FACING THE MUSIC

by Larry Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 30, 1988

Ten raw and strictly 100-proof stories make up one of the more exciting debuts of recent memory--fiction that's gritty and genuine, and funny in a hard-luck way. Alcoholism, depression, d-i-v-o-r-c-e, and just plain meanness help explain why Brown's lower-class southerners act the petty and cruel way they often do. The middle-aged narrator of the title piece can't admit to himself that his wife's mastectomy has permanently altered his feelings for her. Likewise, the 30-year-old black woman of ""Kubuku Rides (This Is It)"" refuses to acknowledge the extent of her drinking problem--her pathetic life is one of endless rationalization. In ""Night Life,"" a self-described ""dumbass"" ex-con car-mechanic bemoans his luck with women, and it's easy to see why: not only does he get involved with a tease, but he ends up smacking her around, the reason he last landed in jail. The hapless narrator of ""Samaritans"" allows himself to be suckered (briefly) into the sorry lives of some contemporary Joads, a broken-down carful of three generations of white trash. Hard-working men edge towards desperation in ""Old Frank and Jesus,"" in which an aging farmer, his business on the skids, contemplates suicide after losing his faith in Jesus, and the comfort of his now-dead dog, Frank; and in ""Leaving Town,"" an earnest young laborer and a lonely divorcÉe alternately speak of love and loneliness. The mordant humor of ""The End of Romance"" derives from the ironic title--the nasty relationship portrayed therein is anything but romantic. Brown, a virtuoso primitive, even pulls off a few stylistically adventurous tales: ""Boy and Dog,"" narrated in simple sentences of five words each, arranged on the page like verse, describes a boy's gruesome revenge on the motorist who ran over his dog; and ""Julie: A Memory,"" a dense, deliberately ambiguous piece, is a disturbing mix of sexual and violent imagery. In Brown's world of suffering souls, the humor is hard-won, and the tragedy perversely heroic.

Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Algonquin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION