Billy Ray's Farm: Essays - Hardcover

Brown, Larry

 
9781565121676: Billy Ray's Farm: Essays
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1565121678 ISBN 13: 9781565121676
Verlag: Algonquin Books, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

In his first work of nonfiction since the acclaimed On Fire, Brown aims for nothing short of ruthlessly capturing the truth of the world in which he has always lived. In the prologue to the book, he tells what it's like to be constantly compared with William Faulkner, a writer with whom he shares inspiration from the Mississippi land. The essays that follow show that influence as undeniable. Here is the pond Larry reclaims and restocks on his place in Tula. Here is the Oxford bar crowd on a wild goose chase to a fabled fishing event. And here is the literary sensation trying to outsmart a wily coyote intent on killing the farm's baby goats. Woven in are intimate reflections on the Southern musicians and writers whose work has inspired Brown's and the thrill of his first literary recognition.

But the centerpiece of this book is the title essay which embodies every element of Larry Brown's most emotional attachments-to the family, the land, the animals. This is a book for every Larry Brown fan. It is also an invaluable book for every reader interested in how a great writer responds, both personally and artistically, to the patch of land he lives on.

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Von der hinteren Coverseite

Here, in nine stunning pieces, Larry Brown aims for nothing short of ruthlessly capturing the truth of the geography that shaped him and his art. He tells what it's like to be constantly compared with William Faulkner, a writer whom he shares the undeniable inspiration of the Mississippi land.

Here is the pond Larry reclaims and restocks on his place in Tula. Here is the Oxford bar crowd on a wild goose chase t a fabled fishing event. Here is the literary sensation trying to outsmart a wily coyote intent on killing the farm's baby goats. And here, overlooking the pond, is the writing cabin built with the writer's own hands. Woven in are intimate reflections on the Southern musicians and writers whose work has inspired Brown's and the thrill of his first literary recognition.

But the centerpiece of this book is the long title essay, which embodies every element of Larry Brown's most emotional attachments - to the family, the land, the animals. It is a beautiful and important expression of the mysterious sources of a writer's motivation. This is an invaluable book for every reader interested in how a great writer responds, both personally and artistically, to the patch of land he lives on.

Aus dem Klappentext

Here, in nine stunning pieces, Larry Brown aims for nothing short of ruthlessly capturing the truth of the geography that shaped him and his art. He tells what it's like to be constantly compared with William Faulkner, a writer whom he shares the undeniable inspiration of the Mississippi land.

Here is the pond Larry reclaims and restocks on his place in Tula. Here is the Oxford bar crowd on a wild goose chase t a fabled fishing event. Here is the literary sensation trying to outsmart a wily coyote intent on killing the farm's baby goats. And here, overlooking the pond, is the writing cabin built with the writer's own hands. Woven in are intimate reflections on the Southern musicians and writers whose work has inspired Brown's and the thrill of his first literary recognition.

But the centerpiece of this book is the long title essay, which embodies every element of Larry Brown's most emotional attachments - to the family, the land, the animals. It is a beautiful and important expression of the mysterious sources of a writer's motivation. This is an invaluable book for every reader interested in how a great writer responds, both personally and artistically, to the patch of land he lives on.

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Prologue

A long time ago when I was a boy, there was one slab of concrete that stretched from Oxford to Toccopola, a distance of about sixteen miles, and that was the road everybody used to get to town. It was kind of like half of a road, with one side concrete, the other side dirt and gravel. If you were heading to town, you could stay on the concrete all the way and never have to get off on the gravel side. And if you were coming from town, you could get on the concrete part and drive on the wrong side of the road until you met somebody, and then you had to jump back onto the gravel.

That road has been gone for a long time, but I still remember the swaying of the car as my father went from one side of the road to the other. Everybody did it and nobody ever thought anything about it.

A trip to town on Saturday was a big event. The Square in Oxford has changed some, true, but by and large it still retains the image I have of it from thirty years ago. It is still lined with stores and parked cars, and the big oaks still stand on the courthouse lawn, and the Confederate soldier is still standing there high above everything so that you can see him first when you come up the long drive of South Lamar. What has changed is the nature of the town. A long time ago you could find people selling vegetables from the backs of their trucks, and you could go in Winter's Cafe and get a hamburger and a short-bottled Coke for sixty-five cents. You can't even buy an Egg McMuffin on University Avenue for that.

Faulkner would probably be flabbergasted to know that there are several bars on the Square now, and that blues music can often be heard wailing out of the open doors on hot summer nights, floating around the air on the Square, lifting up to the balconies of the apartments that line the south side, where people are having drinks and conversing. It's not like it was when he was around. Life was hard for some. Blacks were oppressed. The drinking fountains on the Square were labeled Colored and White. That world doesn't exist anymore.

What does exist is the memory of it, a faded remnant of the way things were. Write about what you know, yes, even if it doesn't exist anymore.

When I wrote my novel Father and Son, people wondered why I set it back in the sixties. The answer to that is very simple. When I wrote the first scene, where Glen Davis and his brother Puppy are driving back into town, I didn't see the Square I see now, with Square Books on the left side of South Lamar and Proud Larrys' on the right. I saw that old Oxford, the one where Grace Crockett's shoe store stood in the place now occupied by a restaurant and bar called City Grocery, and I saw the old trucks with wooden roofs built over the back ends to shield the watermelons and roasting ears and purple hull peas from the heat of the sun, and I saw a battered old dusty car that my two characters were riding in, and I knew that it had a shift on the column, and an AM radio with

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Verlag
Algonquin Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2001
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1565121678
ISBN 13 
9781565121676
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
205
Kontakt zum Hersteller
EDITIONS GALLIMARD
ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it

Via Verdi, 8.
Assago Milano
20090
Italien

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