Provinces of Night

When I read William Gay's first novel, THE LONG HOME, recently, I had the strong feeling that I had discovered the work of someone very special - and reading PROVINCES OF NIGHT has confirmed that for me. Gay writes with a carefully and languidly - the breadth and depth of his writing demands full attention from the reader, and the rewards are great indeed.The above-mentioned languid quality of his work does not for a single moment indicate any sort of laziness on his part - writing this good can, of course, come from the foundation of a natural talent, but it takes hard and diligent work to come up with a finished product of this quality. Gay's characters are vivid and real, and they are built up slowly - the reader is required to get to know them, rather than having them dumped off the page and into their lap. His descriptive abilities are astonishing as well - if there isn't a word that suits the image he's trying to get across, he's not above combining existing words into a single unit, and he does so with taste, style and intelligence. There are no cheap, easy gimmicks at work here - just talent and imagination.Set in the same small rural Tennessee town in which his earlier novel takes place - but in the 1950s this time, as opposed to the 1940s - Gay captures the setting and characters with absolute perfection. His country folk are depicted honestly - they are uneducated, to be sure, and some of them are certainly not the brightest match in the box, but he treats them with respect. They come across as honest and real - the figures of speech they employ might seem odd to city dwellers, and their knowledge of the world outside of their area ranges from non-existent to a shadowy grey awareness that is tempered liberally with misinformation and rumor. They look upon outsiders with doubt and suspicion - and usually for good reason.The relationship that develops over the course of the story between E. W. Bloodworth - an elderly man who left the area, his wife and family, many years before - and his grandson Fleming, whom he has never seen is one of the most touching depictions I've come across in some time, without ever venturing anywhere near the maudlin. The Bloodworth clan - and their neighbors and acquaintances - are a pretty rough-hewn lot. They number among their members bootleggers, drunks, hell-raisers, stand-by-your-man women and I-ain't-takin-any-more-of-your-BS women. Fleming is a pretty intelligent - if uneducated - young man, and he is instantly attracted to his grandfather's personality and stories of his life. E. F. is a banjo player and singer, a collector of old tunes - mostly blues. His fame actually spread to the point of a record label recording eight of his songs - but he never chose to pursue music as a career. It simply meant too much to him.When E. F. decides to return home after many years away, he stirs the stew of a lot of family members and other locals - he's not exactly welcomed back by everyone with open

William Gay can write like mad. If you love to read, if you love books, if you love words and the way they can express things you see and understand but can barely put into thought images let alone words, buy and read this book. Then, when you have savored the richness of it, go buy and read The Long Home. Put William Gay high on your list of writers whose books you will buy as soon as they hit the book stores.

"Provinces Of Night", is the second work offered by Mr. William Gay. His first work was very good, however with, "Provinces Of Night", he has become an even more compelling Author. His first work began with a massive explosion, this time it is more of an emotional shudder that while a bit lighter on the fireworks is quite possibly more disturbing to read.The issue I mention is offered in the form of a Prologue and while you expectantly read to find the dramatic link, this element like others in the story are more like consistent backdrops to the book. These elements play their part and many times a prominent one, however they do so gradually, their prominence steadily draws more importance to the issue but there is no eureka like moment. I liked the style of this story, as it developed at its own pace, it was not a set piece structured to meet a formula.The characters of this book were many and very well done. The book does primarily surround the various immediate and extended clan of the Bloodworth Family, however there are several other players that round out the cast. There are characters like," Itchy Mama", that provide for some of the best and funniest dialogue in the book. There is a moment she offers Fleming a flask of Whiskey, the comments that accompany the offer are outrageously funny. That moment is a rarity in that I would love to see it on the screen. Others like, "Albright", does not have the genius his name suggests but he is one of the more colorful and funny players in this tale. He also is one of the few who bring some sense of responsibility, or as the book phrases it, "honor", to the storyline.This is however, "Fleming Bloodworth's" story. The youngest and best hope for the future of this Family line resides with him. He is one of many from this Family but he is the one who eventually must make decisions that no person should be forced to make, however when he does the events seem to propel him more quickly and more definitely in a direction that will change the Family's History, and end what the Bloodworths at this end of Tennessee have fashioned from history.Literally flowing in the background is a massive wartime project of the TVA that will forever alter this piece of the state. I don't know what the Author intended this to symbolize as it runs the range from a Biblical like destructive cleansing, to a redemption, and even of tasks left uncompleted as roads that once directed the flow of life are now stunted. Even the dead are no longer fixed as they become mobile in the most pragmatic of ways.If this Author continues to improve with every book he writes, his books will be in print a century from now.

