Neal Wooten steers his fire-engine-red Silverado up Sand Mountain, passing the snarling kudzu that threatens to creep onto the sinuous road that leads to his old stomping grounds in Blake, an unincorporated community of maybe 100 folks in northeastern Alabama’s DeKalb County. This is the 58-year-old Wooten’s neck of the woods, the place where he grew up, the place he so vividly recalls in his harrowing, heartbreaking memoir, “With the Devil’s Help.” It is a story of poverty, abuse and a shotgun murder (committed by his grandfather), but also one of survival, forgiveness and finding a sense of peace and purpose.
Here, he talks about his life and why he needed to write this memoir. |
