Billy Ray's Farm: Essays from a Place Called Tula - Softcover

Brown, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743225244 ISBN 13: 9780743225243

Publisher: Touchstone Books, 2002

Synopsis

In Billy Ray's Farm, Larry Brown brings the appealing blend of candor, humor, and poignancy of his acclaimed novels Fay and Father and Son to nine personal essays that explore the emotional and physical landscape of the corner of Mississippi he calls home. The centerpiece of this collection offers a moving description of life on his son's cattle farm, capturing Brown's deep-seated attachment to his family and to the land. In other pieces, Brown takes readers inside the writing cabin he built, chronicles his attempt to outsmart a wily coyote intent on killing the farm's baby goats, and reveals his reactions to being constantly compared to William Faulkner, a writer inspired by the same geography. Threaded through each piece are warm reflections on the Southern musicians and authors who influenced his writings.

At once entertaining and insightful, Billy Ray's Farm brilliantly illuminates how a great writer responds, personally and artistically, to the patch of land he lives on, providing a wonderful look into the mysterious sources of a writer's motivation.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

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.

From the Back Cover:

Brown will show you another America - his America - and dare you to try again to forget that it still exists. - USA Today

"Brown writes like a boxer - economical, crisp, wounding." - Men's Journal

"He's an ex-Marine and ex-fireman, a writer without gimmick who happens to possess a prodigious natural talentT He's one of the best we have." - Washington Post Book World

About this edition

• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743225244
• ISBN 13: 9780743225243
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224