Junior Ray

THIS BOOK IS A TRUTHFUL BOOK WITH ALL THE NAMES CHANGED . MOST OF THESE PEOPLE I KNOW OR KNEW . IT GIVES A VIEW OF THE PLACE I GREW UP. BUT I NEVER RELIZED HOW BAD THE PLACE REALLY WAS . UNTIL THIS DAY I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SUBMORINE .I HEARD MY PARENTS TALK ABOUT IT . THE AUTHOR COULD HAVE USED A FEW LESS NASTY WORDS . BUT IF HE WAS WRITING LIKE POEPLE TALK IN THAT TOWN THEN HE HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. A LOT OF PEOPLE DON'T LIKE THE BOOK BECAUSE IT IS GRAPHIC BUT THAT IS JUST THE WAY IT WAS AND STILL IS ONLY IT IS IN REVERSE NOW.

I grew up in the South, and although Junior Ray is somewhat older, I understood his millieu. I had friends who were as bloodthirsty, and relatives who were as racist, but I knew no one who was as philosophically sophisticated as Pritchard's protagonist. JR is a latter day Falstaff, Caliban, Aaron the Moor, and Don Quixote combined into one marvellous character. Don't be misled by the setting: Pritchard's planters, bankers, "niggas," and "white trash" are all around us still, and if we look deeply enough, JR is us. Let's hope that Pritchard will delight us again in the near future. In the meantime, Junior Ray will remain a cult classic -- unless of course, the NYTimes has the courage to review it. PS: Junior Ray includes by far the most amusing human copulation scene ever to appear in literature.

Pritchard has succeeded in creating a character on the par with Holden Caulfield or Ignatius Reilly: you don't like them at all really, but you can't stop reading to see what they'll do next. At a time when the modern South constantly tries to show that it has left behind its old ways, Junior Ray Loveblood doesn't give a crap whether you approve of his way of looking at things. This book is funny, aggravating, intriguing social commentary from a man whose time has gone.

From the adventures of "Mr. Floppy" and "Miz Squint," to all my other favorite parts, each time I re-read them, I laugh out loud louder! Hooray for Junior Ray!

This is a book strong on character and place. As such it preserves and describes a most peculiar region of the American South, a nonfictional place most notably written about by J.Cobb in "The Most Southern Place" on Earth. That is the setting of Junior Ray. Though "Junior Ray" is about the change from hand labor to mechanized agriculture and from the ways of the 19th century to the technology of the twentieth, all combined with an elemental savagery, there is a large dose of high buffoonery woven throughout the book. Readers will find "Junior Ray" one of the most fascinating and funniest books they've ever read.