A few Pete Dexter bits.

Dexter uses a Tim McCarver sighting in one of his books set in Philly (either God’s Pocket or Brotherly Love). A woman sees Tim McCarver coming out of a store in Center City, Philly and tells her husband how he just had an aura about him. The working class husband thinks to himself about what that means about his wife’s judgment. I don’t have the exact passage in front of me but from what I remember there is a hint of the idea that just because Tim McCarver is a fop doesn’t make him special.

Also, Bruce Springsteen mentions Paris Trout in lyrics in ‘The Big Muddy’. “I had a friend say you watch what you do, poison snake bites you and you’re poison too” refers to the opening scene in the book where a young black girl in the poor side of a southern town is bit by a snake and ends up mixed up in the lives of Hannah and Paris Trout.

Pete Dexter’s writing is great. Thanks for sharing some Alex!