Father and Son [Paperback]

Larry Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 1996

1997 Southern Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Glen Davis is the bad seed. It's Sheriff Bobby Blanchard's job to track him down in what promises to be a violent, High Noon stand-off between the two men who represent what seems pure evil and its exact opposite. "One: Larry Brown is a master. Two: FATHER AND SON . . . is a stinging, tragic history of the legacy of misery passed along from one generation to another."--Newsday. A QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOK CLUB selection.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Larry Brown is the master of the raw and the sparse and of bringing Mississippi to the world in a language that is as stripped down and bare as Faulkner's is dense. Brown is at his best when he writes of the tensions between one screwed-up man and another, in this case a father and son. One has just been let out of prison, and he shouldn't have been. The other is drunk and disabled and intends on staying that way. To make things worse, there is a conflict with the sheriff, who is good and righteous but who tried to put the moves on the parolee's woman while he was in prison. To tell more would be to violate Brown's mastery of dialogue and of that which goes unspoken in this sly story of father, son, and misery.

From Publishers Weekly

It takes formidable talent to mesmerize readers of a novel that focuses on a deeply flawed, unsympathetic protagonist, but Brown succeeds triumphantly in his most wise, humane and haunting work to date. On the first day that Glen Davis is released from the Mississippi state pen (after serving three years for running over a child while he was drunk), he kills two men; that night, he callously tells the mother of his toddler son that marriage is not part of his plans. On the second day, he rapes a teenaged girl. Glen is a despicable person?mean, icily remote, seemingly without conscience. Sheriff Bobby Blanchard is Glen's opposite; a kind and decent man, he epitomizes integrity and responsibility. Bobby is in love with Jewel, the mother of Glen's son, and their relationship is only one of the heartwrenching dramas played out here. Only halfway through the book do we learn that Bobby is Glen's half brother; both are sons of Virgil Davis, whom Glen demonizes and hates and whom Bobby wistfully wishes would acknowledge him. In fact, all of the characters are involved in a web of secret relationships, and much of the resonance of this suspenseful narrative is due to Brown's adroit pacing, as he releases surprising information gradually and with natural understatement. Despite Glen's coldhearted deeds, we come to understand him, too, as he progresses to a desperate act of rage and revenge. As in his previous novels, Brown (Dirty Work; Joe) uses lean, lyrical prose to evoke the cadenced speech and the atmosphere of the rural south in the 1960s, where everybody chainsmokes and drinks whiskey. Though he depicts a basic conflict of good and evil, however, Brown never reduces the issues to stark polarities. Most impressive here are Brown's compassionate view of human nature and his understanding of the subtleties of human behavior and the fabric of society, which, after tragedy reknits itself anew, to reaffirm the essential kinship of a community of souls. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1st edition (January 9, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565120140
• ISBN-13: 978-1565120143
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,499,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too deep in the South in the late 1960's, October 16, 2001

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Father and Son (Paperback)

Larry Brown is an amazing storyteller. Father & Son is gritty and real. This is the lives of people living in a small southern town in the late 1960's. Before MADD and the tobacco lawsuits. They are not educated and not rich, but the story definitely

As you read about the lives of Virgil, Bobby, Jewel, Puppy, Mary, and most of all Glen, you feel time take on a different meaning. Their lives are not about obtaining wealth or recognition or even a state of comfort. Their lives are about survival, in the only world known to them and the only world they will accept.
Time passes slower there, and sometimes it seems that all they do is ride around in their old cars for hours drinking beer and smoking. But Mr. Brown brings their lives into clear focus whether you wanted to see it or not. Virgil's regret at how he spent his youth instead of raising his sons better. Bobby's yearning for Jewel and dedication to doing the right thing. Jewel's desire for the love she thought she had in the past, her unhappiness at finding it never existed, and her determination to make a decent life for herself and her child. Puppy's day to day struggle with just making a living, making peace with his father, and handling his own home life. Mary's struggle with her own lost love and her dignity in bearing through years of sacrificing that love. And then there is Glen. His life is a chilling look at the mind of cold blooded killer, but from a different angle than most novels give.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The character of a thug and his town, August 19, 2004

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Father and Son (Paperback)

Brown's third novel, set in 1968, concerns the events of five days following the release of Glen Davis from prison. Having served three years for the drunk-driving death of a small boy, Davis returns to his Mississippi home town with scores to settle.

