Stori om the Attic, prevly unpublished work by William Gay, reviewed by Dawn Major – Heavy Feather Review

Contents:

• WILLIAMGAY
• WILLIAM GAY
• WILLIAM A. GAY
• WILLIAM GAY WAS NEVER TOO BY FOR LIFE’S SMALLER MOMENTS
• 780 MATCH FOR WILLIAM GAY
• WILLIAM GAY DI AT 70; WRER TIED TO TENNSEE
• A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.
• STORI OM THE ATTIC, PREVLY UNPUBLISHED WORK BY WILLIAM GAY, REVIEWED BY DAWN MAJOR
• THE WRER AND HIS LASTG MSAGE: LTLE SISTER DEATH BY WILLIAM GAY
• THE WUNRKAMMER OF WILLIAM GAY’S THE LOST COUNTRY
• WILLIAM GAY’S POST
• A GLIMPSE OF WILLIAM GAY
• BT OF WILLIAM GAY
• OBUARY: FRANK WILLIAM GAY
• WILLIAM GAY (RNERBACK)

WILLIAMGAY

The night I met William Gay, we were a bar Columbia, South Carola, town for the Southeastern Inpennt Booksellers Associatn annual nference. We've disvered several social media acunts associated wh William Gay, cludg @willxbad, @probablycuckba, @southcy22, @william_gaynor18 and others.

29, 2012William Gay, a self-tght novelist om ral Tennsee who emerged om obscury his late 50s wh crilly praised books the Southern Gothic style, died last Thursday at his home, a log b Hohenwald, southwt of Nashville. Gay’s prose, not exactly purple, was often ght wh mythic ronance — that serpent, for example — which sued the amb parabl of good and evil that drew him.

Gay to the readg world beyond lerary journals, he created a battle between Dallas Hard, a malevolent bootlegger, and Nathan Wer, the young rpenter Hard hir to build a honky-tonk on the property he has taken over om s crippled owner. Gay’s imagatn, ” Richard Bernste wrote The New York Tim Book Review about “Provc of Night, ” “giv this book s nsirable narrative power but also mak far-fetched, termtently zany, somethg about four-fifths Flkner wh ‘The Omen’ fillg the rt.

WILLIAM GAY

A rear om a young age, William Gay was troduced to the work of the novelist Thomas Wolfe by a high school teacher, and he disvered the Sig paperback edns of tl by Southern wrers like Flannery O’Connor that would lor his own fictn. Gay said of a llectn of O’Connor’s short stori an terview last year wh the Tennsee Lerary Project, an archive at Middle Tennsee State Universy. Gay had bee a full-time wrer, but as a figure on the lerary scene, ved to wrers’ nferenc and llege mp, he was a stranger a strange land.

’ ” A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 22 of the New York edn wh the headle: William Gay Di at 70; Wrer Tied to Tennsee. 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.

WILLIAM A. GAY

’s grandson, is pleased wh the old man’s homeg, but Flemg’s life is soon to reen down an unpredictable path hewn by the betiful Raven Lee the great Southern tradn of Flkner, Styron, and Cormac McCarthy, William Gay wields a prose as evotive and lh as the hnted and humid world picts.

William Gay expertly sets the nflicted characters agast lh backuntry scenery and fi our moral logic as we grow to love them for the weight of their human 2009 film, That Eveng Sun, was based on the short story I Hate to See That Eveng Sun Go Down. What follows is an adventure through the Harrik, an eerie backwoods filled wh tangled roads, sted machery, and eccentric squatters—old men, wch, and fai among them—who both shield and imperil Tyler as he ns for his poetic, hntg prose, William Gay rewr the l of the gothic fairytale while explorg the classic Southern them of good and evil. A stirrg lerary rendn of Tennsee’s famed Curse of the Bell Wch, Ltle Sister Death skillfully to the le between Southern Gothic and horror, and further cements William Gay’s legacy as not only one of the South’s ft wrers, but among the bt that Amerin lerature has to offer.

