LOST HIGHWAY [Paperback]

RICHARD CURRY (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2005

This 2nd edition of Currey's novel contains an additional chapter ommitted from the original and also features an introduction by James Lee Burke.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Set on the road, in forlorn honky-tonks and eventually in Carnegie Hall and a Nashville recording studio, this novel from the author of Fatal Light (LJ 5/15/97) documents the career of country musician Sapper Reeves and the Still Creek Boys. Sapper's banjo melodies are haunting, and his original lyrics inspired, but for years his achievements are minimal. He loves nothing more than his wife and son, but his constant touring tears the family apart. Only after his career seems shattered and his son is almost destroyed by combat in Vietnam does Sapper finally attain success with his music and and a better family life. Narrated mainly in brief vignettes, the story is sparse but engaging. Like many country songs, it displays aching loneliness and bitter failure but also the redemptive power of love and fidelity to one's dreams. Currey's terseness averts sentimentality but still offers homey wisdom and celebrates abiding human values. Recommended for most collections.?Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

As Sapper Reeves drives home in the night from Nashville to Maxwell, West Virginia, after recording his latest album, he recalls his abortive early career, some of the demoralized times when he wasn't playing and lived separately from his wife, Riva, and son, Bobby, and the gnawing pain inflicted by Bobby's maiming in the Vietnam War, which occurred just as Sapper was getting a second chance in music. Currey parcels out Sapper's memories in little chapters that quietly, vividly conjure weather, terrain, and buildings as well as the people Sapper and the other two Still Creek Boys (Sapper's original "combo") encounter on their desperately modest performance tours through the 1950s upper South. Despite these descriptive beauties and the appeal of Sapper's self-possessed persona, the book is hampered by a vocabulary more literary than seems credible in a narrator who never mentions reading anything, by clots of vague prose poetry, and by a disconcerting reticence about music. But how many other country-music novels are there? Ray Olson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 245 pages
• Publisher: West Virginia University Press; 2nd Edition edition (June 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0937058963
• ISBN-13: 978-0937058961
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,508,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, July 14, 2001

By 

Peter T. Canning - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost Highway (Hardcover)

I bought this book in paperback in a used book store a number of years ago and read it, thought it was great. When I found in in hardback later, I bought it again because I liked it so much I wanted to own it in hardback. It was one of those rare books that makes me say "That's why I want to be a writer." I said to myself at the time I was going to write the author a letter and tell him how much I liked it, but I never did. So this review is sort of saying it. Good job. A quiet, but very moving book. I read his two Viet Nam books later and thought they were also good. He should be more recognized than he is. I have him on my shelf of favorite modern authors along with Andre Dubus, Russell Banks, James Alan McPherson, Richard Ford (Rock Springs) and Richard Yates.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking Forward to this...., August 20, 2005

By 

njr (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Highway (Paperback)

I've enjoyed much of Richard Currey's work, with Wars of Heaven being my favorite. I read the hardback of Lost Highway, but I'm looking forward to receiving my Vandalia Press edition. I'm a true West Virginian girl at heart, but Currey's work is more than Geographically-centered fiction - it speaks to all hearts everywhere. You can hear the music of the Still Creek Boys in his words, and the haunting discord of family unrest is the top and base notes.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Comeback Kid, August 20, 2005

By 

Andrew Gifford/SFWP (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LOST HIGHWAY (Paperback)

Currey returns to print! I've loved all of his work, and he's been silent too long. Just ordered the new version of Lost Highway and it looks great! Online rumors are that this version includes some new material that was cut from the original book. At last, Currey gets his voice out from under the big publishers.

Don't overlook this master of prose. Pushcart and O. Henry winner, Currey's voice is a powerful force in the world of literature.