Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994 TAG: 9403130196
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By Alred C. Payne. Pocahontas Press. Price not listed.
"A Community at Prayer" is a compilation of the prayers and thoughts of the Reverend Al Payne of Blacksburg, which he has shared on various occasions and functions within his community. Payne, a notable figure in religious studies and affairs at Virginia Tech, exemplified community involvement and a concern for the broader issues of social change and justice. Consequently, this collection of invocations, benedictions and blessings serves as reminder of Payne's counsel and care.
In the introduction to his work, Payne hoped "A Community at Prayer" would "remind a particular community of its own spiritual development in a very dynamic era." But the book also reminds the reader of the spiritual development of a very dynamic person in Al Payne.
- Nelson Harris
Providence.
By Will D. Campbell. Longstreet Press. $19.95.
Will Campbell's protagonist is one square mile of land in Holmes County, Mississippi, on the banks of Chicopa Creek - just a few miles from Campbell's birthplace. From the legendary Choctaw lad, Tunapinachuffa also known as Luther Cashdollar, through the plantation workers of the 19th century, to Fannye Booker who taught self-respect and the ABCs to a generation of poor black children in the 1950s, Campbell leaves readers feeling they've known the successive inhabitants of Section Thirteen, as the square mile is described on the surveyor's books.
The accounts are factual yet infused with warm regard for the individuals and their circumstances, and the story flows smoothly. The reader cares about the land and its people. Once more, as in "Forty Acres and a Goat" or "Brother To a Dragonfly," Campbell both entertains and informs us.
- CLIFFODEAN HUDSON
A Village in the Vineyards.
By Thomas Matthews. Photographs by Sara Matthews. Farrar, Straus, Giroux. $23.
Wine has been made in France since Celtic times and continues to interest and delight millions of people. Thomas Matthews, now senior editor of The Wine Spectator, spent the summer of 1979 picking grapes near Bordeaux, a job that piqued his curiosity about the nectar of the gods. In "A Village in the Vineyards," illustrated with stark black and white photographs by Sara Matthews, the author relates the experiences of the year they lived in Ruch, a small town which owed its existence to the vines growing all around it.
Thomas and Sara left New York City in the summer of 1986 seeking change and knowledge, and found both. Living in a refurbished prebytere, they gradually became part of the village and were accepted by the long time residents, whom they liked and respected. In simple but often lyrical phrases, Matthews describes a life entirely different from what he and Sara had known. While first seeing Ruch, he says, "We walked fifty yards and left the world behind." What he eventually discovers, however, is another world, slower in pace but equally abundant, one which he brings to life for his readers. A great portion of the book details every complexity of the process of wine making and the conditions that lead to its variety and to its eternal attraction.
Anyone even slightly interested in the subject will learn from Matthews and will perhaps even forgive some of the snobbery attached to wine tasting. "A Village in the Vineyards," like a glass of fine wine, is to be tasted, enjoyed and savored.
- LYNN ECKMAN
The Quality Journey.
By Joseph H. Boyett, Stephen Schwartz, Laurence Osterwise, and Roy Bauer. Dutton. $23.
The Malcom Baldridge National Quality Award was instituted by Congress in 1987 to recognize companies who achieve the highest standards of quality in the United States. Subtitled "How winning the Baldridge sparked the remaking of IBM," this well written book chronicles IBM's rigorous path toward the award. The appendix - worth the price of the entire book for any quality control manager - contains the winning application. I wonder if the immense effort expended by IBM was well spent. W. Edwards Deming, the quality guru who assisted Japan in its postwar recovery, doubted the Baldridge was worth the effort. Deming recently died at the age of 91. He will never know the answer. Only time will tell for the IBM and the Baldridge.
- LARRY SHIELD
\ Nelson Harris is pastor of the Ridgewood Baptist Church.\ Cliffodean Hudson, a lover of Southern folklore, lives and reads in Salem.\ Lynn Eckman teaches at Roanoke College.\ Larry Shield trains dogs and horses in Franklin County.
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