'Off Magazine Street' character has strong ties to Southwest Alabama

I finished reading “Off Magazine Street” by Ronald Everett Capps the other day, and this book was everything that I expected it to be. Published in January 2005 by MacAdam/Cage, this 401-page book is about two well-educated alcoholics who take a teenage, high school dropout under their wing. Not only do they help her finish high school, but they also help her get into Tulane University.

Many of you will be familiar with this book because it was the basis for the 2004 motion picture, “A Love Song for Bobby Long.” Released in 2004, this movie was directed by Shainee Gable and starred John Travolta as Bobby Long and Scarlett Johansson in the roll of the teenage dropout. This movie and Capps’ novel are both set in New Orleans.

I saw the movie soon after it came out, and I’ve wanted to read Capps’ novel for a long time due to its strong connections to Southwest Alabama. Capps is a native of East Brewton and now lives in Fairhope. The Bobby Long character in the novel and movie is based on a now-deceased native of Brewton, who taught school all over Alabama, including at Evergreen High School, Monroe County High School in Monroeville and elsewhere. In fact, he was one of my dad’s high school English teachers.

The main characters in the novel and movie are both former teachers. Long has a PhD from Auburn University and his sidekick Byron Burns has a master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Alabama. With that said, “Off Magazine Street” is full of literary references, and I made a note of as many of them as I could spot when I went through the book. I’ve posted a list of them below in what I'm calling the “Off Magazine Street Reading List.” Enjoy.

- "Bernice Bobbed Her Hair" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Bible
- "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
- The Dahmmpada
- "The Diary of Anne Frank"
- "Fiddler Jones" by Earl Lee Masters (poem)
- "A Field of Blue Children" by Tennessee Williams (short story)
- "Girls in Their Summer Dresses" by Irwin Shaw
- "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
- "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain
- "Lilith" by J.R. Salamanca
- "Look Homeward, Angle" by Thomas Wolfe
- “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
- "A Member of the Wedding" by Carson McCullers
- "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville
- "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder
- "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce
- "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner (short story)

- "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams

- "Teddy" by J.D. Salinger

- "Their Lonely Betters" by W.H. Auden (poem)

- "Three Players of a Summer Game" by Tennessee Williams

- "Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain

- "A White Rose" by John Boyle O’Reilly (poem)
- "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- "With Rue My Heart is Laden" by A.E. Housman (poem)

Other authors that are specifically mentioned in the novel include Adam Smith, D.H. Lawrence, Flannery O’Connor, Lao Tse and Sherwood Anderson.

In the end, how many of you have read “Off Magazine Street”? How many of you have seen the movie, “A Love Song for Bobby Long”? What did you think about them? How many of you knew Bobby Long? Let us know in the comments section below.