Customer Reviews

The Runaway

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

50 years after the period during which they are portrayed to have occurred, Terry Kay has produced a wholly entertaining novel concerning the lives and times of peoples in the "deep South", those who had participated in WWII and how this apparently affected the way they considered their black neighbours afterwards.

I would have considered "The Runaway" to be just like countless other novels, a way of excusing past acts which today would be considered inexcusable and reprehensible. Except that it started my mind wondering about what people today still have problems getting to terms with. Tolerance, or the lack of, still affects the way most people consider their fellows. Today, the differences tend to be mainly represented by religious beliefs or sexual preferences. We haven't yet learned to "Live And Let Live" as far as this is possible.

So if you read "The Runaway" which I whole-heartedly recommend, just spare a thought for all those others whose lives may be unbearable today because of "intolerance".

Oh, how I adore good Southern writing, and oh, how "The Runaway," meets all my critera for achieving that accolade. Set in rural Georgia in the 1940's, the tale is rich with eccentric characters who "guaren-damn-tee" to provoke empassioned feelings. The dialogue is sharp. The plot trenchant. Humor, racial tension, and suspense drive this story along like a raft on a ever-winding river. Each twist and turn swirls the story into unexpected surprises, and rafts the reader over waterfalls of human frailities and outlandish behaviors.

Terry Kay style is a blend of Mark Twain and William Faulkner; his writing is that clever, that diverse, that colorful. I applaud his masterful abilities, and encourage all lovers of southern fiction to pick up this vivid, delightful, insightful page turning tale. This is most definitely a MUST READ!!

Impossible as it might seem, Terry Kay's The Runaway outshines all his previous efforts! Kay is a brilliant writer, gifted with that rare ability to say a great deal with few words. And he just keeps getting better! Many present-day authors have achieved acclaim and popularity for their plots. But few of them can equal Kay in character development and writing style. Kay's prose flows like a beautiful melody. His characters exude a vitality and genuineness that only a person of keen insight into human nature can perceive and a Master of Words can aptly portray. I grew up in 1950's Atlanta and was delighted by the "southernisms" that peppered the story throughout - they really took me back! And lastly, I would like to thank Mr. Kay for his message that not all white Southerners in the 1940's were racists - that there were Southerners who despised prejudice and unkindness toward any human being. Hats off to Mr. Kay for a compelling story, well told.

From the first page, Terry Kay catches the cadence of the South. His dialogue is so well written, his characters down to earth and funny, his lyricism rises to sheer poetry. This man is absolutely one of the best novelists around. From Tom Winter, the lying lazy kid in all of us, to Frank Rucker, the bashful ex-soldier turned sheriff, to Conjure Woman with her supernatural powers - The Runaway is a treat to the eye, to the ear, and to the heart. I was sad to see it end.

I loved this book - it has it all: great story, mystery, atmosphere, well developed characters. I felt I was "there" as I was reading it. Terry Kay is a master at evoking feeling and imagery without being wordy. I highly recommend this book.

I have only read half the book, but the writing style and the author's description of the characters and the land are absolutely wonderful. I can conjure up every situation in the story and the humor with which this story is written is very subtle, but very satisfying. This book is exactly what I love reading. I hope I can find many more books by Terry Kay!

Terry Kay has written a lovely, thought-provoking book on the slow changes in attitudes toward black/white relations shortly after WWII in the deep south. I felt as though I were there with the characters as the plot unfolds. The characters are driven by their beliefs and their experiences growing up black or white in the south and one is reminded of how in many ways this era still haunts us today. The plot twists keep you turning the pages to find out the solution to the mystery and the images that are portrayed on paper bring to life the south in ways reminiscent of Mark Twain. A great absorbing read that will keep you thinking long after the last page is turned.

Picked this book up in a bargain bin several years ago. Hadn't heard of the author, in fact haven't heard much since, but thought I'd give it a try. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

While I did dedicate the time to finish the book, mainly because I really wanted to know how it would all end up; I just wasn't that impressed with the overall story. Judging by the description on the back I thought it would be much more exciting and worthwhile than I felt it ended up.

I certainly can appreciate the point the story was trying to get across, about how life used to be in the south for blacks. And while I did find the two main characters pretty entertaining at times- I just felt the entire story and cast fell short for me. It was not very suspenseful or exciting or even what I felt "all that deep". I would not recommend this book to a friend...

To really appreciate Terry Kay's "The Runaway" you need to have lived in that time and place -- Georgia, 1949. I did, and I know that Kay has painted it perfectly. I knew those people, remember them well. Before reading the book, I'd read a generally positive review in an Atlanta newspaper, but one that said the book was "overpopulated with stereotypes." What I found was a true portrait of people and place. Like all Southern towns of that period, conformity was enforced at least by social code, if not by law; it would be hard to write a truthful story and not have characters who seem stereotyped. It was a stereotypical period when change required daring, and the soldiers returning from war came home to fill the bill. They'd taken on a sense of purpose: defending human liberty and dignity. Terry Kay tells us that these are the forgotten heroes, the Southern ex-soldiers who stood up and said to their neighbors, straighten up and play right. They faced as much danger, if not more, than when they'd faced the German Nazis, just by saying, "Why don't you leave him alone? What did he do to you?" I said that to three white men one night, when they were picking on a young black man, and I barely escaped with my life. Of course, that was in 1963, and it was a far more dangerous thing to do in 1949, Kay's scenario in The Runaway. It was men like Sheriff Frank Rucker who led the way, who showed us how to speak up for another man's dignity, even when it wasn't safe. Kay's people may be fictional, but they had counterparts in real life. Stereotypes? Hardly.

Of course, Terry Kay's writing is moving, nearly ethereal in places, as usual. I was also impressed with how many phrases he was able to use from the dialect of the time: "naked as a jaybird," "a fart in a windstorm." He's a master. So we can forgive him the line on page 381: "Getting out of his car, Hugh walked over to Fuller." Even the greats are allowed one of those now and then.

There have been many books written about this painful period in recent American History, but Terry Kay shines in his intimate portrayal of the birth pangs of racial equilibrium viewed through various characters of a small southern town. Most notable are two young boys, one white, one black; both sharing the same birth date, childhood friendships and the winds of change. This is also a murder mystery, and though the book revolves around the murders, that is secondary to the theme of change that the author weaves into this first rate novel.