A moody first novel is offered as s gifted thor’s claim to the regnal-metaphysil mantle currently worn by Cormac McCarthy—though, fact, reveals the overpowerg fluence of Flkner, particularly of the “Spotted Hors” chapter The Hamlet. A terse Prologue reunts the murr 1932 of tenant farmer Nathan Wer by erant thug Dallas Hard, followg an argument over a whiskey still. Then, 11 years later, the dilapidated backwoods hamlet of Mormon Sprgs, Tennsee, an creasgly bleak drama is played out among the avaric Hard (now a prospero landowner and small-time entreprenr); Wer’s teenaged son and namake; a reclive old man named William Tell Oliver (who harbors his own guilty secrets); and a betiful girl, Amber Rose, whom Hard threatens to add to his ill-gotten holdgs. The story—told clipped, often enigmatic parallel scen—emphasiz Oliver’s crafty momentum toward remptn, Nathan’s thwarted love for Amber Rose and dogged pursu of vengeance, and the overreachg that brgs their tormentor Hard to a kd of jtice. The Long Home (the phrase is an digeno metaphor for ath) ntas several memorable scen and strikg characterizatns (both Nathan’s dysfunctnal ra “Motormouth” Hodg and ex-football hero and town dnk “Buttcut” Chsor are amg troublemakers). But the novel drowns s own rhetoric, wh risible abstractns (“she shrieked at the immutabily of his back”) and pretently grotque, and exact, scene-settg (“The bare branch of the apple tre wrhed like tre om a provce mentia”). Gay has read Flkner wh reverence (Dallas Hard is a py of the master’s immortal, satiable rpetbagger Flem Snop), and imated him whout a sense of when to stop—or much w. When emerg om the fog of verbiage, Gay’s but tells a grippg and termtently hntg story. If he ever cis to wre his own novel, may be a good one.
Contents:
- I LOVE WILLIAM GAY’S ‘THE LONG HOME’
- THE LONG HOME BY WILLIAM GAY
- BOOKS WE CAN’T QU: THE LONG HOME, BY WILLIAM GAY
- THE LONG HOME BY WILLIAM GAY (83 RULTS)
- THE LONG HOME BY WILLIAM GAY, FIRST EDN (21 RULTS)
I LOVE WILLIAM GAY’S ‘THE LONG HOME’
My new favore wrer is William Gay. His wr about a muny of backwoods Tennsee characters entangled by geography, blood, petn, greed, love, and vengeance. The thg about Gay is that he’s the strange tw brother of Cormac McCarthy... * the long home by william gay *
William Gay's prose is sipp' whiskey - there's a strength wh that will leave you reelg, but there are so many subtleti to be found as well.
Gay's lerary gifts are amazg - but he never them such a way as to overpower his characters. Gay liv Hohenwald, Tennsee - and his knowledge of the area and the people, and his obv empathy toward them, give his fictn a sense of realy that is both gentle and farmers, laborers, bootleggers, lawmen (both hont and crooked), women and men old before their time, young people achg for somethg - anythg - more than what they see around them, what they see as their future if they rema where they are.
The evil wh him is ma palpable - you n feel the air, will make your sk crawl - by William Gay's skill.
THE LONG HOME BY WILLIAM GAY
* the long home by william gay *
Gay's work was remend to me by another thor - and 's a remendatn for which I'll be grateful for a long, long time. Gay, who I had the pleasure of meetg Nashville at The Southern Ftival of the Book, is a masterful story-teller.
Gay's prose is far more readable and, my opn, lyril. Congratulatns to William Gay for a job well done.
I first read William Gay's work the Missouri Review a year or so ago, a betiful, origal story that still hnts me. William Gay has wrten a movg, heartbreakg novel wh people I believe and believe , wh language both poetic and tt, wh tail to die for, wh humor and wisdom and heart and darkns and a sense of place you might read a thoand books and never fd.
BOOKS WE CAN’T QU: THE LONG HOME, BY WILLIAM GAY
Buy a cheap py of The Long Home book by William Gay. In a lerary voice that is both origal and powerfully unsettlg, William Gay tells the story of Nathan Wer, a young and headstrong Tennsee rpenter who... Free Shippg on all orrs over $15. * the long home by william gay *
Well folks, William Gay is a whole varied chos of voic, all sgg perfect harmony. *Ma to a major motn picture, directed by Jam Fran and starrg Josh Hutcherson, Josh Hartt, Ashton Kutcher, and Courtney Love*In a lerary voice that is both origal and powerfully unsettlg, William Gay tells the story of Nathan Wer, a young and headstrong Tennsee rpenter who lost his father years ago to a human evil that is greater and closer at hand than any the boy n image - until he learns of first-hand. Gay's remarkable but novel, The Long Home, is also the story of Amber Rose, a betiful young woman forced to live beneath that evil who regniz even as a child that Nathan is her first and last chance at pe.
ABOUT WILLIAM GAYBorn Tennsee 1939, William Gay began wrg at fifteen and wrote his first novel at twenty-five, but didn't beg publishg well to his fifti. William Gay. 95 (257pp) ISBN 978-1-878448-91-0Gay's but, an amb saga of love and retributn set backwoods Geia the 1950s, is by turns quat and charged--and sometim both.
THE LONG HOME BY WILLIAM GAY (83 RULTS)
The Long Home (9781938103223) by Gay, William and a great selectn of siar New, Used and Collectible Books available now at great pric. * the long home by william gay *
Strange characters hab Gay's world, too, like a boy who thks baby pigs e om unrground or a travelg salman who brags about his largse but liv off of Wer's mother.
Though his dialogue may sometim be too twangy, Gay wr well-crafted prose that unfolds toward necsary (if ocsnally unexpected) nclns.
THE LONG HOME BY WILLIAM GAY, FIRST EDN (21 RULTS)
The Long Home by William Gay, January 20, 2003, Faber and Faber edn, Paperback - New Ed edn * the long home by william gay *
Enhanced by his feelg for untry rhythms and a pervasive, biblil sense of jtice, Gay's take on the Southern moraly tale is skillfully achieved, if faiar s spe.
Long Home by Gay, William and a great selectn of related books, art and llectibl available now at * the long home by william gay *
William Gay’s novel The Long Home is epic spe.
The Long Home by Gay, William and a great selectn of related books, art and llectibl available now at * the long home by william gay *
Gay’s characters range om solid and kd to phantasmagorilly evil. How have I e this far whout even mentng Gay’s precise and mil ear for language, his portrayals of nature as awome and awful all one, his habual age of clever pound words? William Gay was a master.
In a lerary voice that is both origal and powerfully unsettlg, William Gay tells the story of Nathan Wer, a young and headstrong Tennsee rpenter who lost his father years ago to a human evil that is greater and closer at hand than any the boy n image - until he learns of first-han… * the long home by william gay *
He hailed om Hohenwald, Tennsee, a muny as ral and remote as the on he renrs his fictn, and not far om the hometown of Cormac McCarthy, who both spired and mentored Gay. Led by Gay’s reverence for the man, though, and followg the remendatn of a fellow Gay fan, I recently read McCarthy’s The Orchard Keeper.