Rating: 
Summary: Goes Down Real Easy
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Writing
Review: 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.
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