The Wunrkammer of William Gay’s The Lost Country | Fictn Wrers Review

Contents:

• THE WUNRKAMMER OF WILLIAM GAY’S THE LOST COUNTRY
• “THE LOST COUNTRY,” BY WILLIAM GAY
• THE LOST COUNTRY, A POSTHUMO NOVEL BY WILLIAM GAY, REVIEWED BY MICHAEL A. FERRO
• THE LOST COUNTRY — WILLIAM GAY
• THE LOST COUNTRY BY WILLIAM GAY EBOOK

THE WUNRKAMMER OF WILLIAM GAY’S THE LOST COUNTRY

It's always cloudy and ray Gay's south.

There are passag where Gay’s sight to the human spir overwhelms you wh power. Roosterfish and Bradshaw are amazg characters; among the most distct and memorable Gay has ever created.

You are nstantly remd of Gay’s gift and nstantly remd of our loss at his passg.

“THE LOST COUNTRY,” BY WILLIAM GAY

Gay's works I've read, and while I did like this novel wasn"t as good as his other ma character Edgewater is a kd of wayfarg stranger roamg around ral Tennsee the 1950s gog om one temporary stop off to another. About midway through the book we enunter other characters, some are cleverly wrten and others are predictable and too siar to others William Gay ma prr story wasn't as tertg as Twilight or the Long Home, and the character arcs I felt end somewhat anti-climatilly and a shed fashn. I remend for those faiar wh William Gay's prose but sual rears probably will not unrstand or enjoy the story.

Reviewed the Uned Stat on May 17, 2021I llect novels by William Gay and did not have a py of "Lost Country". If you sire Southern Fictn and like a b on the dark and twisted si, read William Gay and perhaps start wh "Twilight". Reviewed the Uned Stat on July 2, 2021The late William Gay left a superb llectn of works.

THE LOST COUNTRY, A POSTHUMO NOVEL BY WILLIAM GAY, REVIEWED BY MICHAEL A. FERRO

While Provc of Night remas my personal fave among his novels, The Lost Country is a story wh a punch, livered wh Gay's rich prose, played a melodic mor tone, and marvelo unrstandg of the tim about which he wrote.

Gays iends and piled om his draft mancript and several notebooks. The Lost Country was published posthumoly, ten years after thor William Gay’s ath.

Fans of Gay’s work speculate when the text was posed, batg whether fell toward the begng or end of his reer. Regardls of Gay’s origal tentns, the novel’s lack of a plete arc ftly explor the actured nature of the Amerin dream the south.

THE LOST COUNTRY — WILLIAM GAY

Gay suggts that there is no space for nnectn wh this ght landspe – that survival and livg are distct om one another, and the latter nnot be accsed by lower-class southerners like Edgewater. Midway through the novel, Gay wr that “realy only touched Edgewater plac of transiency, jails and b statns, the highway. While we nnot be certa what Gay’s tentns were for the novel when he first drafted , the rult is a hntg and visceral renrg of the Amerin south.

I thk William Gay would have preferred Post-Mortem. From talkg wh those who knew this wrer well, pecially his iend and edor at MacAdam/Cage, Sonny Brewer, I gather that William Gay was a humble man, a b shy but wh a vivid w, and a playful streak to go along wh .

I don’t thk this book is William Gay’s long-lost masterpiece, as some have said is. Gay seems to have ed to renr a private nservatory, a southern Wunrkammer.

THE LOST COUNTRY BY WILLIAM GAY EBOOK

One n fer at this pot: The Lost Country do not nta the foced ternal necsy of Gay’s most admired novels—The Long Home, The Provc of Night.

The Lost Country n turn a sha or two purple at tim, but all is easily fiven if you have a love for the kds of characters, as some of the rawns and rough edg no doubt had to do wh the fact that Gay never had a chance to ed the project, or even work wh an edor, before this book was published.

The novel follows Billy Edgewater after he is discharged om the Navy, echog Gay’s own bgraphy.

Gay do a masterful job suggtg this grief, allowg to be a subterranean force the book that fally emerg near the end like clean ground water, the swallet and rurgence, rual of purifitn.