Hello Down There: A Novel - Softcover

Parker, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140234241 ISBN 13: 9780140234244

Publisher: Penguin Group USA, 1994

Synopsis

Unable to face himself or the horrific deeds of his recent past, Edwin Keane withdraws from life by drugging himself, with the help of his mother and the town pharmacist, into a morphine haze. It's not until he meets a beguiling teenager from the wrong side of the tracks that he begins to envision a new life.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the 1950s, this haunting first novel begins amid the ruins of a broken life. In a misguided attempt to break free of the rigid Southern society he lives in, wealthy young Edwin Keane has made a tragic mistake. As the small town of Trent, N.C., conspires to protect him from the consequences of his actions, Edwin descends into an abyss of guilt and morphine addiction. Redemption lies in the love of 17-year-old Eureka Speight, daughter of a bitter, displaced dirt farmer, but first Edwin must overcome his addiction and confront the past. Further complicating their romance is a cast of disapproving relatives and townspeople, sympathetically portrayed villains with their own psychological wounds who can more readily condone violence and despair than a violation of the social code. This is Southern gothic intrigue and eccentricity at its best, with language playing an integral part in the action. In Parker's intensely imaginative world, metaphor can be addictive, stories have the power to free stultified lives and telling the truth can redeem the sins of the past. Rich and compassionate, his is a memorable story.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Parker joins the ranks of outstanding Southern novelists with this well-written first novel, set in the early 1950s in fictional Trent, North Carolina, a small town with its old-moneyed families, sycophantic merchants, and dirt-poor working people. The novel follows Edwin Keane, the only son of well-off parents, as he attempts to escape from his prescripted life but winds up instead with a broken back and a prescription for morphine. His hope for redemption comes in the form of 17-year-old Eureka Speight, the daughter of a broken-down, hardscrabble farmer, whose kid brother Randall is the pharmacy delivery boy and the book's chorus. Parker's unusual but never gimmicky narrative style is well suited to a set of characters and a series of events worthy of Flannery O'Connor. A welcome debut; recommended for all fiction collections.
- David Dodd, Benicia P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Group USA
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140234241
• ISBN 13: 9780140234244
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288