Tula Springs is a fictional town in the

Florida Parishes The Florida Parishes, on the east side of the Mississippi River—an area also known as the Northshore or Northlake region—are eight parishes in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The Florida Parishes were part of what ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, and the setting of a series of novels by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

novelist James Wilcox. Starting with Wilcox's acclaimed debut novel '' Modern Baptists'' (1983), Tula Springs has served as the setting for five subsequent novels: ''North Gladiola'' (1985), ''Miss Undine's Living Room'' (1987), ''Sort of Rich'' (1989), ''Heavenly Days'' (2003), and ''Hunk City'' (2007). Wilcox's other novels (set in New York) include brief mentions of Tula Springs or characters with ties to the town.

Michiko Kakutani is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998. Early life and family Kakutani, a Japanese Americ ...

wrote in her review of ''Sort of Rich'' in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'': "Tula Springs is one of those peculiar outposts of the

New South New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a slogan in the history of the American South first used after the American Civil War. Reformers used it to call for a modernization of society and attitudes, to integrate more fully with th ...

- half suburb, half small town, poised between a quickly receding pastoral past and a greedy, consumerist future. It's the kind of place where people are ignorant about the details of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, but up on the latest kinds of sunlamps and

Jacuzzis Jacuzzi is an American private company that manufactures and markets hot tubs, pools, and other bath products. It is best known for the Jacuzzi hydrotherapy products. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California. It is the largest hot tub ...

; the kind of place where long-haired ex-hippies cheerfully vote for

Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party and became an important figure in ...

, and housewives divide their time between therapy sessions and church choir meetings.""Books of The Times; Marooned in the New South", review of ''Sort of Rich'' by Michiko Kakutani, ''The New York Times'', June 13, 1989
/ref> Other reviewers have compared Tula Springs to

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

's fictional

Yoknapatawpha County Yoknapatawpha County () is a fictional Mississippi county created by the American author William Faulkner, largely based on and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi, and its county seat of Oxford (which Faulkner renamed "Jefferson"). Faulkne ...

References

{{Authority control Fictional populated places Louisiana in fiction