I Looked Out Tilt: A Southern Gothic Novel [Paperback]

Henry Wyath Gurley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2008

Set in the fictional town of Portman, Texas, beginning in the 1920's, the novel reaches from the slave-trading days of Western Africa to South Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana. The storyline comes together as a cohesive saga over a span of almost fifty years. The eventual protagonist, Finis Anderson narrates the retrospective history of the community from notes and journals left to him by his parents and by his grandmother.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henry Wyath Gurley is the author of four books of poetry and has been widely published in regional and national poetry magazines and books. He presently has one book of poems awaiting publication. He has been a member of "The Society of American Poets" since 1989. He was the youngest of nine children born in 1936 to sharecroppers in Ace, Texas. Retired from a major insurance brokerage since 1989, he has traveled extensively throughout the U.S. and several foreign countries as a Corporate Auditor. His favorite author is W. Somerset Maugham.

Product Details

• Paperback: 388 pages
• Publisher: HEADLIGHT PRESS (January 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585351571
• ISBN-13: 978-1585351572
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,657,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Secrets and riddles - a Gothic delight, February 19, 2008

By 

Bella "mystery lover" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Looked Out Tilt: A Southern Gothic Novel (Paperback)

Set in the fictional town of Portman, Texas, beginning in the 1920's, the novel tells the story of fifty years of the community. The narrator is Finis Anderson who has put together the history from notes and journals left to him by his parents and by his grandmother.

In the latter stages of the novel a minor character, a hired hand named Claxton, who has worked for the Anderson family for over fifty years becomes the defining focus and the real cement to the story's structure. He has given a riddle to two generations of the Andersons without revealing its answer. (The riddle begins, I looked out tilt; I saw filt. . .) On his deathbed he provides the solution for the riddle to Finis who is now Claxton's caretaker. He also bares his soul to Finis with a dark secret he has held within his own heart for more than fifty years.

Family secrets, riddles and deathbeds. Just what you want in a Gothic novel like this one!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New and Delightful, February 22, 2008

By 

Barb on Books (Sarasota, FL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Looked Out Tilt: A Southern Gothic Novel (Paperback)

The appeal of damsels in distress, a knight in shining armor who has certain chinks in his armor --- these are introductory aspects of this Southern Gothic novel by a first-time novelist. This is an intimate portrayal of a family over two generations in a fictional southeast Texas town. The author brings a diversity of characters who live out their own lives and contribute to the lifeblood of the small town. There is the serial killer (a woman), two escaped convicts from Angola Prison in Louisiana who change the lives of those in their paths, thrilling stories of redemption and a black woman, Sister Dorothea Winters, who has lived eighty-six years with two secrets. The eventual protagonist, Finis Anderson, who emerges after the death of his beloved sister, is able to reconstruct the vibrancy of this small community from journals, diaries and notes of his parents and his grandmother. In the end, when he is the caretaker of an old man employed by his family as a handyman on their large farm, he himself discovers the essence of his own spirit (restricted by an undiagnosable autistic condition). The handyman, Mr. Claxton, bares his soul on his deathbed and leaves the solution of his own problems with Finis. Mr. Claxton also divulges the meaning of the riddle which has been bandied about for over fifty years: 'I Looked Out Tilt'.
The selection of words, the colorful depiction of the 1920s through the 1970s and the turning of phrases by this first-time author are magically poetic. Upon reaching the end of the book (387 pages), the reader wishes that he has just finished Part One.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOOKED OUT TILT, February 20, 2008

By 

Edward Bernstein (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Looked Out Tilt: A Southern Gothic Novel (Paperback)

When I finished this first-time novelist's book, I was struck with thoughts of Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley. Though Southern Gothic in structure, the novel traps the reader with the poetry of the descriptive narration and the gentle naivety of the early conversations between the parents and their two children. Following are retrospectives that introduce characters, warts and all. There are elements of tragedy, grotesqueness, pretended happiness, redemption and certain occurrences that bring tears to the eyes. As a reader, I felt that I was a part of this mythical Texas community, sharing in all of these conditions. Vicariously, I participated in the Anderson family's Christmas celebration of 1940; witnessed the horrific tornado of 1933; attended the musical recital of the combined black and white churches; was repulsed by the bizarre nature of a female serial killer; and rejoiced at the New Orleans style funeral of the matriarch of the Negro church. As I finished each chapter I became aware that I had become a member in good standing of the fictional community of Portman, Texas. At the end of 387 pages I did not wish to remove myself to my own real world.

This novel possesses all of the suspenseful elements toward the production of one of those Hallmark movies for television. My rating: Five Stars.