Four Spirits

Set in Naslund's home city of Birmingham, Alabama, Four Spirits is poignant and evocative, rich in historical detail, and filled with the humanity that is the hallmark of Naslund's fiction.Stella Silver is a young white college student brought up by her mannered aunts. She first witnesses the events of the freedom movement of the 1960s from a safe distance but, along with her friend Cat Cartwright, is soon drawn into the mounting conflagration. A student at a black college, Christine Taylor struggles courageously to balance her family responsibilities, education, and work with the passions and dangers of the demonstrations. Her friend Gloria Callahan, descendant of a runaway slave, tries to move beyond her personal shyness to enter a wider circle including blacks and whites, men and women, all involved with the protests. Lionel Parrish, teacher, preacher, and peddler of funeral insurance, battles his own demons of lust and self-preservation, while New York activist Jonathan Green gives up a promising career to work for racial justice in the South.Naslund brings to life this tumultuous time, weaving together the lives of blacks and whites, civil rights advocates and racists, and events of peaceful protest and violent repression, to create a tapestry of American social transformation.Performed by Isabel Keating.