The Imagination of the Heart: Book Seven of the Story of Sailor and Lula (Story of Sailor & Lula) [Hardcover]

Barry Gifford (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 158322873X | ISBN-13: 978-1583228739 | Publication Date: June 2, 2009 | Edition: First Edition

The Imagination of the Heart is the final chapter in the saga of Sailor Ripley and Lula Pace Fortune, the "Romeo and Juliet of the Deep South." Their story began in Barry Gifford's novel Wild at Heart, which in 1990 was made into a Palme d'Or–winning feature film by David Lynch. Following Sailor’s death at the age of sixty-five in New Orleans, Lula moved back to her home state of North Carolina. This novel begins fifteen years later when Lula, at age eighty, decides to write a memoir in diary form, reflecting on her life with Sailor while also keeping a journal describing her last road trip: a journey with Beany Thorn, her best friend since childhood, back to New Orleans.
Like a contemporary book of Revelations, dutifully recorded by Lula as a dialogue between self and soul, it becomes a bittersweet, often dangerous journey into the imagination of the heart, and what may lie beyond.
Also included in this edition is "The Truth is in the Work," a conversation between Barry Gifford and Noel King which delves into a range of topics, from Gifford’s early publishing experiences to his film projects and to professional sports.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gifford's final installment in the Sailor and Lula saga (which began with Wild at Heart, made into a film by David Lynch) finds high hilarity in a road trip back to New Orleans by the aged Southern best-bosom buddies Lula Pace Fortune and Beany Thorn. It's been 18 years since Lula's lifelong beau, Sailor, was killed in a car accident, and Lula, now 80, having left her home in New Orleans, has been living in a small North Carolina town with her mother's dear friend, until the friend's recent death. Along comes Beany for a visit, and the two, still bubbling with life, make a trip to New Orleans, where Lula's son lives, though Lula's not sure she can face the pain of returning to her beloved city transfigured by Hurricane Katrina. Some of the roadside adventures and off-screen plot happenings feel dashed off, but the real draw is Gifford's unfettered delight in the biblically gracious parlance of Southern dames, rendered in dialogue you might overhear at Commander's Palace. (June)
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About the Author

The author of more than forty published works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, which have been translated into twenty-eight languages, BARRY GIFFORD writes distinctly American stories for millions of readers around the globe. For more information, visit www.BarryGifford.com.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press; First Edition edition (June 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158322873X
• ISBN-13: 978-1583228739
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #482,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Why should I be so lonely why should I be sad though another is taking from me the best pal Ive ever had...", June 1, 2009

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Spunk Monkey (The pit of despair) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Imagination of the Heart: Book Seven of the Story of Sailor and Lula (Story of Sailor & Lula) (Hardcover)

In this novella, Barry Gifford's "The Imagination of the Heart," Lula Pace Fortune and her lifelong friend Beany Thorn -- both in their eighties -- hit the road one last time, heading down to a post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans in the effort to embrace life one last time, for, as Beany points out, "You quit life, it don't quit you."

The account of their trip ultimately is a beautiful denouement to the lifelong relationship between Lula and her lover Sailor Ripley -- chronicled in Gifford's "Wild at Heart," "Sailor's Holiday," "Sultan's of Africa," "Consuelo's Kiss," "Bad Day for the Leopard Man," a brief appearance in "Baby Cat Face," and finally "The Imagination of the Heart."

The adventures of Lula and Sailor are ones I've cherished. Their voices as real and vivid to me as any I've encountered in fiction. Their tribulations and their pain, their love and experiences of the world, their friends and crazy enemies -- it's been a wonderful ride, but, eventually, even a lost highway comes to an end...

This novel mainly focuses on Lula, and we are privily allowed insight into her mind and soul like never before, mostly through snatches of her diary. In her gentle way she tries to understand the pain of the world; and, at eighty, Lula has become something of a modern day saint, using scripture to try and understand but never condemn. Lula's wisdom is simple and direct. Learned from a lifetime of hardtimes met with an open heart and an almost sweetly innocent mind: "Now we got a situation where all these different countries think they got the right answer on religion including our own of course and I don't believe nobody does some are more greedy than others and more righteous but a person in a montain hut in Asia got just as much right to their version of the way thoughs ought to be as one in LA thinks about her tan line than one who might be starving in a desert covered in flies in Africa."

Lula's life has been one of near constant confrontation with chaotic happenstance -- her old home New Orleans destroyed by a hurricane, her love taken away by a twist of fate, more trouble with her son than one can shake a stick at -- but in her love with Sailor she managed to find some stability and meaning, creating a world wild "at heart," and more than surely weird as hell on top.