WILLIAM GAY WAS NEVER TOO BY FOR LIFE’S SMALLER MOMENTS

Ten years after was first announced, Dzanc Books is proud to liver the lost novel om a master of the Southern Gothic―the work William Gay fans have anticipated for a Edgewater is a harbger of doom. Hound at every turn by sms, vigilant, grievo loss, and unspeakable vlence, Edgewater navigat the long road home, searchg for a place that may be nothg but as “a seemgly effortls storyteller” by the New York Tim Book Review and “a wrer of strikg talent” by the Chigo Tribune, William Gay, wh this long-awaed novel, secur his place alongsi Flkner, O’Connor, and McCarthy as one of the greatt novelists the Southern Gothic tradn.

780 MATCH FOR WILLIAM GAY

Published by The Universy of Wt Alabama’s Livgston his last posthumo novel, William Gay has offered admirable homage to Mark Twa's Huckleberry Fn.

The book clus a preface by JM Whe, and nclus wh a qutn and answer wh the team of edors that worked on the by his signature skill and bare-knuckled sight, this llectn is a mt-read for William Gay vote and fans of Southern short fictn. The bsman and his wife, Melissa, first plaed to the Front Porch proprietors about pre-dawn vendor liveri 2019, not long after the nservative Christian uple moved their fancial firm right next door to the rtrant, which fli a gay Pri flag. (Front Porch Market and Grill)What’s more, the Washers say, the ad rat was jt one more sult that the uple, who once planted an “all liv matter” sign their ont yard, have endured sce movg next door to a rtrant owned by a gay uple.

They married 2020, five years after they opened the Front Porch, which quickly beme a statn The Front Porch has been flyg a Pri flag on s pat sce 2016, not long after a gunman killed 49 people a gay bar Orlando. Waybourn was print of the Dallas Gay Alliance when sued Parkland Memorial Hospal for failg to provi readily available medic to AIDS patients. “I had so many threats agast me that even the Dallas police statned squad rs outsi our home, ” Waybourn an activist, Waybourn says, his goals were clear: same-sex marriage, gays and lbians the ary, accs to lifavg medic.

WILLIAM GAY DI AT 70; WRER TIED TO TENNSEE

To the activist, feels like a step backward after a lifetime of fightg for gay pack the seats at the Board of Zong Appeals hearg hosted at Grace Epispal Church. “I have que a few gay iends, clients and a fay member, and I have patronized a gay-owned rtrant for years, ” he whether the Washers are tryg to remake The Plas to their image of Ameri — Whe, nservative, Christian — Melissa said, “I n see where you’re g om.

After William Gay’s passg 2012 a mounta of unpublished work was disvered and Team Gay—a group of artists, thors, profsors, scholars, basilly uber fans— was formed. The team has published four novels and now this fal llectn, Stori om the Attic—an apt tle as some of his works were actually disvered an attic where Gay was livg while raisg his fay.

Dzanc Books has e forward to publish Stori om the Attic; Dzanc was there at the very begng when they published Gay’s first posthumo novel, Ltle Sister Death and then his major work The Lost Country. The 348-page llectn nsists of short stori, memoirs, and a few agments om work progrs when he died, and is round out wh a roundtable discsn wh the members om Team Gay.

A GAY UPLE RAN A RAL RTRANT PEACE. THEN NEW NEIGHBORS ARRIVED.

And of urse, that pulsn Gay’s characters is analogo wh Gay’s pulsn to wre, his sire to get published also seemgly unreachable, as he didn’t start gettg published or ga notoriety until his late fifti after a lifetime of wrg. But Gay was also fond of specific nam and sometim ed the same name for a character even though they were not the same character across his non.

In terms of settg, the stori and agments take place faiar lotns such as the town of Ackerman’s Field, the Harrik, Gay’s or hnted fort, the famo honkytonk, Gobl’s Knob, poolhalls, beer jots, and bootlegger’s hom, drive- theatr, sentially Gay’s tried and te ral landspe of Middle Tennsee. Nothg was more personal than settg for Gay and that is evinced by the attentn he paid to scribg the natural environment his characters habed and the imag found his art. And of urse, the agments are simply enjoyable to read and offer more of Gay’s betiful lyril prose as “The Trace, ” where Gay scrib the timelsns of the nighttime sky and the perseverance of nature:.

