Customer Reviews

LOST HIGHWAY

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Richard Currey wrote a phenomenal novel about the man, Sapper Reeves, who wanted nothing else than to play the banjo. Reeves, a West Virginia native, travelled all over rural America playing his banjo with his two fellow band members, Estin and Leonard. The group, known as the Still Creek Boys, played at bowling alleys, firehouses, schools, and local bars throughout the United States. Sapper spent most of his nights sleeping in a Chrylser with his band members while his wife, Riva, and son, Bob, remained in West Virginia. Sapper's band recorded an album and played for a national show but did not earn enough money to make ends meet, so Sapper eventually had to give up his dream ... for a while. Sapper's family life took a downturn and he turned to the bottle, but eventually he came back to music. At that time, Sapper's domestic situation improved but Bob voluntarily left for Vietnam, never to return the same.

Currey is a phenomenal writer. I am not particularly a fan of country western music and did not think that I would like a story about a traveling banjo man. However, I really enjoyed this book. Unlike most authors, Currey can tell a story with very few words. I admired that some chapters were only one or two paragraphs, but these chapters told in so few words were often the most meaningful. Currey has an uncanny ability to narrate the natural beauty of rural America while telling the story of a man with seemingly simple thoughts that yearns to play the banjo. I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to Currey's next novel.

Musicians' lives don't always make the transition into the written word gracefully in either biography or fiction--maybe because the story of getting from one gig to the next isn't all that enthralling.

"Lost Highway" tells the tale of bluegrass musician Sapper Reeves, who in a vintage Chrysler rides the 1940's backroads of West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee with his compadres, the other two 'Still Creek Boys'. Though he's a wizard with the banjo, his band can't catch a break and seems destined for obscurity.

Richard Currey is a truly fine writer, excelling in detailing the epiphanies of Sapper's small town life. For example, there is a wonderful scene in which Sapper awakens one night as a winter blizzard is moving in, and goes to rouse his son so that they might together savor the beauty of the snowfall in the quiet, resting town.

All of the book, in fact, seems to exist in a protective bubble of nostalgia. Scene after scene is as perfectly drawn as the period piece illustrations that Gary Kelley designs for "Rolling Stone."

The romance of Sapper's life is the same as that of a minor league baseball player who never made the big leagues. It's the beauty of an obscure dream. Sapper's life is so compressed and idyllic that subplots about his marital problems and his son's eventual misadventure in Vietnam do not resound enough to provide a real conflict. Without real tension, the book is a pleasant cul de sac, a visit to the past and the magic hollow where music originates --- light years beyond what Robert Waller could do, but lacking the gravitas of a major novel.

Three-and-a-half stars.

Incredibly poetic prose. The way Currey writes, the book flows gently but insistently along like a slow country stream. It's a very in depth look at the life and times of a musician. I found myself turning the pages as if I was reading some kind of action/thriller novel. Currey never pushes the story, and it seems as if it all simply unfolds. Great read, and interesting view of the hard life of a musician.