Thomas Reid Pearson, aka T.R. Pearson, is fun, fun, fun to read.  If you haven’t yet encountered this very imaginative author, you’re in for a treat today.  What a story we have to tell here at Just Listen.

Today’s selection, “The Last of How It Was,” reads like a stream of consciousness story, but with less punctuation.  The running nature of Pearson’s sentences can vie for authority on the page with Henry James and the best of those other literary lights who go dim with the suggestion of the use of a period or pause.  Reading T.R. Pearson aloud requires capacious lungs, the phrasing of a blues singer, and a deep appreciation for the deliciousness of the South’s unique storytelling tradition.  If I were going to try to explain to someone what the Southern literary tradition is about, this story would feature in my top three selections.  This is the man…yes indeed, the very one, I reckon.

It's hard to tell you exactly what kind of story this is…it’s a tale of deep loss and redemption, perhaps a paean to family values, a didactic story with Biblical undercurrents, or maybe just the latest news from the creeks and woods of North Carolina.  You’ll have to decide.

And now, for your listening pleasure, “The Last of How It Was,” by T.R. Pearson….