When I read William Gay's very impressive debut novel The Long Home a few months ago on a recommendation, I thought he was a promising southern writer, reminiscent of Faulkner. His tale of evil moonshiners, crooked cops, racists and injustice was a refreshing change of pace from most contemporary fiction. Now, with his latest masterpiece Provinces of Night, I am starting to believe Gay may be the most talented writer living in the South today. This book is simply astonishing, at times brutal and at other times tender and poetic, but always enjoyable.The story involves the Bloodworth family, including banjo-picker E.F., who left his young wife and sons twenty years earlier to chase his musical dreams, and to get away from the aftermath of a violent shootout. E.F. has decided to return home, to a valley about to be buried under a lake by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1952, as the nation enters the Korean War. Bloodworth's grown sons Warren (a womanizing alcoholic), Boyd (who is compelled to chase down his adulterous wife and her lover) and Brady (who still lives at home and places hexes on enemies for revenge or profit) are not exactly waiting with open arms. It is only Boyd's 17 year old son Fleming, E.F.'s grandson, who seems to care what happens to the old man upon his return.Fleming is the true heart and moral center of the novel. His odd relationship with his wandering dad, his blossoming romance with young Raven Lee, his tense tolerance of uncles Brady and Warren and his bonding with E.F. are skillfully woven around numerous effective and often-times humorous subplots. I loved the adventures of Fleming's buddy Junior Albright, who accidentally breaks some machinery after conning his way onto a jobsite as a roofer, with serious and far reaching consequences. I also loved the manic roadtrip with Warren and his "accountant", as well as Fleming's alcoholic cousin. The plot never really slowed down to a halt, and Gay manages to keep several balls in the air without missing a beat. Fleming did remind me a little of idealistic young Nathan Winer of The Long Home, and Raven Lee seemed a bit similar to Amber Rose of the prior novel (both are young dark beauties raised in a setting that is anything but innocent), but who cares, I enjoyed their adventures anyway.Perhaps the best part of the novel, for me, was Gay's prose style. He has a way of setting the scene, depicting the family sitting on a porch listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio with the Tennessee hills turning purple at sunset, that swept me away every time I picked up the book. There are no quotation marks in the novel, instead Gay curiously weaves the dialogue into the paragraphs, so you oftentimes find yourself re-reading passages once you realize a character is speaking. This started out as a mild distraction, but I came to enjoy the technique after awhile. Quite simply, Gay is a master storyteller, his dialogue is pitch perfect, and his descriptions, while not overly verbose

Finding THE LONG HOME powerful and fun to read, I was excited to get my hands on this, Mr. Gay's new novel. PROVINCES OF NIGHT exceeded my expectations. Fleming Bloodworth and his grandfather E. F. make an extrodinary pair, the former finding pain and love and bursting with a desire for life (yet with enough wisdom to learn from the latter), and the old man who's come home to find...something, even he's not sure what. A host of eccentric characters round out this work, from a bitter son who casts spells on his enemies, to the funniest adolescent since Cormac McCarthy's Harrogate in SUTTREE. Having grown up with stories of the south, I found Gay's details rich and true. He seems to be writing for himself, drawing on personal stories, humorous experiences and pain and reminds me of other great writers, Cormac McCarthy and Hemingway to name two. I look for an honest voice in fiction and I have certainly found one in William Gay. He is one of the unsung heroes of southern fiction - hell, of fiction period, and he's only written two novels. Here's to many more tales told by this astonishing author.