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By Archive
from Salem Monthly, Section News
Posted on Sun Aug 14, 2005 at 01:13:25 PM PDT
While Salem is not a hotbed of literary activity, our city has managed to connect itself with a few interesting efforts. It is home to some authors of note and has been used as a setting by some authors from other areas. Following are some of the more well-known books that are either written by authors from the Salem area or that use the capital city as part of the story.
Award-winning author, Gina Ochsner, is from the Salem area and has written two well-received books of short stories. Her first book “The Necessary Grace to Fall” has won numerous awards, including the Flannery O’Conner Award for Short Fiction. Her most recent book “The People I Wanted to Be” is a collection of offbeat imaginative stories featuring a host of sympathetic characters trying to live in an absurd world.
Immerse yourself in ancient Rome by reading the sweeping novels by Salem’s nationally known author Michael Curtis Ford. Rife with bloody conflicts, military history, and gladiators, the author’s well-researched books will keep you turning the pages. Titles include “Gods and Legions: A Novel of the Roman Empire” and “The Last King: Rome’s Greatest Enemy.”
An intrepid family of five from West Salem traveled the world for almost a year on a shoestring budget. After visiting 29 countries, Toby Abraham-Rhine wrote about their adventures in “A Brilliant Teacher: Lessons Learned from One Family’s Journey Around the World.” If your travel plans include trekking around the globe (particularly third world countries), check out the enlightening Basic Desirability Ranking System for restroom facilities.
M. K. Wren resides in Lincoln City and over the past 30 years has written a series of mysteries featuring the suave and debonair Conan Flagg. While most of the action takes place around “Holliday Beach” (aka Lincoln City), the second book comes to the state capital. Published in 1975, “A Multitude of Sins,” has Conan traveling to Salem searching for clues at Willamette University and a thinly disguised Deepwood mansion.
There are many who may not be aware that Salem was home to one of the most nefarious serial killers of the late 1960s. It may be an uncomfortable claim to fame, but it makes for a fascinating book. Jerry Brudos (known as the Shoe Fetish Slayer) killed a number of women in Salem in the late 1960s. Ann Rule tells his story in “Lust-Killer,” originally written under the pen name of Andy Stack.
On a much gentler note, Joel Redon’s “The Road to Zena” is a quiet tale of a dying rural town outside of West Salem. Based on the real-life courtship of the author’s great-grandparents, this novel evokes the feeling of a bygone era.
Don’t forget the classic “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the novel Ken Kesey wrote in 1962 after he worked in a psychiatric hospital. While Salem isn’t mentioned by name, the setting is a state mental institution near Portland, and the 1975 movie starring Jack Nicholson was filmed in the Oregon State Hospital.
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