Neverhome - Laird Hunt

 

Late last year I stumbled upon Laird Hunt and was blown away.  I began with The House in the Dark of the Woods, then went on to American Midnight, and now this, his first novel to be published this side of the Atlantic.

Neverhome is the first-person story of Constance Thompson, who goes to war because her husband Bartholomew isn't up to the task.  Disguised as a man, she becomes a legend - "Gallant Ash."  Her fellow troops even devise a song about her.  Her colonel wants her to become a sharp shooter.  But then things start to go wrong.  She ends up in a mental hospital, then becomes the love object of a local widow.  Ultimately, she walks home.  But this is Laird Hunt and there is no happy ending.

Because this is Laird Hunt the first-person voice becomes so persuasive that we are sucked into Constance's dreams, perhaps even her madness.  A comparatively short book takes on the scope of an epic journey.  I loved it.  I have to have more.

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All - Allan Gurganus

 Phew! Took me four weeks to read but, overall, it was worth it.

For a first novel, with a rotten title and almost 900 pages, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All was a massive best seller in its day.  It spent 8 months in the US charts and was adapted into a TV mini series (of which this version was the tie-in) and ultimately a one-woman stage play.  It is the story of Lucy, 99 years old and living in a residential home, and her marriage to a veteran three times her age.  So far, so Little Big Man, and that, I admit, was what drew me.  In fact it is very different because Lucy tells tales, mainly the tales her old man told when he was elderly and a fixture on the speaking circuit.  There are also her tales, and those of her former slave friend Castalia, all told in the voices of the characters.  Lucy then tends to undercut these yarns with the truth, or at least the truth as she sees it.  And so about 150 years of Southern US history is covered.  The main event is Sherman's trail of burning mansions, including the one Lucy's husband should have inherited.  His mother burns in it too, but survives, horribly burnt, and hers is perhaps the most affective tale.  It all ends with a twist I did not see coming. I got frustrated with the reading time involved but I have to recommend it. These characters will linger in my mind a long time and my own work will inevitably be influenced.