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Summary
Summary
Ever since A Short History of a Small Place, his classic novel of life in a small Southern town, T. R. Pearson--described as a modern cross between Mark Twain and William Faulkner--has captivated readers from all regions. Blue Ridge, his first novel in seven years, is a flawless tale of fortune and folly. Ray Tatum is the new deputy sheriff of Hogarth, Virginia, located in the middle of nowhere with "nothing too awful gaudy afoot"until the discovery of a nearly complete set of human bones on the Appalachian Trail. Ray's cousin Paul is an actuary summoned to New York to identify a fresher and rather less complete body: that of his son, sired in the free and ardent seventies, whom he scarcely knew. Unspooling and evolving in tandem, one in the wilds of Virginia and the other on the streets of Manhattan, these two stories are Southern storytelling at its most entrancing, eccentric, and knowing.
Author Notes
T.R. Pearson's six widely acclaimed novels include "A Short History of a Small Place," "Off for the Sweet Hereafter," "The Last of How It Was," & "Cry Me a River." He lives in Virginia.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The talented Pearson has moved away from the zany Southern milieu of A Short History of a Small Place and other novels, but his work still resonates with whip-sharp dark humor. In this insightful, sardonic tale of self-discovery and self-deceit, two corpses, one in New York City and one in rural Virginia, send two cousins on separate but parallel quests. Ray Tatum is the new sheriff's deputy in sleepy Hogarth, Va., where some hikers discover a human skeleton, its skull bashed in, on the Appalachian Trail. Investigating the case with the help of a brassy female African-American park ranger named Kit Carson, Ray is forced to come to terms with the collapse of his marriage, his somewhat arid life and the nature of the backwoods town he calls home. Meanwhile, Ray's cousin Paul, an actuary in Roanoke, is summoned to Manhattan to identify what may be the remains of a young man named Troy, the son he never really knew. Paul soon finds himself imperiled in New York's drug underworld and in the thrall of Troy's actress girlfriend and of Giles, the deadly but charismatic criminal who once employed Troy. Both cousins must ultimately attempt the complex calculus of placing values on truth, justice, obligation and human life itself. Pearson writes evocatively of the sometimes cozy, sometimes sinister decadence of fringe communities both North and South, his descriptions enlivened by satirical details and witty editorializing. His suspenseful narrative alternates between the two plots; Ray recounts his tale in a wry omniscient voice, while Paul's first-person account is ruefully self-absorbed and idiosyncratic. These characters may not be as hilariously eccentric as some in Pearson's previous books, but they are equally Dand insidiouslyDmemorable. Author tour. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Fans of Pearsons six wonderful novels, especially of his Carolina trilogy and Cry Me a River (1993), may find his latest disappointing. The prose here is leaner, with little narrative expansiveness and less backslapping geniality. One reason for the shift in tone is a matter of design: Pearson shifts back and forth between two stories, and only one is in the first person. And that speaker isnt given to much verbal dexterity; after all, hes a dull actuary in a Roanoke insurance office who suddenly learns that the biological son he barely knows has turned up dead in New York City. Paul Tatum sired the boy back in 73 when people were freer with their ardor, and has no clue that his trip to identify the body will entangle him in a web of urban drug intrigue, with its sense of creeping moral desolation. Meanwhile, Ray Tatum, Pauls cousin, whos left behind a marriage and a dead young daughter in Mobile, Alabama, takes a new job as a deputy sheriff not far from his cousins home in tiny Hogarth, Virginia, where the local law enforcement mixes Mayberry R.F.D. with its dark undersidesay, In The Heat of the Night. Ray falls into an odd investigation of an old crime, a forensic mess that brings him into contact with the tough-as-nails black beauty Kit Carson, a federal agent straight out of Elmore Leonard. While Pauls adventure exposes him to the ambiguities of urban crime and violence, Rays plunges him into contact with the horrors of the Old South. Pearson cant resist some comic set pieces worthy of his best fiction: low humor involving backwoods infidelity, trashy drunk couples, and dopey deputies. In New York, less sure of his footing, he goofs on those old standbys: wannabe actresses, doughnut-munching cops, and assorted silent mooks. The resulting hybrid is less than his best, but still ahead of the pack.
Booklist Review
Someone once described T. R. Pearson as a cross between Faulkner and Mark Twain. That's a comparison that should flatter any writer, but, remarkably, it's apt. In seven earlier novels, his stories and prose meandered like a lazy river as his characters confronted the grand themes of literature and life--love, death, faith, passion, loss, desire--as well as its trivial and antic moments. Pearson's voice is at once compassionate, wise, and very, very funny. This novel is no exception. In it, the stories of two men, cousins Ray and Paul Tatum, are told in parallel. Ray is a new deputy sheriff in Hogarth, Virginia, a sleepy town along the Appalachian Trail. His first assignment is to find out what happened to the set of human bones discovered by hikers on the trail. Paul is an actuary who must go to New York City to identify the headless body of a man he hasn't seen in many years--his son. These stories play out in Virginia and in Manhattan, and each locale and its denizens offers Pearson wonderful opportunities to observe and comment on the human condition. Another fine novel by a master storyteller. --Thomas Gaughan