A Southern Family was published by Morrow in 1987 and is Godwin’s most ambitious novel — a multi-perspective narrative that unfolds a family crisis through the consciousness of six different characters, each illuminating different aspects of a central tragedy. When Theo Quick — the troubled youngest son of a prominent North Carolina family — kills his girlfriend and himself, the event sends shockwaves through the extended family, forcing each member to confront truths about themselves and each other that they have spent years avoiding.
The novel’s structure — shifting between perspectives with each section — allows Godwin to explore how the same events look entirely different depending on who is observing them. The mother sees one story; the successful novelist sister sees another; the working-class half-brother sees a third. Class, race, education, and temperament all shape perception, and Godwin is scrupulous about granting each perspective its own validity without endorsing any as the “true” version.
The Southern setting is integral: Godwin’s North Carolina is a place where old money and new money coexist uneasily, where race shapes every social interaction even when it is not acknowledged, where family reputation still matters, and where the gap between public propriety and private chaos is wider than anywhere else in America. The novel’s ambition — to be the great Southern family novel for the 1980s — is largely fulfilled.
Collecting A Southern Family
First edition (Morrow, New York, 1987): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $15–$35
- Without jacket: $5–$10