The Night Train

By Amber Nimocks,

Published August 11, 2011 at 11:48 AM EDT

Clyde Edgerton's new novel, "The Night Train," focuses on the transcendent power of American music as witnessed in the small, fictional North Carolina town of Starke. In the summer of 1963, protagonists Dwayne, who is white, and Larry Lime, who is African-American, strike up a friendship despite the social mores of the time. Dwayne wants to be James Brown. Larry Lime worships at the altar of Thelonius Monk.

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Clyde Edgerton

Amber Nimocks

Amber Nimocks came to The State of Things in January 2009. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a survivor of 15 years in the newspaper business. As a reporter and editor, her posts have included such exotic locales as her hometown of Fayetteville, Robeson County, Wilmington, Raleigh and Fort Worth, Texas.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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