Customer Reviews

Provinces of Night: A Novel

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Finding THE LONG HOME powerful and fun to read, I was excited to get my hands on this, Mr. Gay's new novel. PROVINCES OF NIGHT exceeded my expectations. Fleming Bloodworth and his grandfather E. F. make an extrodinary pair, the former finding pain and love and bursting with a desire for life (yet with enough wisdom to learn from the latter), and the old man who's come home to find...something, even he's not sure what. A host of eccentric characters round out this work, from a bitter son who casts spells on his enemies, to the funniest adolescent since Cormac McCarthy's Harrogate in SUTTREE. Having grown up with stories of the south, I found Gay's details rich and true. He seems to be writing for himself, drawing on personal stories, humorous experiences and pain and reminds me of other great writers, Cormac McCarthy and Hemingway to name two. I look for an honest voice in fiction and I have certainly found one in William Gay. He is one of the unsung heroes of southern fiction - hell, of fiction period, and he's only written two novels. Here's to many more tales told by this astonishing author.

When I read William Gay's very impressive debut novel The Long Home a few months ago on a recommendation, I thought he was a promising southern writer, reminiscent of Faulkner. His tale of evil moonshiners, crooked cops, racists and injustice was a refreshing change of pace from most contemporary fiction. Now, with his latest masterpiece Provinces of Night, I am starting to believe Gay may be the most talented writer living in the South today. This book is simply astonishing, at times brutal and at other times tender and poetic, but always enjoyable.

The story involves the Bloodworth family, including banjo-picker E.F., who left his young wife and sons twenty years earlier to chase his musical dreams, and to get away from the aftermath of a violent shootout. E.F. has decided to return home, to a valley about to be buried under a lake by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1952, as the nation enters the Korean War. Bloodworth's grown sons Warren (a womanizing alcoholic), Boyd (who is compelled to chase down his adulterous wife and her lover) and Brady (who still lives at home and places hexes on enemies for revenge or profit) are not exactly waiting with open arms. It is only Boyd's 17 year old son Fleming, E.F.'s grandson, who seems to care what happens to the old man upon his return.

Fleming is the true heart and moral center of the novel. His odd relationship with his wandering dad, his blossoming romance with young Raven Lee, his tense tolerance of uncles Brady and Warren and his bonding with E.F. are skillfully woven around numerous effective and often-times humorous subplots. I loved the adventures of Fleming's buddy Junior Albright, who accidentally breaks some machinery after conning his way onto a jobsite as a roofer, with serious and far reaching consequences. I also loved the manic roadtrip with Warren and his "accountant", as well as Fleming's alcoholic cousin. The plot never really slowed down to a halt, and Gay manages to keep several balls in the air without missing a beat. Fleming did remind me a little of idealistic young Nathan Winer of The Long Home, and Raven Lee seemed a bit similar to Amber Rose of the prior novel (both are young dark beauties raised in a setting that is anything but innocent), but who cares, I enjoyed their adventures anyway.

Perhaps the best part of the novel, for me, was Gay's prose style. He has a way of setting the scene, depicting the family sitting on a porch listening to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio with the Tennessee hills turning purple at sunset, that swept me away every time I picked up the book. There are no quotation marks in the novel, instead Gay curiously weaves the dialogue into the paragraphs, so you oftentimes find yourself re-reading passages once you realize a character is speaking. This started out as a mild distraction, but I came to enjoy the technique after awhile. Quite simply, Gay is a master storyteller, his dialogue is pitch perfect, and his descriptions, while not overly verbose or flowery, never fail to effectively set the stage. You want to read slowly and savor every drop of his writing, like sipping a fine Kentucky bourbon (as his characters are wont to do). I don't know what Mr. Gay has been up to previously, he apparently started writing novels later in life, but I hope he keeps putting out these excellent novels of Tennessee, this reader can't wait for the next one.

When I read William Gay's first novel, THE LONG HOME, recently, I had the strong feeling that I had discovered the work of someone very special - and reading PROVINCES OF NIGHT has confirmed that for me. Gay writes with a carefully and languidly - the breadth and depth of his writing demands full attention from the reader, and the rewards are great indeed.

