Another Dzanc book, posthumous novel by William Gay. THE LOST COUNTRY

William Gay died in 2012, so this novel, released in 2018, is a posthumous publication. William Gay was under contract for this story, but had apparently misplaced it, or that was what he told an editor. At the time, Gay was living in a trailer in Tennessee. If you read this novel, or if you've read any of Gay's other novels, that's not a surprise, because Gay hits perfect notes about the impoverished southern working class human condition. You'd expect perfect notes to come from a writer who lived and breathed what his pen produced.

J.M. White found the manuscript in an attic. It was typed but unorganized. Apparently, it was not even in numerical order. White managed to piece it all together and publish it. The story follows the journeys of a young man--Billy Edgewater-- in 1955 after he was discharged from the Navy. His father is dying and he sets off to eastern Tennessee to be with him. We are not too sure he really wants to end up by his Dad's side, though: flash backs tell us about a complicated relationship. (southern gothic families are always complicated). He meets up with quite a few rough and amusing characters. They are all your basic southern gothic out-of-this-world men. A one armed con man. An outrageously irresponsible alcoholic obsessed with his female rejections. Then there's your basic southern gothic bad guy, a man named Harkness who's so horrible he skinned a dog alive once. Like a lot of hard core southern gothic of the 1950s, the humor is very masculine. And after a while, you get a bit grossed out by the drunk, lazy, cruel men. It helps that the one decent man is the protagonist, who also struggles right along with the reader. He's a good man who connects with flawed, drunk, immoral men. The resulting conflict of the heart, which anchors most southern gothic writing, is the only plot. 

All the fun with this William Gay novel does not come from understanding the protagonist's inner conflict or even enjoying all the marginal eccentric characters (At least not in this novel, as some were overdone). The fun with this novel comes from reading descriptions of landscape. Gay writes landscape like no one else. Truly, if you love words and are amazed at the poetic hearts of writers of the land, read this novel for that alone. Yes, he spends a bit too much time describing the sun,the light passing through clouds, limbs, the fog, and every detail of every small crack in every wood. Even abstract concepts. For example: 

"... time is acid God pours on events to etch and change them, real and unreal are no more than words...."  .  
(Isn't that wonderful?)

I didn't mind the long descriptions. Not at all. I savored them. I read them slowly. I looked up words, saved the words in special folders. I would read a passage describing landscape over and over. It's just gorgeous. The brain that wrote it was amazing. May he rest in peace. 

I could tell it was pieced together, however. I read the foreward and afterward before the book, so I had a forgiving frame of mind.. You have to be a little forgiving with these novels found in attics. So, I would advise anyone reading the novel to read the afterward by White before the book. Oh and don't forget the foreward by Sonny Brewer. I don't think you have to understand a writer to understand his work. Nor do you have to like a writer to like his work. But the love that went into finding, piecing together, editing his work after his death is important to understand, I think. It is obvious that people loved William Gay.  

I am not sure how I feel about posthumous publications. The writer has no say in the edits, and when the material is raw and disorganized, editing decisions are critical. But I am not in a position to have an opinion about it. I never knew William Gay and only know what Mr. Brewer wrote. Based upon Mr. Brewer's description, I think Mr. Gay would approve.