News & Events Book Signing and Reading by Larry Baker

On Tuesday, March 16, the Foundation will host "An Evening with Larry Baker" at Andalusia.  Baker's novel A Good Man (Ice Cube Books, 2009) is the story of Harry Ducharme, a character inspired by Harry Ashfield, who drowned at the end of O'Connor's story, "The River."  Baker's protagonist survives childhood and ends up in St. Augustine, Florida, at the end of his rope.  Booze and bad decisions have taken him from the A-list of talk radio fame to a tiny cinder-block station, WWHD.  He talks, mostly to himself, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. -- not sure anybody is listening, reading books and poetry that he likes, not caring if anyone agrees with him, playing golden-oldies from the Sixties, and wondering how he got there.  Above all, he's convinced he is not a good man.

Larry Baker started writing short stories at the age of fourteen and had his first one published when he was fifteen.  He has lived in Texas and Oklahoma but has been in Iowa City since moving there in 1980.  He is the author of two novels: Athens, America and The Flamingo Rising (Knopf), which was adapted by Hallmark for a television movie.  Bruce Gentry, editor of the Flannery O'Connor Review, wrote: "Without imitating O'Connor, Baker does serious honor to her legacy."  The reading will begin at 7:00 p.m.  This event is free and open to the public.