Brown's Deep South, working class voice drips with heat and smolders with trouble. Davis is a sullen, vicious young thug convinced that all his troubles are anyone's fault but his and determined to exact revenge. Not exactly an original character but Brown's gritty, laconic style imbues him with a foreboding sense of menace that seems to surround the whole town while people go about their business, knowing the danger but unwilling to quite believe it.

Within 50 pages, Glen has killed - casually, with intent but almost without thought. The next morning he begins to harangue Virgil, his father, about the lack of a headstone on his mother's grave.

"Virgil didn't look up. He couldn't reason with him. Not when he got things in his head and kept them that way. It wasn't any use to try. He was worn down and he'd had a long rest but now this rest was over and he didn't know if he could take this all over again."

As Glen creeps and careens around his town, drinking and wreaking brutal havoc as the whim grabs him, secrets begin to crawl up out of the worn linoleum floors and the fly-blown windows - cracks in the veneer of sainthood Glen has constructed around his dead mother, an unspeakable childhood incident that fuels Glen's hatred and weighs heavily on his father, a tangled history with the sheriff and his mother.

Sheriff Bobby Blanchard's stand-up confrontation with Glen goes deeper than Bobby's love for Jewel, Glen's girlfriend and the mother of his child. Bobby himself grew up without a father. "He still didn't know anything about working on a car. Still didn't know how to slip up on a squirrel." He's always wanted his mother to marry again. "To somebody. Anybody. So I could have had somebody to show me the stuff I needed to know. So you could have had somebody too."

The thought of Glen with Jewel "was too awful and the image was something he'd managed to keep out of his head so far." Bobby is restrained, thoughtful, caring - a little envious of Glen and a little pitying too. Glen is simpler. He hates Bobby, always has.

But why is Jewel wavering? What does she or did she ever see in Glen? Jewel is a normal, responsible parent, not given to heavy drinking or hankerings for excitement or abuse. While the motives of Brown's male characters are real and freighted with a lifetime of history, Jewel remains a cipher.

But it's a small quibble. Brown's simple, poetic, gritty style brings this small town to life while it drives toward an inevitable climax of violence and renewal.
Another fine novel from the award-winning author of "Dirty Work" and "Joe."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Symbols Converging and Diverging, November 15, 1999

By 

Sheldon S. Kohn - See all my reviews

This review is from: Father and Son (Paperback)

Larry Brown's Father and Son is a compelling novel, well worth a close reading. Even the title points to psychological depths that perhaps only Faulkner at his best ever mastered. I grew up during this time and in this place. The novel rings true as Memory, though perhaps not as journalism.

Brown's narrative revolves around basic archetypal symbols and situations. On the surface, the story is a study of good vs. evil, contrasting two basic types. There is Glen, a murderous, drunken rapist who should have rotted in prison. There is also Bobby, the Sheriff, who works for Justice.

During the course of the novel, Brown introduces a host of ancillary characters, lets the reader get a sense of who these characters are, and then drops them completely. This technique perfectly matches the nature of these white trash Mississippi folk during the Summer of Love. During those days, young people were experimenting with hallucinogens as a path to rebellion. These Mississippians share a deep devotion to altering consciousness with those radical youth.

Brown chooses archetypal symbols and situations that make a deep impression on the reader. By plunging into our unconscious and shedding light in all directions, Brown works much as a Jungian Analyst does, showing us the reality of what is often dismissed as merely ephemeral. This splendid novel makes a lasting impression even after a first reading.

Brown is a Mississippi writer with enough talent to make me want to read only Southern Literature. Although Faulkner's influence is evident on every page, he is his own writer. I look forward to reading more of his work.