hume’s Fork is his first novel.

Since Ron Cooper is originally from South Carolina and almost all of this book is set in South Carolina, this is the second stop in my Literary Road Trip through South Carolina.  Review copy provided by Bancroft Press.