The Last Columnist by Tom Morgan
Friday, November 29th, 2019 by Library Director
When he stabs a finger in the eyes of the elite, long-time columnist Mage Haus has to expect retaliation. But is he up for it? After all, he is not the power he once was. He was one of the most popular columnist-critic-commentators in America. Was. Before his angry reaction to his wife’s suicide soured his writing. Before a stroke of ill health, brought this Icarus to earth. Now his notoriety and column gradually regain followers. He once more exposes corruption and malfeasance in Manhattan and lately at its Goth University. He is an equal-opportunity taunter of faculty, administrators and students who embrace political correctness on the campus. Unlike other columnists, Haus’s perspective in his City Haus- Country Haus column is from both the land of rural rube and urban effete. In the city he frequents legendary jazz haunts and befriends Lisa, who owns one of the most famous. In his upstate village of Fergusville (“Forgetusville”) he coddles his beloved Brown Swiss cows in a barn built by the very hands of his great-great grandfather. And he pursues Marge, operator of a down-at-heels diner/saloon that suffers a “time of the month”. When her husband was around, she enjoyed an affair with Haus. Now that her man is in prison she is faithful to him and shuns the exasperated Haus. At Goth, a secretly-funded group organizes to shut down Haus’s speech to students. As the group’s efforts heat toward combustion, Haus unknowingly adds enough petrol (when he antagonizes a mob family) to cause an explosion that rocks the city.
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life – until the unthinkable happens.
