The Runaway: A Novel (Paperback)

by Terry Kay (Author) "His family called him a runaway, and Tom guessed that he was..." (more)
Key Phrases: pegleg man, washing rain, sawdust piles, Son Jesus, Harlan Davis, Conjure Woman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Kay writes novels set in rural Georgia in the postwar years prior to the Civil Rights Movement. A former journalist, the writer (To Dance with the White Dog, Peachtree, 1990) is skilled at blending gritty realism with haunting bits of the supernatural. Tom, the restless 12-year-old son of a sharecropper, is puzzled when the town's citizens seem uncomfortable about his friendship with Son Jesus, an African American boy with whom he has grown up. They run away together, pretending to be Huck Finn and Jim, and a ride through the rapids near a waterfall critically injures Sonny and unites the two as friends for life. After this terrifying episode, Kay's narrative abruptly changes direction: Frank, the soft-spoken town sheriff who learned about tolerance by fighting the Nazis, becomes the central character when he solves a series of racially motivated murders. The dialog is authentic and the storytelling has a homespun Southern texture. A simpler plot and fewer characters might have served the theme better and made the book more appealing to YA readers. For larger and regional collections.?Joyce W. Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
Years-old murders spark racial tensions in the rural South in this latest from Kay (Shadow Song, 1994, etc.). In the small town of Crossover, events have generally abided by Logan's Law--the invention of Logan, a former sheriff who spoke of the ``law of the way things are.'' But it's now the late '40s, when the minds of many townspeople have been broadened by their war experiences, and the new sheriff, Frank, is more interested in justice than tradition. Events are set into motion when two 12-year-olds--Son Jesus, mature, mathematically gifted, and black; and Tom, imaginative, prankish, and white--try to run away from home. As they make their way downriver, self-consciously reenacting Huck's and Jim's roles, they stumble upon human bones buried in an old sawmill. The boys are eventually tracked down and returned to their families, but the bones turn out to belong to Son Jesus' father, who's been missing for a few years--one victim of three racially motivated murders committed, according to longstanding rumor, by a masked man known as Pegleg. As Frank investigates, he finds himself becoming enamored of the pretty young widow, Evelyn Carnes, on whose property the father was found and whose deceased husband may have had a role in the deaths. Meanwhile, Frank's dogged inquiries polarize racial sentiments in Crossover, testing the friendship of Tom and Son Jesus as they approach the end of childhood. The situation reaches a crisis when a local bully, Harlan, is accused of raping Son Jesus' sister Remona, and, shortly after, is found dead, an uncle of Son Jesus a prime suspect. Gracefully written, though the disjointed story, borrowing from such tales of childhood and race as To Kill a Mockingbird to Huckleberry Finn, never really gathers the momentum it should. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (November 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380813424
• ISBN-13: 978-0380813421
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #850,794 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very fine story with repercussions for the future..., August 23, 2002

By	"adjuge" (ANTIBES, Alpes-Maritimes France) - See all my reviews

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".

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ABSOLUTE PERFECTION, April 21, 2001

By	Gayla Collins (Sheridan, WYOMING USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling story, beautifully penned by a Master of Words., February 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Runaway (Mass Market Paperback)

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.