When Gay returned home after a lerary nference, the ntents of his trailer was ransacked and his novel set on the Natchez Trace was stolen.

STORI OM THE ATTIC, PREVLY UNPUBLISHED WORK BY WILLIAM GAY, REVIEWED BY DAWN MAJOR

Sonny Brewer, when terviewed by Lemuria about the novel, The Lost Country, said Gay had a ntract to publish at McAdam Cage where Brewer was edor--chief, and when Brewer reviewed the handwrten drafts that were revered after Gay’s ath Brewer termed that the 250 pag of the mancript that had been found were not the plete novel.

In the troductn to Fugiv of the Heart, Gay’s last posthumo novel, the famo trailer burglary up aga and Brewer ntends a pleted Natchez Trace novel is still out there, though Whe disagre and believ the agment Stori om the Attic reprents the entirety of the Natchez Trace story. Perhaps, Gay was jt tellg tall tal about the extent of the stolen work taken that fateful day his trailer was burglarized; do make for a good story. Of the memoirs, “Readg the South Part I (Paperback Edn), ” offers a wonrful view to the early works that spired Gay, most of which he found at the lol pharmacy on paperback book racks.

THE WRER AND HIS LASTG MSAGE: LTLE SISTER DEATH BY WILLIAM GAY

Readg the South Part II (Flkner’s As I Lay Dyg)” is the troductn Gay wrote for The Fol Society’s 2011 As I Lay Dyg edn of which he was immensely proud. In the short memoir, “Fumblg For The Keys To The Doors Of Perceptn, ” Gay scrib a time when he was first married and workg at a boat factory.

THE WUNRKAMMER OF WILLIAM GAY’S THE LOST COUNTRY

” Tiwater is stunned, as one n image Gay was when this occurred, and Tiwater snarkily rponds, “I never seen a goddamned place would e after you, he said. The character Yat the novel Fugiv of the Heart has a love for Mark Twa as Gay did: “… he was hopelsly snared by Twa, forced to seek out the book surrept moments durg the day, fish the book far ahead of her [Widow Paon] though she pretend not to notice and went on to readg his chapter at night anyway.

Begng wh the story, “Ascensn of Pepper Yat, ” we are remd why Gay has stood the tt of time as the one of the bt Southern Gothic thors. Pepper Yat, like many of the protagonists that follow the short stori, is your prototypil Gay protagonist, part villa, part nman, an unrdog, an orphan, an outsir, but telligent and il. Fally, we, wh the roundtable discsn, n ga a eper unrstandg to how important publishg Gay’s work has been to Team Gay, his fay, and iends and maybe enjoy a tale or two about William Gay, the man.

She provis edorial assistance on the works of the late southern thor, William Gay, who she also enjoys lecturg about at lerary nferenc. When William Gay died sudnly 2012 he left behd a most but powerful ovre of some of his generatn’s most strikg, origal, and funny Southern gothic fictn: three novels, two books of stori and assorted prose, a chapbook, and mors of (at least one) more work.

WILLIAM GAY’S POST

By now, his unual bgraphy (by typil lerary standards) and tal of personal eccentricy are the stuff of near-myth — but, jt briefly, sce Gay’s pictn of Southern life seems dredged as much om personal history as om a distct lerary tradn: as William Giraldi not his excellent survey of the thor’s work, Gay was born Hohenwald, Tennsee, served Vietnam, returned home where he worked to support his fay as a rpenter and dry-wall hanger, all the while secretly, or at least anonymoly, slavg away at his stori and novels and facg years of lerary rejectn before beg disvered, fally, 1998 when he was 55, by The Geia Review. First me The Long Home (1999) where, though was his but novel, Gay troduced to the hallmarks of his narrative visn: the young men g of age the ral Tennsee settg, the potent tensn between humor and grotquerie, and the great narrative enge of a terrifyg nemis — all renred a distct and excg prose pable of makg the most graceful register shifts between the biblilly ornate and the Appalachian lloquial.

