The liner notes for the 2 Donald Ray Pollack books compared his work with the late Larry Brown so I thought that was reason enough to check out Brown. A cast of characters should help:
The Davis men: Virgil (semi disabled WWII POW) Randolph (aka Puppy), Glen (just paroled after serving 3 yrs of an 8 yr sentence for I guess was vehicular manslaughter), Theron (deceased)
The Blanchards: Mary (single mom, teacher), Bobby (her son, the county sheriff).
Jewel (single mom), David (her 4yo son)
Puppy has just picked up Glen after his parole was granted. Glens meanness dates back to probably elementary school or before. Mean from birth? Probably. Upon getting back to their hometown (unnamed) in northern rural Mississippi (circa 1968), Glen appears to have changed little and seems bent on settling some old scores. Outside of being just downright angry at everything and everybody (except, strangely, a fallen preacher), Glen does little other than smoke, drink, and create trouble everywhere.
And Glen has an eventful week. Jewel was his girl who bore him a son whom he refuses to acknowledge. In his first 48 hours, he beds Jewel and then just leaves, commits a double homicide over a simmering insult, rapes a local girl after getting her drunk, steals money from his father, and assaults Mary.
The question that Brown addresses is whether evil is embedded at birth or due to circumstances. And there are circumstances all over the place:
1. Glen's mom dies while he is in prison and he wasn't allowed to attend the funeral.
2. Virgil, his dad, was a drunk who sought the company of Mary years ago that has continued.
3. Jewel relishes the relationship that David has with his grandfather, but Glen seethes about it.
4. Bobby, the sheriff who is as upright and honorable as Glen is evil, and Jewel have circled each other and grown close, but Jewel said she'd wait for Glen to get out and she did, but regrets that decision.
4. Theron, the deceased brother/son was killed in an accidental shooting at home.
5. Bobby, out on patrol, comes across a white trash couple so far down the evolutionary scale that even the low life folks who are the subject of this story look uptown. The children tell him a tale that shocks even the most hardened of cops.
6. And Glen's mom? Was her death due to cancer, as Glen was told, or by her own hand?
The events circle each other until the expected end occurs by an entirely unexpected manner. The story just sort of fades out like a movie when Bobby, Mary, and Jewel drive up to Virgil's shack where he and David are quietly rocking watching a sunset.
The story revolves around multiple Father/Son relationships: Virgil/Glen, Glen/David, the evolving Bobby/David, and (I'll reveal this cuz I doubt many will run right out to read this exceedingly dark, somewhat depressing, but entirely intelligent and literate book), Virgil/Bobby. Some are contentious, some ignored, some kept secret, but always riveting and will make any father look at his own relationship with his son. One review I read said this book will stick with you for a long time. Can't say that about many of the books I've reviewed here at MRB, but I can say unequivocally that, for me at least, this one will. After but a single work by Brown, were I teaching a course in Modern American Literature, Brown would be on my "Required Reading" list. He's that good.
East Coast Don
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