Provinces of Night Book

William Gay's second novel, Provinces of Night recreates the oppressive, evocative atmosphere of the American Deep South he first explored in his debut novel, The Long Home. With a backdrop of rural Tennessee in the 1950s, our teenage protagonist, Fleming Bloodworth finds himself alone in the family home after his father, Boyd, abandons him to hunt down and kill his wife's lover. At the same time, Fleming's grandfather, EF, decides to return to his family after 20 years of self-imposed exile. He returns to discover that his remaining two sons, Warren and Brady are in turn, an alcoholic womaniser and a Bible-quoting fantasist who enjoys putting curses on his enemies. Amid this climate of bitterness and recrimination, Fleming spends a long, hot summer becoming acquainted with the grandfather he has never known and learning about his life as an itinerant banjo player. Along the way, his wayward cousin, Albright introduces Fleming to the beautiful Raven Lee, the daughter of a prostitute from a nearby town. Despite her own perilous circumstances, Raven represents Fleming's only hope of escaping from the hopeless web of misguided blood ties and age-old animosity woven by his own family.The title of this beautifully crafted novel is borrowed from Cormac McCarthy, and Gay's larger-than-life Southern characters and precise rendering of a sultry Tennessee summer owes much to the inspiration of McCarthy, as well as other legendary Southern writers such as William Faulkner and Carson McCullers. This is a self-consciously big novel in the Southern tradition that could so easily have buckled under the weight of its own ambition, but instead Gay pulls it off with ease, presenting us with a stream of unforgettable characters. While the central themes of love, loyalty and forgiveness are explored seriously and sensitively, the finely wrought prose is also sprinkled with moments of genuine humour as Gay proves that he's not afraid to gently mock his gang of Southern eccentrics. This is a wonderful novel that is a worthy successor to the tradition it so obviously admires.--Jane MorrisRead More