But what hooked me was Hamilton's back story about Henry's kid sister, Elvira, a 13-year-old who, "much to [her] mother's sorrow [is] a hardcore Civil War reenactor." "Hardcores" act out major Civil War battles wearing and using only materials contemporary to Robert E. Lee's time. They're in opposition to "farbs" -- "far be it from authentic" suburbanites -- who don't mind reenacting with the artifacts of shopping mall culture. In "Disobedience," Elvira symbolizes everything authentic in contrast to the tawdry middle-class aspects of her mom's adultery. Both ways of life converge beautifully at the novel's climax, when Elvira's mother is called upon to rescue her daughter when the other hardcores discover that the girl has unwittingly betrayed their calling. I spoke with Hamilton on the phone recently to tell her she'd won me over to "girl books."

This New Yorker has an ancestral right to speak to you. I was born in Racine, Wis. [the nearest town to the apple orchard where Hamilton lives], and grew up there.

I grew up in Oak Park, Ill.

Are you sick of the shadow of Ernest Hemingway?

I always thought he was sort of an icky man. [Laughs] In high school it was very fashionable to be disdainful of the bourgeois suburbs, but I secretly liked them. I think Hemingway said, "Oak Park was a place of narrow minds and wide lawns." That was really wrong. Oak Park was really liberal. It was a good place.

I don't mean to give you a backhanded compliment, but I don't usually read books like "Disobedience," and I loved it.

You mean, you read Stephen King?

No, I read weird books. Don DeLillo kind of books.

You mean you don't read "girl books"?

I don't read "girl books."

Well, I'm glad. Perhaps you'll read more "girl books" now.

I hope the fact that I love "Disobedience" doesn't mean that it's really a weird book. I've never told another writer what I thought their book was really about, but I think "Disobedience" is really Elvira's story.

That's interesting. [Pause] I did write a story about her in 1996, long before I started the book. And so she really was the kernel. So your comment is very perceptive.

Are there really Civil War reenactments, or did you make that up?

No, I did not make that up. There's a great book called "Confederates in the Attic" by Tony Horwitz about the phenomenon. It's a really wonderful book.

Maya Angelou reads from "The Heart of a Woman"