High Lonesome - Softcover

Hannah, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802135323 ISBN 13: 9780802135322

Publisher: Grove Press, 1997

Synopsis

High Lonesome is a darkly comic, fiercely tragic, and strikingly original odyssey into American life. This collection by the author of Airships and Bats Out of Hell explores lost moments in time with intensity, emotion, and an eye to the past. In "Uncle High Lonesome," a young man recalls his Uncle Peter, whose even temper was marred only by his drinking binges, which would unleash moments of rage hinting at his much deeper distress. Fishing is transformed into a life-altering, almost mystical event in "A Creature in the Bay of St. Louis," when a huge fish caught on a line threatens to pull a young boy, and his entire world with him, underwater and out to sea. And in "Snerd and Niggero," a deep friendship between two men is inspired by the loss of a woman they both loved, a woman who was mistress to one and wife to the other. Viewed through memory and time's distance, Hannah's characters are brightly illuminated figures from a lost time, whose occassionally bleak lives are still uncommonly true.

About this title

Review

Barry Hannah writes like a barroom raconteur talks: unevenly, wildly, with a superabundance of vivid images, sometimes improbable plotlines, and a wicked, comic appreciation for human failings. In this collection he takes on middle-aged heroes who've lived through bad marriages and are now suffering the ravages of alcohol and sexual craving--in other words, men not unlike Hannah himself. Hannah's turns of phrase can shoot off the page to stab the reader in the heart; even the weakest stories in this book contain a great line or two.

From the Inside Flap

Barry Hannah's reputation as a master of the short story, first established in 1978 with the publication of Airships and magnified with the appearance of Bats Out of Hell, is confirmed with the publication of his latest book, High Lonesome, his eagerly awaited new collection, demonstrates why Barry Hannah is regarded as one of America's most celebrated writers of fiction.

These stories explore lost moments in time with intensity, emotion, and an eye to the past. In "Uncle High Lonesome," a young man recalls his Uncle Peter, whose even temper was marred only by his drinking binges, which would unleash moments of rage hinting at his much deeper distress. Fishing is transformed into a life-altering, almost mystical event in "A Creature in the Bay of St. Louis," when a huge fish caught on a line threatens to pull a young boy, and his entire world with him, underwater and out to sea. And in "Snerd and Niggero," a deep friendship between two men is inspired by the loss of a woman they both loved--a woman who was mistress to one and wife to the other. Viewed through memory and time's distance, Hannah's characters are brightly illuminated figures from a lost time, whose lives--occassionally bleak--are still uncommonly true.

High Lonesome is a darkly comic, fiercely tragic, and always strikingly original odyssey into American life. In the stories collected here, Barry Hannah threatens to outdo himself.

"Mr. Hannah's distinctive prose style is in many ways wilder than anything it describes.... Racy, raw, yet curiously baroque, Mr. Hannah's writing...packs quite a wallop."--Wall Street Journal

"Barry Hannah is the Jimi Hendrix of American short fiction; an electrified Mark Twain--a wailing genius of literary twang, reverb, feedback, and general sonic unholiness that results in grace notes so piercing your heart melts like an overloade amp."--Interview

"Barry Hannah writes the most consistently interesting sentences of any writer in America today.... High Lonesome collects thirteen stories, a handful of them of startling unexpectedness, with moods and interior storms that cannot be found anywhere else."--The New Republic

"Listen to this voice for a few pages and you know you have never heard anything like it. This in itself means nothing much: the random squawks of the mad may be each alone unique. What matters is that this strange new voice gives us an illusion of the familiar, that such dislocated objects and people as Hannah assembles give an illusion of the world's customary deployments."--Geoffrey Wolff, New Times

"The best young fiction writer to appear in the South since Flannery O'Connor."--Larry McMurtry

"When style gets so loud we can hear it, we have a 'voice' like Hannah's. His is a rare and marvelous gift."--Michael Malone, The Nation

"Barry Hannah is arguably the wildest, truest and most original comic writer to come out of the South in the past twenty-five years."--Mark Bautz, The Washington Times

"Hannah's distinctive voice, his firm grasp of narrative style, make him among the best practitioners of the short story form in America today.... He comes up with stinging fresh images, lines so pungent they send out shock waves."--Publishers Weekly

"Barry Hannah takes fiction by surprise-scenes, shocks, sounds, and amazements: an explosive but meticulous originality."--Cynthia Ozick

"Hannah captures the patois of the swamp and palmetto lands but wisely let his own voice resonate the loudest. Bold and original, he explores the lives of his eccentrics without exploiting them."--People

"All the stories by this Southern master of the genre burn with hellfire. The prose, however, is celestial."--Elle

Barry Hannah's first novel, Geronimo Rex, was awarded the William Faulkner Prize and nominated for the National Book Award. His collection of stories Airships is regarded as a contemporary classic, and his novel Ray was nominated for the American Book Award. Barry Hannah's achievements in fiction have been honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0802135323
• ISBN 13: 9780802135322
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 240