Larry Brown is an interesting figure with a way too short history in American literature. He was sort of discovered in the mid-80s, when he had a drawer full of unpublished stories. Some curating and careful editing got him a story collection (Facing the Music, which is very good) and a novel (Dirty Work, which is pretty good). He was a fire chief in Oxford, Mississippi (same town as William Faulkner), had no formal higher education, but obviously had an ear for language and dialogue […]
The Sins of the Father…
Set in rural 1960s Mississippi, Father and Son spans a week in a small town after one of their own, Glen Davis, returns from three years in the state penitentiary for running over and killing a young boy while driving drunk. Glen is angry, furious, and the reader senses immediately that this is not a man who has learned his lesson. He’s hard-edged, cold and disconnected, and there is no redeeming quality in him. Glen returns to an elderly father intent on drinking himself to […]