The above-mentioned languid quality of his work does not for a single moment indicate any sort of laziness on his part - writing this good can, of course, come from the foundation of a natural talent, but it takes hard and diligent work to come up with a finished product of this quality. Gay's characters are vivid and real, and they are built up slowly - the reader is required to get to know them, rather than having them dumped off the page and into their lap. His descriptive abilities are astonishing as well - if there isn't a word that suits the image he's trying to get across, he's not above combining existing words into a single unit, and he does so with taste, style and intelligence. There are no cheap, easy gimmicks at work here - just talent and imagination.

Set in the same small rural Tennessee town in which his earlier novel takes place - but in the 1950s this time, as opposed to the 1940s - Gay captures the setting and characters with absolute perfection. His country folk are depicted honestly - they are uneducated, to be sure, and some of them are certainly not the brightest match in the box, but he treats them with respect. They come across as honest and real - the figures of speech they employ might seem odd to city dwellers, and their knowledge of the world outside of their area ranges from non-existent to a shadowy grey awareness that is tempered liberally with misinformation and rumor. They look upon outsiders with doubt and suspicion - and usually for good reason.

The relationship that develops over the course of the story between E. W. Bloodworth - an elderly man who left the area, his wife and family, many years before - and his grandson Fleming, whom he has never seen is one of the most touching depictions I've come across in some time, without ever venturing anywhere near the maudlin. The Bloodworth clan - and their neighbors and acquaintances - are a pretty rough-hewn lot. They number among their members bootleggers, drunks, hell-raisers, stand-by-your-man women and I-ain't-takin-any-more-of-your-BS women. Fleming is a pretty intelligent - if uneducated - young man, and he is instantly attracted to his grandfather's personality and stories of his life. E. F. is a banjo player and singer, a collector of old tunes - mostly blues. His fame actually spread to the point of a record label recording eight of his songs - but he never chose to pursue music as a career. It simply meant too much to him.

When E. F. decides to return home after many years away, he stirs the stew of a lot of family members and other locals - he's not exactly welcomed back by everyone with open arms. One of his sons, in particular, Brady, is downright hostile. Brady is quite a piece of work himself, living with his elderly mother (E. F.'s wife) and casting spells and hexes on any and all who cross him. He's looked upon by the locals as a bit of a curiosity and a crackpot - but at the same time, with enough trepidation that they try not to wind up on his bad side.

There's a whole cast of memorable characters here - and a main plot with several related subplots that whirl and eddy around each other like currents in a stream. Definitely enough to keep the reader involved and interested. William Gay is a writer of amazing talent and patience - if you're a fan of well-written, compelling fiction that contains emotion as well as a gentle dose of humor now and then, you owe it to yourself to check out his work. My next stop is his short story collection, I HATE TO SEE THAT EVENING SUN GO DOWN.

"Provinces Of Night", is the second work offered by Mr. William Gay. His first work was very good, however with, "Provinces Of Night", he has become an even more compelling Author. His first work began with a massive explosion, this time it is more of an emotional shudder that while a bit lighter on the fireworks is quite possibly more disturbing to read.

The issue I mention is offered in the form of a Prologue and while you expectantly read to find the dramatic link, this element like others in the story are more like consistent backdrops to the book. These elements play their part and many times a prominent one, however they do so gradually, their prominence steadily draws more importance to the issue but there is no eureka like moment. I liked the style of this story, as it developed at its own pace, it was not a set piece structured to meet a formula.

The characters of this book were many and very well done. The book does primarily surround the various immediate and extended clan of the Bloodworth Family, however there are several other players that round out the cast. There are characters like," Itchy Mama", that provide for some of the best and funniest dialogue in the book. There is a moment she offers Fleming a flask of Whiskey, the comments that accompany the offer are outrageously funny. That moment is a rarity in that I would love to see it on the screen. Others like, "Albright", does not have the genius his name suggests but he is one of the more colorful and funny players in this tale. He also is one of the few who bring some sense of responsibility, or as the book phrases it, "honor", to the storyline.