After Twilight’s release, there were mors of more books the works, followed by mors of why those books had yet to appear, but one way or another, Gay’s torrid pace had halted and he did not publish another novel his lifetime. Dpe my suggtn that Gay’s last novel reprented a formal redirectn, he do not try to hi his fluenc, and ’s rare to fd a discsn of Gay’s work whout a reference to those other lns of the form — Flkner, O’Connor, Crews, and of urse, and most notably, McCarthy.

(Although he is ually discsed solely this southern pany, Gay’s work, the way he b ral and historil trop wh fairy tale motifs, has seed some of the more recent eratns of the hardscrabble Amerin Fantastic, as reprented by Benjam Percy, Matt Bell, and William Giraldi). Still, Gay was an open admirer of McCarthy, and his novels, he seemed to pick up right where McCarthy left off after he published Suttree, abandoned his own Tennsee roots, and set out wt. Both passag provi siar pictns of a sister figure harrowg the roads of the world, and yet, where McCarthy’s huntsman — visible only the narrator’s dream — is clearly metaphoril, Gay’s may well be actual: Gay’s protagonist, Tyler, is unsure whether the rir was Sutter, the villa on his heels, or a supernatural prence.

A GLIMPSE OF WILLIAM GAY

In this moment, the boundary between dream and realy llaps —  Gay’s scene, whether the rir was real or dreamed do not affect his potency, his abily to do harm, or even, really, his prence upon the landspe. While McCarthy’s passage perfectly expos his grand visn of Amerin apolypse unfurlg wh the stylized inography of a Holbe sign, Gay strips the moment of s mythology favor of a poro, fairy tale world of lived nightmare.

BT OF WILLIAM GAY

Ltle Sister Death — Gay’s first of at least two posthumo novels (disvered multiple notebooks and acquired last summer by Dzanc Books) ntu the velopment iated Twilight of leralizg the horrific elements of the Southern gothic. Certaly, Ltle Sister Death reprents, form and direct subject, somethg of a parture for Gay —  do not adhere to a strict chronology but rather jumps around between 1785, 1982, and several pots between; s protagonist is a stgglg wrer; and while still, style and subtext, pays homage to McCarthy and Flkner, also riffs on Stephen Kg. Nohels, any rear of Gay will easily regnize his distctive prose, worldview, and grim humor, and hontly — although this is an ostensibly plot-heavy novel — the plot of Ltle Sister Death, the se of much of the viatn om his past works, feels almost cintal.

While Gay scrib the pastoral settg as an external realy, he mediat the hoe’s wickedns through Br’s perceptns — s perversn and malignancy are referents of the word seemed.

OBUARY: FRANK WILLIAM GAY

Interspersed through all this, Gay serts the stori of the fai who prevly lived the hoe — the neteenth-century Beal driven out by a chatty poltergeist, and Owen Swaw, a tenant farmer om the 1930s, who, like Br, mov to the doomed hoe wh his fay before, driven mad by the hntgs, he murrs them all wh axe and shotgun a giddy eptn of vlence where ’s like Gay has taken The Shg — though certaly Kubrick’s versn — and given the endg always should have had. Here we fd Gay wryly performg a narrator who, like the tle character om his story “The Paperhanger, ” watch over the rnival of horror he himself has wrought wh a bemed and “dispassnate eye.

WILLIAM GAY (RNERBACK)

” Still, Gay n play straight too, and while he sometim don’t seem entirely fortable wrg about the supernatural (the word “evil” appears six tim on one page), his lyril scriptns imbue his landspe wh a pulsg rot: “wild aprits ripened on their dyg v…whered glob of dty gold, and the air was heavy wh their mky perfume. Gay mirrors this moment om Sanctuary durg Br’s first apprehensn of the Beale ghost, where he replit both Temple’s notn of impendg doom and the void agency signaled by a sudn, impossible silence:. Gay’s homage to Sanctuary, Flkner’s famo attempt to wre a lurid potboiler for fast sh, mak temptg to read Ltle Sister Death, wh s blatant pictn of a stgglg Southern wrer slummg the horror trench, as a meta nod at a siar se of hack work — but this would be a mistake.