OFF FOR THE SWEET HEREAFTER

by T.R. Pearson ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1986

Hot on the heels of his bodacious debut last year, Pearson here offers a second volume in his no-longer-short-history of a small place. Already, the legendary Neely, North Carolina, rivals that other wonderful region of the imagination, Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha, Miss., for its no-counts, its low-downs, and its just plain folk. Pearson's parenthetical storytelling digresses in the most agreeable way; everyone in this slightly loony town comes burdened with a history. And if it's not the past weighing them down, then it's the ""sheer unforeseen vicissitudes of this our life on His planet,"" as the Rev. Holyrod so aptly puts it. And he's got a point. Take Raeford Benton Lynch, the focus, such as there is one, of this delightfully circular tale. Son of the fat Jeerer Lynch and her chicken-raising husband, this horse-faced, pointy-nosed, square-toothed, lumbering fool takes to a life of crime in order to win the heart of a girl he meets while digging graves. But Jane Elizabeth Firesheets, who offers Benton Lynch his first ""physical therapy,"" is indeed no ordinary girl. She's a stone-cold slut, who slips out of her snug clothes and into the ammonia-smelling hay faster than you can say Fuquay-Varina, which is the name of a town that figures prominently in Lynch's robbery routine. Reluctant shopkeepers might find parts of themselves blown there if they don't fork over the dough. Things take a decided turn for the worse in his knee-slappingly funny book, when Benton ""steps in some big, big shit,"" as the inarticulate bumpkin himself puts it. His low-rent Clyde Barrow act results in some untimely deaths, including his own. And, once again, events in Neely and thereabouts bring us to Commander Avery's funeral parlor, for that's where Neely's Freest like to get together--in the presence of death itself. There's a lot more to this book--which works just fine on its own, but even Freer with its predecessor--and a whole lot more no doubt to Neely as well. In an age of diminishing fictions, Pearson's a true maximalist, and a wholly original voice to boot.

Pub Date: June 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Linden/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION