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The Evening Road
Two women, two secrets: one desperate and extraordinary day.
Meet Ottie Lee Henshaw, a startling, challenging beauty in small-town Indiana. Quick of mind, she navigates a stifling marriage, a lecherous boss, and on one day in the summer of 1930, an odyssey across the countryside to witness a dark and fearful event.
Meet Calla Destry, a young black woman desperate to escape the violence of her town, and to find the lover who has promised her a new life.
Every road leads to the bedlam of Marvel, a town where lives will collide and be changed forever. Reminiscent of the works of Louise Erdrich, Edward P. Jones and Marilynne Robinson, The Evening Road is the story of two remarkable women on the move through an America riven by fear and hatred, and eager to flee the secrets they have left behind.
Meet Ottie Lee Henshaw, a startling, challenging beauty in small-town Indiana. Quick of mind, she navigates a stifling marriage, a lecherous boss, and on one day in the summer of 1930, an odyssey across the countryside to witness a dark and fearful event.
Meet Calla Destry, a young black woman desperate to escape the violence of her town, and to find the lover who has promised her a new life.
Every road leads to the bedlam of Marvel, a town where lives will collide and be changed forever. Reminiscent of the works of Louise Erdrich, Edward P. Jones and Marilynne Robinson, The Evening Road is the story of two remarkable women on the move through an America riven by fear and hatred, and eager to flee the secrets they have left behind.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published February 7, 2017
About the author
Laird Hunt
33 books488 followersLaird Hunt is an American writer, translator and academic.
Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central High School. He earned a B.A. from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. He also studied French literature at the Sorbonne. Hunt worked in the press office at the United Nations while writing his first novel. He is currently a professor in the Creative Writing program at University of Denver. Hunt lives with his wife, the poet Eleni Sikelianos, in Boulder, Colorado.
Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central High School. He earned a B.A. from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. He also studied French literature at the Sorbonne. Hunt worked in the press office at the United Nations while writing his first novel. He is currently a professor in the Creative Writing program at University of Denver. Hunt lives with his wife, the poet Eleni Sikelianos, in Boulder, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
February 18, 2017
I loved Laird Hunt's book Neverhome so I was anxious to read this new one and while I liked it, it just didn't measure up for me . I started reading this book on 12/14 and coincidentally on 2/15 there was a discussion between Laird Hunt and Emma Donoghue in writing about historical women in my daily email from Literary Hub.
February 15, 2017 By Literary Hub , Hunt says :
"With The Evening Road, the start was hearing an old woman, near the end of her life, describing a day in her relative youth when her boss told her to grab her things—they were going to jump in his car and go to the lynching that was fixing to happen over in Marion, Indiana. It was part of a radio program on the 80th anniversary of the lynching that gave rise to the song “Strange Fruit.” What took me straightaway was how this woman clearly recognized that having gone along as if to a festival was wrong, but she was also not entirely sorry to have done it, either. It was just something everyone was doing that day. That moral ambiguity, which often crawls up out of some form of manifest ambivalence like this retired secretary’s .. "
Ambivalence, it turns out is the feeling I had after reading the book. Ottie Lee is the fictionalized secretary inspired by the real one he speaks of in the conversation. She's on her way to a lynching in Marvel, Indiana with her lecherous boss stopping along the way so he can paw at her, stopping to pick up her husband, then to feed his enormous pig and stopping for a catfish dinner, a prayer vigil at a Quaker Meeting House and a number of other stops meeting a cast of characters. We never do get to the lynching, even though it's where everyone wanted to go , to see the "show". Another narrative thread belongs to Calla, a sixteen year, traveling to the lynching but her aim is not to see it but to find the older man who has gotten her pregnant.
While I think Hunt gives a sense of the time and history, 1930's Jim Crow, I didn't understand why the black people in the story were called cornflowers and the white people were called cornsilks. It felt like that diluted things a bit. The story seems to be more about these two women, their pasts and how they were going to move forward than it was about the lynchings and maybe that's what he intended. A solid three stars because of the writing and that would move me in the direction of what Hunt writes in the future.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Hachette Book Group/Little, Brown and Company through Edelweiss.
February 15, 2017 By Literary Hub , Hunt says :
"With The Evening Road, the start was hearing an old woman, near the end of her life, describing a day in her relative youth when her boss told her to grab her things—they were going to jump in his car and go to the lynching that was fixing to happen over in Marion, Indiana. It was part of a radio program on the 80th anniversary of the lynching that gave rise to the song “Strange Fruit.” What took me straightaway was how this woman clearly recognized that having gone along as if to a festival was wrong, but she was also not entirely sorry to have done it, either. It was just something everyone was doing that day. That moral ambiguity, which often crawls up out of some form of manifest ambivalence like this retired secretary’s .. "
Ambivalence, it turns out is the feeling I had after reading the book. Ottie Lee is the fictionalized secretary inspired by the real one he speaks of in the conversation. She's on her way to a lynching in Marvel, Indiana with her lecherous boss stopping along the way so he can paw at her, stopping to pick up her husband, then to feed his enormous pig and stopping for a catfish dinner, a prayer vigil at a Quaker Meeting House and a number of other stops meeting a cast of characters. We never do get to the lynching, even though it's where everyone wanted to go , to see the "show". Another narrative thread belongs to Calla, a sixteen year, traveling to the lynching but her aim is not to see it but to find the older man who has gotten her pregnant.
While I think Hunt gives a sense of the time and history, 1930's Jim Crow, I didn't understand why the black people in the story were called cornflowers and the white people were called cornsilks. It felt like that diluted things a bit. The story seems to be more about these two women, their pasts and how they were going to move forward than it was about the lynchings and maybe that's what he intended. A solid three stars because of the writing and that would move me in the direction of what Hunt writes in the future.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Hachette Book Group/Little, Brown and Company through Edelweiss.
May 16, 2017
(I read about the first 50 pages, skimmed the rest of the first half, and barely glanced at the remainder.) Hunt’s previous novel, Neverhome, was a pretty unforgettable take on the Civil War narrative. This new book is trying to do something new with Jim Crow violence. In the 1920s–30s history Hunt draws on, lynchings were entertainment in the same way other forms of execution were in previous centuries; buses have even been put on to take people to “the show” up at Marvel, Indiana. Hateful Ottie Lee narrates the first half of the novel as she rides with her handsy boss Bud Lancer and her unappealing husband Dale to see the lynching. Their road trip includes a catfish supper, plenty of drinking, and a stop at a dance hall. It ends up feeling like a less entertaining The Help. A feel-good picaresque about a lynching? It might work if there were a contrasting tone, a hint that somewhere in this fictional universe there is an appropriate sense of horror about what is happening. I think Hunt’s mistake is to stick with Ottie Lee the whole time rather than switching between her and Calla Destry (the black narrator of the second half) or an omniscient narrator. I’d long given up on the novel by the time Calla came into play. I was meant to cover this for Shiny New Books, but found that I could not recommend it highly enough to go ahead with a review.
(Also, the terms cornflower and cornsilk are used all the time, presumably as slang to refer to black people, but this is never explained and I cannot find any external evidence that this usage is historical.)
(Also, the terms cornflower and cornsilk are used all the time, presumably as slang to refer to black people, but this is never explained and I cannot find any external evidence that this usage is historical.)
April 23, 2017
There is to be a lynching in Marvel, Ohio and Ottie, her lecherous boss and her husband set out on a road trip to see "the show". Along the way they stop for a catfish dinner, visit a hairdresser, have car trouble, steal a wagon from some black people, have sex and other adventures. They never actually get to Marvel.
The second half of the book is about a 16 year old black girl named Calla, who lives in Marvel and wants to go on a picnic rather than fleeing from the lynchers and lynching tourists along with the rest of her family. I confess that I don't know what happened in this half of the book, because this is where I left it. I had kept reading up to then in the hope that some point would eventually be revealed. It wasn't.
This book was not enjoyable. Not because it dealt with the painful topic of lynching, but because it took the offensive route of giving the sweetness and light version of lynching. The author chose to have white people referred to as "corn silks" and black people referred to as "cornflowers". I don't know about the name for white people in the 1920s, but I'm certain that the lynch mobs of the day were after niggers, not cornflowers and I can't even guess why the author would choose not to reflect this accurately. The whole book was just an insult to a serious topic.
I received a free copy of the e-book from the publisher however I wound up listening to the audiobook borrowed from the library. The author should have listened to this book read out loud before it was published. Maybe then he would have removed some of the "he said", "I said", "she shouted" that made this book an annoying listening experience.
The second half of the book is about a 16 year old black girl named Calla, who lives in Marvel and wants to go on a picnic rather than fleeing from the lynchers and lynching tourists along with the rest of her family. I confess that I don't know what happened in this half of the book, because this is where I left it. I had kept reading up to then in the hope that some point would eventually be revealed. It wasn't.
This book was not enjoyable. Not because it dealt with the painful topic of lynching, but because it took the offensive route of giving the sweetness and light version of lynching. The author chose to have white people referred to as "corn silks" and black people referred to as "cornflowers". I don't know about the name for white people in the 1920s, but I'm certain that the lynch mobs of the day were after niggers, not cornflowers and I can't even guess why the author would choose not to reflect this accurately. The whole book was just an insult to a serious topic.
I received a free copy of the e-book from the publisher however I wound up listening to the audiobook borrowed from the library. The author should have listened to this book read out loud before it was published. Maybe then he would have removed some of the "he said", "I said", "she shouted" that made this book an annoying listening experience.
March 17, 2017
Evidently this book is based on the lynching that inspired Abel Meeropol to write the poem that later became the powerful song Strange Fruit, performed so memorably by Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and others. Hunt is a fine writer, but some of his choices in this book--like keeping the lynching itself in the background and inventing odd vocabulary--fritter away the power of his material. I'm sure it wasn't Hunt's intent, but this book feels disrespectful of the pain caused by slavery and its aftermaths. Hunt's delicacy feels like a missed opportunity to deal more honestly with America's past (and present) instead of prettying it up.
August 25, 2016
Heads up, Laird Hunt is my brother! Here's my intro/review. What were people doing on the day of the murder of Thomas Ship and Abram Smith on August 7th, 1930? It was an event that has come to be known as the last public lynching in America, memorialized in that song sung by Billie Holliday, Strange Fruit. The Evening Road speaks to that question in a fictionalized accounting of those long, hot, awful hours from the voices, primarily, of two women — one trying to get to the lynching and another trying to get away from it — traveling the roads around and through a town called 'Marvel'. It's a beautifully crafted challenger of a novel. Very different from his last, Neverhome, but true to Laird's style, purveyed in its own brand of colloquialism and indelible impressions: horror, above all, marked by a trace of magic and just a little bit less of grace. My favorite character (and maybe section of the novel) in the field of complex minds and personal histories is the fierce, intelligent woman of action, Calla Destry.
July 29, 2016
This book centers around a lynching in a town called Marvel. There are two women who narrate most of the story. I must admit I found this book a bit confusing.
Ottie Lee heads to Marvel with her boss and her husband and along the way they gather others. Calla travels on her own with a very specific mission in mind. And always in the background is the town of Marvel and the lynching. Many other characters cross paths with the two women who tell completely separate and distinct stories. Ottie Lee opens the book and Calla takes over at about the half-way point.
I get the picture the author is trying to build but I can't really say I enjoyed the journey. I loved Neverhome by Laird Hunt and was super excited to receive a review copy of The Evening Road. This one just wasn't for me.
Ottie Lee heads to Marvel with her boss and her husband and along the way they gather others. Calla travels on her own with a very specific mission in mind. And always in the background is the town of Marvel and the lynching. Many other characters cross paths with the two women who tell completely separate and distinct stories. Ottie Lee opens the book and Calla takes over at about the half-way point.
I get the picture the author is trying to build but I can't really say I enjoyed the journey. I loved Neverhome by Laird Hunt and was super excited to receive a review copy of The Evening Road. This one just wasn't for me.
June 14, 2019
Rating: 3 STARS
2017; Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group
(Review Not on Blog)
On a hot summer night in the 1930s, three black men are about to be lynched by a vengeful crowd. One woman, with her husband and boss, goes towards the violence while another one runs from it towards her lover.
I found the first 1/3 of the novel quite well-written but then found it hard to stay engaged with the story and characters. I found myself flipping to get to the end. I finished the novel but it took a bit of work.
***I received an eARC from EDELWEISS***
2017; Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group
(Review Not on Blog)
On a hot summer night in the 1930s, three black men are about to be lynched by a vengeful crowd. One woman, with her husband and boss, goes towards the violence while another one runs from it towards her lover.
I found the first 1/3 of the novel quite well-written but then found it hard to stay engaged with the story and characters. I found myself flipping to get to the end. I finished the novel but it took a bit of work.
***I received an eARC from EDELWEISS***
November 2, 2016
I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Here's my honest review of The Evening Road.
The story revolves around Ottie Lee Henshaw, Calla Destry and a lynching happening in the nearby town of Marvel.
Even though the lynching in Marvel is made to feel like it's main event in the story it's not. The lynching is just what drives all of the characters in the story (or at least drives Ottie Lee's story.) whether they are going to see the lynching or trying to get the hell outta dodge to avoid all of the craziness going on because of it. What the story really revolves around is Ottie Lee Henshaw's and Calla Destry's separate journeys in finding themselves on the day of the lynching. Which I wish I figured out a lot sooner than I did. Then maybe I wouldn't have kept waiting for the lynching that never happened on page and enjoyed Ottie Lee's half of the book a little more. Ottie Lee's journey was all over the place to me: creeper boss, marriage issues, issues with her parents which ultimately made no sense to me. And nothing with her is really resolved. Calla's journey flowed a little more smoothly for me: looking for who stood her up, looking for aunt and uncle. Finding who stood her up, figures out things, continues search for aunt and uncle. All of Calla's story lines have endings. I at least felt like her story lines had endings when her half of the book ended.
The book wasn't awful it but wasn't great either because the lynching in Marvel was played up to be bigger than it really was or there was at least going to be some big showdown/meeting in Marvel. But instead the end result of the lynching is offhandedly mentioned towards the end. The lynching in Marvel should have been treated like the active background character it really is instead of the main character it doesn't really live up to.
There's my review I hope I didn't ramble too much or type in circles. Even though I gave it two stars I still say give it a read because it was enjoyable book. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked.
The story revolves around Ottie Lee Henshaw, Calla Destry and a lynching happening in the nearby town of Marvel.
Even though the lynching in Marvel is made to feel like it's main event in the story it's not. The lynching is just what drives all of the characters in the story (or at least drives Ottie Lee's story.) whether they are going to see the lynching or trying to get the hell outta dodge to avoid all of the craziness going on because of it. What the story really revolves around is Ottie Lee Henshaw's and Calla Destry's separate journeys in finding themselves on the day of the lynching. Which I wish I figured out a lot sooner than I did. Then maybe I wouldn't have kept waiting for the lynching that never happened on page and enjoyed Ottie Lee's half of the book a little more. Ottie Lee's journey was all over the place to me: creeper boss, marriage issues, issues with her parents which ultimately made no sense to me. And nothing with her is really resolved. Calla's journey flowed a little more smoothly for me: looking for who stood her up, looking for aunt and uncle. Finding who stood her up, figures out things, continues search for aunt and uncle. All of Calla's story lines have endings. I at least felt like her story lines had endings when her half of the book ended.
The book wasn't awful it but wasn't great either because the lynching in Marvel was played up to be bigger than it really was or there was at least going to be some big showdown/meeting in Marvel. But instead the end result of the lynching is offhandedly mentioned towards the end. The lynching in Marvel should have been treated like the active background character it really is instead of the main character it doesn't really live up to.
There's my review I hope I didn't ramble too much or type in circles. Even though I gave it two stars I still say give it a read because it was enjoyable book. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked.
February 12, 2017
I had a difficult time with this book; more than once I had to force myself to return to it. Hunt is still a writer who can create a sense of immediacy and evoke a scene that brings the reader inside the story. But I kept wondering why this story needed my visitation or even my awareness. Ostensibly based on the last public lynching in Indiana, two narratives form the story: a white woman moving towards the lynching, with a group of white men, all as a source of evening entertainment; and a black woman moving away from the lynching, or at least searching for the boyfriend she thought would meet her to run away. Is the story more allegory than historical fiction, yes. Did that increase my appreciation for it, no. The white section was just too awful. I don't doubt the section's authenticity; I just found parts of it akin to reading hate literature. I wished for a moral counterpoint in that long section and it was lacking. I needed a character to provide something positive while all of that hate was spilling out. There just wasn't enough offered to lend the reader any hope.
September 30, 2023
This book surprised me. I’ll admit it was a slow burn at first and it was pushing me away. But I’m always game to keep reading so that I can give a fair review. It finally pulled me in. And it’s astounding how some of the beliefs in this book are still thrown around today. How there are good people living in fear because of others’ beliefs and judgments about something they cannot change, their skin color. This book is important; it is a testament to recognizing how much we have grown, but not resting and continuing in a path of growth, acceptance, and supporting our fellow man. This book reminded me a lot of The Vanishing Half but in an earlier time frame. I’m glad this book found me and feel it was a significant story.
December 19, 2016
Read my review in the next issue of the Historical Novels Review.
August 8, 2017
There were some amazing moments. I wonder about some author choices but I'll still read anything by Laird Hunt.
April 12, 2017
I think this might have been one of the weirdest books that I have read. The first half of the book is about Ottie Lee who is trying to get to a lynching that evening. The second half of the book was from the point of view of an African American woman. Not only was the story strange, but as I read it I felt like it had a dream-like quality. Some other reviewers mentioned that it was written in a poetic manner.
Yet somehow, I keep thinking about this book. The amount of bigotry is astounding; yet this must have been the norm way back when in the southern United States.
I really enjoyed this book.
Yet somehow, I keep thinking about this book. The amount of bigotry is astounding; yet this must have been the norm way back when in the southern United States.
I really enjoyed this book.
November 29, 2017
Couldn’t get on with this one at all, although it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what I found so unengaging. The focal point of the novel is a lynching in Marvel, Indiana (based on a real-life lynching and the inspiration for the song Strange Fruit) and the journey to the lynching of a white woman who sees it all as mere entertainment, and a black woman, who seems to just accept it as part of daily life. Strong stuff, but Hunt doesn’t convince somehow. I was bored by the road trip these two women make and the often bizarre adventures they have with a motley cast of characters en route, and most of all I was irritated by Hunt’s use of cornflowers for the black people and cornsilks for the white. Is the story meant to be a fable of some kind? Why these made up (as far as I can find out) terms? I stuck with the book for a while and then skipped to the end. It just didn’t hold my attention.
November 23, 2016
I have not read NEVERHOME, so I had no expectations of the author or the book. I read it in two sittings and upon finishing immediately wanted to read it again and soak up more of this compelling, creative, thought-provoking story...this time with pencil in hand so I can mark the most brilliant parts. Eager to pass my ARC along to other booksellers so we can discuss together.
August 28, 2017
AudioBook Review:
Stars: Overall 3 Narration 4 Story 3
August 7, 1930. Marion, Indiana. The effects of Jim Crow felt strongly throughout the United States, and two young men are slated for a lynching. Photographs of the aftermath show celebrations around and under the bodies as they hang: celebrations by white people who, were their color a bit different, would be subject to the same terrors and fears. But, Hunt really isn’t writing a story about the lynching proper, but of the people who turn this into an event, and rush to see. While I had heard wonderful things about this author, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to read / listen to his work, and this seemed like a good opportunity to take a chance.
Told by two persons, one white one black, and examines their journey to Marion, their motivations, secrets and emotions that are experienced along the way. And I’ll be honest, from the start I felt that Hunt took the ‘easy’ way out in his prose: struggling to find more politically correct language to soften the full-on body blows that should have arrived with each epithet, and working to make cornsilk, cornflower, corntassel, etc a gentler and easier to digest phrase than what we ALL know were words, thrown about to divide, defame and demean. In fact, the constant struggle that I felt in an oft-circular prose style that managed to side-step every word that was ‘softened’ was frustrating as I often found myself rewinding to be sure that I understood and recognized the choices. For me, the story would have carried more impact throughout had the prose been less cluttered and clearer emotionally from the outset without them.
Firstly, the story is in Ottie Lee’s point of view. A white woman who works for Bud: a lecherous good ol’ boy who demands his own sort of payments and penance for slights. He’s decided they will take a journey to Marion to see a lynching, and off we go. Along the way, Bud adds Ottie’s husband Dale, and a man named Pops. This is an old-fashioned sort of road trip – stopping along the way to see the sights and experience the world they encounter through car troubles, a fish fry, plenty of drinking, a side trip to a Quaker prayer meeting and, of course, the theft of mule and wagon from a group of black folks. Not only do they share tales of themselves and their adventures, prejudices and personalities, but we learn to see the nuance and questions that some have, the certainty of ohers, and the prejudice of all. Well, some of them, and a moment where all should have been shamed during the prayer vigil: non-denominational, non-discriminatory and ultimately, a visual representation of the silence which meets overt racist behaviors by the majority of those who feel they are ‘not’ effected.
Moving on to the second half of the book, we meet Calla Destry, a bold and often reckless young black woman with a white male lover and an adoptive family who wants to find somewhere safe, away from Marion and the lynchings, away from the threats they face daily. Calla is offhanded about the whole thing, she believes that in some ways they are untouchable, even as circumstances tell different. She heads to the lynching, boldly and unapologetically, but finds that the primed and excited crowd is more than happy to disabuse her of the car, her life and her dignity. She escapes and heads away from the city, in some ways her new encounters reinforce her belief that people are no different after all, and in others, that is challenged. The last chapter is narrated by a new woman, one who seems to be a device for Hunt to give us all a moral lesson on what the story should have brought. It felt as if it was meant to be a conclusion to Calla’s story, which was unfinished and open, and then devolved into lecture.
While I will commend Hunt for the moments that stood out: no great saviors, the actual layered characters that presented very real-feeling people full of contradictions, good and bad, the attempt to bring an event in the past to light, and some of the questions that may arise for readers. I can’t wholly recommend this story because of those same choices: word choices were poor and I felt they diminished the impact. Calla’s story didn’t really present any conclusions, and the moral compass provided by the 3rd voice, Sally, that felt both intangible and extraneous. There is room to wonder about each, think about where they went, but the punch of the story was held back and softened too much.
Naration for this story is provided by Vanessa Johansson and Pyeng Threadgill, and I didn’t find any great missteps or glory moments. While they presented the moments well, and each was clear and distinct, there were emotional moments missing where an acknowledgment or adjustment to tone, pitch or delivery would have added much to the moments. It wasn’t an easy tale to present and the prose, while bordering on the too-flowery edge of poetic was often lovely, the rhythm and meter of the prose seemed to be more important to author and narrators than the actual words used.
I received an AudioBook copy of the title from Hachette Audio for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
Review first appeared at I am, Indeed
Stars: Overall 3 Narration 4 Story 3
August 7, 1930. Marion, Indiana. The effects of Jim Crow felt strongly throughout the United States, and two young men are slated for a lynching. Photographs of the aftermath show celebrations around and under the bodies as they hang: celebrations by white people who, were their color a bit different, would be subject to the same terrors and fears. But, Hunt really isn’t writing a story about the lynching proper, but of the people who turn this into an event, and rush to see. While I had heard wonderful things about this author, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to read / listen to his work, and this seemed like a good opportunity to take a chance.
Told by two persons, one white one black, and examines their journey to Marion, their motivations, secrets and emotions that are experienced along the way. And I’ll be honest, from the start I felt that Hunt took the ‘easy’ way out in his prose: struggling to find more politically correct language to soften the full-on body blows that should have arrived with each epithet, and working to make cornsilk, cornflower, corntassel, etc a gentler and easier to digest phrase than what we ALL know were words, thrown about to divide, defame and demean. In fact, the constant struggle that I felt in an oft-circular prose style that managed to side-step every word that was ‘softened’ was frustrating as I often found myself rewinding to be sure that I understood and recognized the choices. For me, the story would have carried more impact throughout had the prose been less cluttered and clearer emotionally from the outset without them.
Firstly, the story is in Ottie Lee’s point of view. A white woman who works for Bud: a lecherous good ol’ boy who demands his own sort of payments and penance for slights. He’s decided they will take a journey to Marion to see a lynching, and off we go. Along the way, Bud adds Ottie’s husband Dale, and a man named Pops. This is an old-fashioned sort of road trip – stopping along the way to see the sights and experience the world they encounter through car troubles, a fish fry, plenty of drinking, a side trip to a Quaker prayer meeting and, of course, the theft of mule and wagon from a group of black folks. Not only do they share tales of themselves and their adventures, prejudices and personalities, but we learn to see the nuance and questions that some have, the certainty of ohers, and the prejudice of all. Well, some of them, and a moment where all should have been shamed during the prayer vigil: non-denominational, non-discriminatory and ultimately, a visual representation of the silence which meets overt racist behaviors by the majority of those who feel they are ‘not’ effected.
Moving on to the second half of the book, we meet Calla Destry, a bold and often reckless young black woman with a white male lover and an adoptive family who wants to find somewhere safe, away from Marion and the lynchings, away from the threats they face daily. Calla is offhanded about the whole thing, she believes that in some ways they are untouchable, even as circumstances tell different. She heads to the lynching, boldly and unapologetically, but finds that the primed and excited crowd is more than happy to disabuse her of the car, her life and her dignity. She escapes and heads away from the city, in some ways her new encounters reinforce her belief that people are no different after all, and in others, that is challenged. The last chapter is narrated by a new woman, one who seems to be a device for Hunt to give us all a moral lesson on what the story should have brought. It felt as if it was meant to be a conclusion to Calla’s story, which was unfinished and open, and then devolved into lecture.
While I will commend Hunt for the moments that stood out: no great saviors, the actual layered characters that presented very real-feeling people full of contradictions, good and bad, the attempt to bring an event in the past to light, and some of the questions that may arise for readers. I can’t wholly recommend this story because of those same choices: word choices were poor and I felt they diminished the impact. Calla’s story didn’t really present any conclusions, and the moral compass provided by the 3rd voice, Sally, that felt both intangible and extraneous. There is room to wonder about each, think about where they went, but the punch of the story was held back and softened too much.
Naration for this story is provided by Vanessa Johansson and Pyeng Threadgill, and I didn’t find any great missteps or glory moments. While they presented the moments well, and each was clear and distinct, there were emotional moments missing where an acknowledgment or adjustment to tone, pitch or delivery would have added much to the moments. It wasn’t an easy tale to present and the prose, while bordering on the too-flowery edge of poetic was often lovely, the rhythm and meter of the prose seemed to be more important to author and narrators than the actual words used.
I received an AudioBook copy of the title from Hachette Audio for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
Review first appeared at I am, Indeed
February 11, 2017
On August 7, 1920, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were lynched in Marion, Indiana. A photographer who was there captured the crowd of avid, celebratory white people posing for the camera beneath their bodies. It is perhaps one of the most famous photos of a lynching in part because the excitement of the crowd was so evident. I imagine Laird Hunt must have looked at that photo several times when writing The Evening Road, his historical novel about a lynching in the fictional Marvel, Indiana in August, 1920. It is, after all, the clear inspiration for his book which focuses on the people in the surrounding area, not the lynching itself.
The first section of the book is narrated by Ottie Lee Henshaw, a white woman working for a lecherous man named Bud. As soon as Bud hears there will be a lynching in Marvel, some seventy miles away. He gleefully suggests they all head off to Marvel to see it. They pick up Ottie Lee’s husband Dale, and further down the road, Pops Nelson. This begins a strange pilgrim’s progress, with stops at a cat fish fry, car trouble, lots of drinking, a ride that takes them out of their way to Quaker prayer vigil. They even end up stealing a mule and wagon from a group of black people. Through this long peregrination, and yes, a good portion of it is even on foot, truths are revealed about them all.
The second part of the book is told by Calla Destry, a young black woman who was stood up by her older, white lover Leander, on a day when she really needed to talk to him. Her adoptive family is determined to get our of the area, afraid of what might happen. When she does not return on time, they end up leaving her behind. Calla mocks her family’s fear, saying they can’t lynch them all. That would be odd, since the St. Louis riots were just three years earlier when as many as two hundred African Americans were murdered. Massacres of African Americans were in recent enough memory, Calla would know very well the danger was very real. She takes the family car and drives to the lynching, a young black woman driving a sporty car in broad daylight into the crowd of people eager to see a lynching. The crowd is enraged and tries to attack her, but she escapes. And that’s just the beginning, she is reckless in her rebellion, and has a sort of reverse pilgrimage away from Marvel with many picaresque encounters.
The final chapter is narrated by Sally Gunner who sees angels before breakfast thanks to a blow to the head. Sally exists as a plot device and is a person out of time. She would be the white savior, but there is no saving those young men.
This would be a good book for a book group because there is a lot of grist for discussion. It has me arguing with myself. On the one hand, there are some powerful moments, such as when Calla is almost out of gas and has to go to a gas station and not one on their list of friendly stations. She is frightened, but has no choice. Luckily, the attendant is friendly and makes a point of sharing his view that the lynching is wrong. “Wrong wasn’t the word for what was happening…There wasn’t any word a cornsilk could day and make it sound right” And Calla feels such murderous rage at him. That felt incredibly honest and true.
But then there is the Quaker prayer vigil. This was a multi-racial prayer vigil, “filled to its fat gizzards with cornsilk and cornflower folks both. Maybe even some cornroots . . . and corntassels too. All of them sitting next to each other like they was one great big shook salad in one great big salad bowl.” There no reaction when white folks off to see the lynching come in and mock them and leave or when the speaker who organized bus loads of lynching sightseers comes in later. That is strange and unreal. As though they, like Sally, are not really people, but a device. Sally says it herself, “it was the future sitting there bowing its head”
And there is the thing that drives me mad about this book. Laird Hunt found his writing stifled by the racist language common in the past, by the hateful epithet we all avoid. So while writing he created euphemisms for race. Cornsilks are White, cornflowers are Black, cornroots are Native American, and corntassels are Asian. So, he could write about lynching, but could not use the words that animate that hate? Perhaps he is suggesting that when cornflower bring that specific word into our head, we become complicit, because we are bringing it from our experience. Are we supposed to feel guilt because we know what it represents? Or did he just decided to sidestep the truth?
Much about this book is excellent. There is no white savior which is something to celebrate, though the gas station attendant might think he is, we know better. Sally is trying to be. Her chapter is even called The Angel Runner. But she’s a device and an ineffectual one.
The prose in The Evening Road is beautiful, lyrical, and powerfully evocative. Here is Calla, introducing herself, “I stepped up slow from the river, like it was me not the good green water that had decided to follow its lazy ways.” Calla is a more oblique narrator than the frank and profane Ottie Lee. There is also this sense of the ridiculous in their adventures that is sometimes amusing, which does bring to mind the giddy crowd in that awful photo, the absolute ordinariness of these white folks off to witness such great evil. But so much is just wrong and it all comes down to the avoidance of reality–the use of the corn euphemisms, Calla’s indifference to risk which also puts others at risk. I assume that outside the covers of this book, there will be several who suffer from association with her.
One of the great things, though, about this book, is we just don’t know. This is not a book that ties things up neatly. We can imagine Ottie Lee revitalizing her marriage and becoming a braver, happier woman or not. We can imagine Calla running into the young man on the bicycle and forging a future or not. Do we want even want that to happen? There’s so much left to wonder about, and because I did come to care about these people, except for Sally who is utterly unreal, I do find myself imagining a future for them.
I received a copy of The Evening Road to review through a drawing at Goodreads.
★★★
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpres...
The first section of the book is narrated by Ottie Lee Henshaw, a white woman working for a lecherous man named Bud. As soon as Bud hears there will be a lynching in Marvel, some seventy miles away. He gleefully suggests they all head off to Marvel to see it. They pick up Ottie Lee’s husband Dale, and further down the road, Pops Nelson. This begins a strange pilgrim’s progress, with stops at a cat fish fry, car trouble, lots of drinking, a ride that takes them out of their way to Quaker prayer vigil. They even end up stealing a mule and wagon from a group of black people. Through this long peregrination, and yes, a good portion of it is even on foot, truths are revealed about them all.
The second part of the book is told by Calla Destry, a young black woman who was stood up by her older, white lover Leander, on a day when she really needed to talk to him. Her adoptive family is determined to get our of the area, afraid of what might happen. When she does not return on time, they end up leaving her behind. Calla mocks her family’s fear, saying they can’t lynch them all. That would be odd, since the St. Louis riots were just three years earlier when as many as two hundred African Americans were murdered. Massacres of African Americans were in recent enough memory, Calla would know very well the danger was very real. She takes the family car and drives to the lynching, a young black woman driving a sporty car in broad daylight into the crowd of people eager to see a lynching. The crowd is enraged and tries to attack her, but she escapes. And that’s just the beginning, she is reckless in her rebellion, and has a sort of reverse pilgrimage away from Marvel with many picaresque encounters.
The final chapter is narrated by Sally Gunner who sees angels before breakfast thanks to a blow to the head. Sally exists as a plot device and is a person out of time. She would be the white savior, but there is no saving those young men.
This would be a good book for a book group because there is a lot of grist for discussion. It has me arguing with myself. On the one hand, there are some powerful moments, such as when Calla is almost out of gas and has to go to a gas station and not one on their list of friendly stations. She is frightened, but has no choice. Luckily, the attendant is friendly and makes a point of sharing his view that the lynching is wrong. “Wrong wasn’t the word for what was happening…There wasn’t any word a cornsilk could day and make it sound right” And Calla feels such murderous rage at him. That felt incredibly honest and true.
But then there is the Quaker prayer vigil. This was a multi-racial prayer vigil, “filled to its fat gizzards with cornsilk and cornflower folks both. Maybe even some cornroots . . . and corntassels too. All of them sitting next to each other like they was one great big shook salad in one great big salad bowl.” There no reaction when white folks off to see the lynching come in and mock them and leave or when the speaker who organized bus loads of lynching sightseers comes in later. That is strange and unreal. As though they, like Sally, are not really people, but a device. Sally says it herself, “it was the future sitting there bowing its head”
And there is the thing that drives me mad about this book. Laird Hunt found his writing stifled by the racist language common in the past, by the hateful epithet we all avoid. So while writing he created euphemisms for race. Cornsilks are White, cornflowers are Black, cornroots are Native American, and corntassels are Asian. So, he could write about lynching, but could not use the words that animate that hate? Perhaps he is suggesting that when cornflower bring that specific word into our head, we become complicit, because we are bringing it from our experience. Are we supposed to feel guilt because we know what it represents? Or did he just decided to sidestep the truth?
Much about this book is excellent. There is no white savior which is something to celebrate, though the gas station attendant might think he is, we know better. Sally is trying to be. Her chapter is even called The Angel Runner. But she’s a device and an ineffectual one.
The prose in The Evening Road is beautiful, lyrical, and powerfully evocative. Here is Calla, introducing herself, “I stepped up slow from the river, like it was me not the good green water that had decided to follow its lazy ways.” Calla is a more oblique narrator than the frank and profane Ottie Lee. There is also this sense of the ridiculous in their adventures that is sometimes amusing, which does bring to mind the giddy crowd in that awful photo, the absolute ordinariness of these white folks off to witness such great evil. But so much is just wrong and it all comes down to the avoidance of reality–the use of the corn euphemisms, Calla’s indifference to risk which also puts others at risk. I assume that outside the covers of this book, there will be several who suffer from association with her.
One of the great things, though, about this book, is we just don’t know. This is not a book that ties things up neatly. We can imagine Ottie Lee revitalizing her marriage and becoming a braver, happier woman or not. We can imagine Calla running into the young man on the bicycle and forging a future or not. Do we want even want that to happen? There’s so much left to wonder about, and because I did come to care about these people, except for Sally who is utterly unreal, I do find myself imagining a future for them.
I received a copy of The Evening Road to review through a drawing at Goodreads.
★★★
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpres...
July 9, 2020
I read this in a single sitting, I found it gripping although a bit unsatisfactory overall. The story takes place on a single day in 1920, the day of a lynching in the small town of Marvel, and is told from the perspectives of three women.
The first part of the book follows Ottie Lee, her boss, her husband and various assorted characters who are heading in a gruesomely celebratory way for the town where the lynching is due to happen. The journey is not straightforward but cleverly written: on the way the reader learns about the background and relationships of the characters.
The second part of the book follows Calla Destry, a young black girl heading in the same direction. Another convoluted journey and, again, we learn something of her background and relationships. Peripheral characters from the first section reappear along the way. The final short section reintroduces an earlier character, Sally, but is oddly detached from the rest of the narrative and provides no kind of conclusion. Maybe I missed the point?
The book is very well written, some scenes are vividly cinematic, but ultimately I found the strange ending spoiled the emotional punch that the book should have dealt, given the subject matter.
The first part of the book follows Ottie Lee, her boss, her husband and various assorted characters who are heading in a gruesomely celebratory way for the town where the lynching is due to happen. The journey is not straightforward but cleverly written: on the way the reader learns about the background and relationships of the characters.
The second part of the book follows Calla Destry, a young black girl heading in the same direction. Another convoluted journey and, again, we learn something of her background and relationships. Peripheral characters from the first section reappear along the way. The final short section reintroduces an earlier character, Sally, but is oddly detached from the rest of the narrative and provides no kind of conclusion. Maybe I missed the point?
The book is very well written, some scenes are vividly cinematic, but ultimately I found the strange ending spoiled the emotional punch that the book should have dealt, given the subject matter.
January 25, 2019
For me this was a daring and adventurous book. Hunt's writing about the infamous Marion, Indiana lynchings; he chooses to fabricate segregationist vocabulary, yet is so meticulous, both about use of language and about description of the damaged community the racism has created, that you can hardly accuse him of avoidance or disrepect. On the contrary, to me at least it enables him to explore much more comprehensively, and to weave a remarkable reflection on the racism of the time. First outing with Hunt, but I'll be reading more.
September 12, 2024
Unfortunately half the book is spent following this white woman’s story, which demonstrates a character who lacks substance or critical thinking. I acknowledge the historical context, I yet it remains a flawed representation of a woman (oops a man wrote this).
Everyone is going somewhere and everything is connected but I don't know how to explain this, but it's illustrated a very uninteresting way.
I believe Sally Gunner is the best character in the book. Despite having only one chapter, she conveys emotions and weirdness in the way only a human being can. Contrary to other characters...
Everyone is going somewhere and everything is connected but I don't know how to explain this, but it's illustrated a very uninteresting way.
I believe Sally Gunner is the best character in the book. Despite having only one chapter, she conveys emotions and weirdness in the way only a human being can. Contrary to other characters...
September 28, 2023
Βρισκόμαστε περί το 1930 και στην πόλη Μάρβελ, πρόκειται να γίνει το λιντσάρισμα 3 έγχρωμων νεαρών. Η Ότι Λι μαζί με το αφεντικό της και τον άνδρα της, πηγαίνουν να παρακολουθήσουν το "χαμό" που θα γίνει. Έτσι ξεκινά το βιβλίο του Laird Hunt, το οποίο βασίζεται σε πραγνατικά γεγονότα. Ο συγγραφέας, λοιπόν με αφορμή αυτό ακριβώς το γεγονός, θέλει να μας δείξει πώς οι άνθρωποι το αντιμετώπισαν. Χωρισμένο σε δύο μέρη, το βιβλίο ξεκινά με την Ότι, μια λευκή γυναίκα, εγκλωβισμένη σε μια ζωή που πλεον δεν την ικανοποιεί, αντιμετωπίζει το λιντσάρισμα ως μια αφορμή για ξεφάντωμα. Η συμπεριφορά της, όπως και των ανδρών που τη συνοδεύουν, είναι αυτή της αδιαφορίας γενικότερα απέναντι στο συνάνθρωπο. Στο δεύτερο μέρος, η νεαρή Κάλα Ντέστρι, πηγαίνει να βρεί τον εραστή της. Όμως, εκείνος, δείχνει το πραγματικό του πρόσωπο - δεν θέλει η κοινωνία να γνωρίζει ότι συνδέεται με μια έγχρωμη. Η Κάλα, βλέπει στο πρόσωπό του και στα πρόσωπα όλων των λευκών, όλα όσα τους χωρίζουν.
