The Calling - Softcover

Watson, Sterling

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440550262 ISBN 13: 9780440550266

Publisher: Delta, 1989

Synopsis

In the pursuit of his "calling" as an author, Blackford "Toad" Turlow is alsoforced to confront the mysteries of drugs, sex, violence, and betrayal.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Blackford "Toad" Turlow is an unassuming young Southerner who aspires to be a famous writer. While enduring relative poverty in Florida, Toad works in a convenience store, eats at the Gutbomb and enthusiastically joins a writing seminar taught by his idol, celebrated novelist Eldon Odom. Sitting in the "egosphere" of the classroom with Odom's idiosyncratic disciples, including a sexual-device salesman and a Virginia Woolf look-alike, Toad becomes mesmerized by his teacher. But the young man's veneration turns to disenchantment when he observes Odom and his students at rowdy gatherings, where the hard-bitten novelist blithely uses drugs and participates in a gang rape. These sobering experiences impart new depth to Toad's writing, but his relationships with Odom's wife and mistress soon prove dangerously distracting. The author deftly fuses sardonic wit and graphic realism to portray Toad's growing maturity and his depraved idol's downfall. Watson (Weep No More My Brother also vividly renders Odom's repugnant private life, with its share of amorality and casually inflicted malice.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

"Easy going, full of compassion and rueful good humor...the voice of a man who loves words and good writing, who has heard the calling and has answered it with his heart."
-Orlando Sentinel

"Rich, musical prose that's the stuff of literature"
-St. Petersburg Times

"Watson has much to say about life and art, about creativity and obsession, about the danger of violating reasonable bounds.  He says it very well."
-Winston Salem Journal

"A fascinating and intense book with enough drive in it to lift a rocketship...it commands attention and startled respect."
-Greensboro News & Record

"The characters are vivid, the writing first-rate, the material intriguing...a novel of considerable power."
-The Raleigh News and Observer

About this edition

• Publisher: Delta
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0440550262
• ISBN 13: 9780440550266
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320