This is however, "Fleming Bloodworth's" story. The youngest and best hope for the future of this Family line resides with him. He is one of many from this Family but he is the one who eventually must make decisions that no person should be forced to make, however when he does the events seem to propel him more quickly and more definitely in a direction that will change the Family's History, and end what the Bloodworths at this end of Tennessee have fashioned from history.

Literally flowing in the background is a massive wartime project of the TVA that will forever alter this piece of the state. I don't know what the Author intended this to symbolize as it runs the range from a Biblical like destructive cleansing, to a redemption, and even of tasks left uncompleted as roads that once directed the flow of life are now stunted. Even the dead are no longer fixed as they become mobile in the most pragmatic of ways.

If this Author continues to improve with every book he writes, his books will be in print a century from now.

William Gay can write like mad. If you love to read, if you love books, if you love words and the way they can express things you see and understand but can barely put into thought images let alone words, buy and read this book. Then, when you have savored the richness of it, go buy and read The Long Home. Put William Gay high on your list of writers whose books you will buy as soon as they hit the book stores.

This is one of those rare books that can be humorous and profound and devastating, all within the span of a couple of chapters. I found myself laughing aloud at some passages and taking time out to relay parts of the story to my wife. This is a book that you just get excited about because it is so darn good and so true. Each character feels real, and though some behave like devils, I found the ultimate destination of the story to be a very satisfying province.

Having discovered William Gay's "The Long Home," and read his short stories, I enjoyed "The Provinces of Night" for its vivid portraiture of blood ties of real earthy people of a Tennessee backcountry trapped in a time and a place in the 1950s. Gay is a great scene-setter, threading his story with honest dialogue and episodes that move the story of crumbling loyalties and the age-old strife of the South to conclusion. His weaving of dialogue into the text without quotation marks is slightly burdensome but it worked for Charles Frazier in "Cold Mountain" and for Gay's obvious literary idol, Cormac McCarthy. Quite obviously Gay is a student of Faulkner and McCarthy and is not afraid of literary devices and metaphors too much missing in today's action-sped novels. He is truly a Southern storyteller with the ability to evoke the real world of Tennesseans by blending the past with the present. I like his sense of the natural world, describing with a rich palette.---Jesse Earle Bowden, author of "Look and Tremble: A Novel of West Florida."

Read this book simply to savor some of the most beautifully crafted sentences in the English language. While you are enjoying them, meet Fleming, a 17-year-old who should, by all rights, be bitter with the world. He has been brought up dirt poor and has been abandoned by both his parents. The grandmother who loves him is off limits to him because she shares her home with an uncle who is at best eccentric and at worst pure evil. The handful of people who care that he exists are flawed and even dangerous.

Fleming finds improbable soulmates in his grandfather, a wandering blues musician who has led a less-than-exemplary life but whose gift of self-expression inspires Fleming, and Raven Lee, the daughter of a prostitute who is resolutely determined to make her own way in life.

I tutor inner-city children. Every so often, I meet a kid who shines despite the harshness of his upbringing. I marvel at how someone who has been neglected both physically and emotionally can grasp onto life and thrive.

This book gives insight into how a person can trascend his environment. Its flawlessly drawn characters and near-perfect prose make it a classic of our times.

One of the best novels I've read in the past few years, "Provinces of Night" shows the influence of Flannery O'Connor and of Cormac McCarthy, but is also highly original. The language and dialogue are what make it most enjoyable. The story is both funny and dark.

William Gay has written a wonderful book that reminds me a lot of Harry Crews and especially Larry Brown. Very early in the book, a character complains that life is hard. The person he is conversing with tells him that times are always hard for some people. It is a theme that runs through the works of all these men. Life's hard because life is hard, and life is hard because some people make it so. There are, however, those who see beyond the hardship and you will find a person like that here. It makes for a compelling read that unfolds with language so beautiful to the ear that it almost makes you gasp.