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I love the South, the Deep South of Louisiana and Mississippi. In the throes
of a bit of middle-aged crazy or male menopause, take your pick, I have taken
a right angle turn in my profession and moved the lion's share of my
profession down there, driving late at night through Mississippi, where I-59
cleaves through the forest and headlights come up upon you out of nowhere and
pass into the unknown ahead. This is the South that Larry Brown writes about,
the Deep South, with lots of woods between small towns, the settings for
those wonderful, magical books like FAY or FATHERS AND SONS that go down best
with Junior Kimbrough or R.L. Burnside playing in the background.
BILLY RAY'S FARM is a collection of Brown's essays drawn from such a myriad
range of sources that there's no way that any one soul could have read all of
them before now. They come from publications you would expect such as Outside
and The Southern Quarterly and some surprising ones such as The Book Report
(yes, the very same) and even Glamour, for crissake. And they are all
uniformly excellent.
Brown's prose slices in and out of life so finely, so easily, that his
fiction takes on the quality of a documentary narrative. So too, his essays
read like fiction with regard to Brown's ability to hold the reader's
interest. The title essay "Billy Ray's Farm" is an excellent example. The
narrative on the surface is concerned with cattle raising; there are levels,
however, buried within the narrative, concerning dreams and the sweat and
effort needed to bring them, kicking and screaming, into reality. You will
not drive past farmland again after reading "Billy Ray's Farm" without
thinking of that story. Then there is the social phenomenon described in "So
Much Fish, So Close To Home: An Improv." "So Much Fish" concerns, in its own
words, a goldrush of free fish, and what the narrator goes through in an
attempt to obtain some. This is a rich story, not the least for his account
of a encounter he had in a bizarre general store.
Hopeful writers, meanwhile will find three indispensable pieces. "Chattanooga
Nights" is an account of Brown's attendance at a literary conference and the
intimidation that he initially felt, and gradually grew out of. "Harry Crews:
Mentor and Friend" is about...well, it's about Harry Crews, and his
influence, and friendship with Brown. This is as easy a piece to relate to as
anything in BILLY RAY'S FARM. Think about being influenced by someone in any
field of endeavor, and then not only developing a relationship with that
individual, but having them help you along. Mind boggling, indeed. Then,
there is "The Whore In Me," Brown's account of a cross-country book tour.
It's not all grits and glory, as he makes all too clear.
BILLY RAY'S FARM is a brief but deep collection from an author who should be
seriously considered a national treasure. Those who were hoping for a novel
will get over whatever disappointment they may have felt within the first
page or so. This is an unexpected large gift in a small package.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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