Είναι το δεύτερο βιβλίο του συγγραφέα που διαβάζω μετά το Neverhome, κι ενώ υποψιάζομαι τι ήθελε να κάνει, φοβάμαι ότι δεν είχε το επιθυμητό αποτέλεσμα. Ένιωθα, ότι το μίσος είναι το κυρίαρχο συναίσθημα του βιβλίου και το μεταφέρουν, όχι μόνο οι δύο αφηγήτριες, αλλά και η πλειονότητα των υπόλοιπων χαρακτήρων που εμφανίζονται. Κι ενώ υπάρχουν κάποιες πολύ δυνατές σκηνές κι η πρόζα του είναι λυρική σχεδόν, είναι σαν να ξεφεύγει από την πραγματικότητα.
Είναι το δεύτερο βιβλίο του συγγραφέα που διαβάζω μετά το Neverhome, κι ενώ υποψιάζομαι τι ήθελε να κάνει, φοβάμαι ότι δεν είχε το επιθυμητό αποτέλεσμα. Ένιωθα, ότι το μίσος είναι το κυρίαρχο συναίσθημα του βιβλίου και το μεταφέρουν, όχι μόνο οι δύο αφηγήτριες, αλλά και η πλειονότητα των υπόλοιπων χαρακτήρων που εμφανίζονται. Κι ενώ υπάρχουν κάποιες πολύ δυνατές σκηνές κι η πρόζα του είναι λυρική σχεδόν, είναι σαν να ξεφεύγει από την πραγματικότητα.
September 15, 2020
I don’t even know what to say. At first, it gave me “Catcher in the Rye” vibes, because it all takes place during one day. However, the story doesn’t even end. There are so many questions. Most of the time, I had no idea what was even going on. Also, it did not feel real. It felt like a man trying to write from the perspective of women (which is exactly what it was.)
April 16, 2017
I skimmed the last 50 pages because this wasn't for me. I gave it my best shot. There were definitely some sentences and scenes that I liked, like the part where the girl in Part II meets a nice man at the gas station, and rather than being touched by his niceness, she thinks about shooting him. That was cool and unexpected. Overall this book is very lyrical and poetic and fable-esque--every sentence and scene is dramatically weighty and charged with heavy intense Biblical historical meaning. Not for me :/ I prefer the simple spare journalistic reporting of Orwell or action/scene-based narration of Hilary Mantell when it comes to historical fiction. I don't want to feel the author insistently insisting how IMPORTANT AND MEANINGFUL EVERYTHING IS, ALL THE TIME. But kudos to the author for tackling a difficult topic, that of race in the U.S. in the 1930's. And this book did make me remember how much I enjoy Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty, and how much I should reread them.
July 30, 2017
The story itself is probably worth three stars, but the narrators need a geography lesson since they seem to think that Indiana is somewhere in the South and the accents got really distracting. Plus, Hunt relies heavily on dialogue tags and the constant "X said" and "Y said" were just annoying.
November 22, 2018
I like how the characters paths cross at some point during the book and how the universe seemed to keep intervening to keep this group from attending a lynching. Calla’s experiences that day were scary and emotionally heart wrenching.
I wish there was more of an “ending” that elaborated on Ottie Lee’s encounter with Calla on the road. The last section of the book was a beautiful glimmer of kindness and goodness in a book whose subject is so dark.
I wish there was more of an “ending” that elaborated on Ottie Lee’s encounter with Calla on the road. The last section of the book was a beautiful glimmer of kindness and goodness in a book whose subject is so dark.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2017
I've really enjoyed this author previously and still think highly of his spare language, this book wasn't nearly as good.
July 21, 2019
Une lecture très surprenante, déstabilisante...
August 5, 2023
I loved Laird Hunt's
In the House in the Dark of the Woods
- a strange, fascinating, and simply enchanting novel set in colonial America - and really enjoyed his
Neverhome
, which impressed me with its narrative voice of a female Union soldier in the American Civil War, but found The Evening Road to be an (almost) complete miss.
Why? The book is inspired by a real event - the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, which in turn inspired the poet Abel Meeropol's poem Strange Fruit, made famous by Billie Holiday - but does absolutely nothing with it.
The novel is split into three different sections - the first one is narrated by Ottie Lee Henshaw, a small-town woman who ventures to see the lynching in the town of Marvel with her boss and husband. Ottie is a feisty, engaging character, and her adventures on the road is meant to show the reader how many white Americans perceived lynchings of Black Americans at the time: good entertainment. Under the pretext of enforcing justice and punishing criminal acts, whites were free to partake in mob violence, murder and mutilation of blacks. To say that this racist vigilantism was barbaric is in itself a wild understatement. Some lynching attracted hundreds, even thousands of spectators, and were documented by professional photographers - who later sold their photos as postcards, in case any of them wanted a souvenir of participation or witnessing in brutal murder. Photos weren't the only souvenir, though - it wasn't uncommon for spectators to try to grab anything that belonged to the victim, or even dismember their body for keepsakes. Can you imagine going through your great-grandfather's things and finding a withered, severed black finger?
The second section is narrated by Calla Destry, a young African-American. Calla's adoptive family tries to whisk her away to safety - but Calla rebels, and chooses to drive to the lynching herself instead. Her section is full of rage - she's furious at her family's fear, at barbaric, white perpetrators, at the sheer injustice of a society which first enslaved people like her, and after it was forced to break their chains declared them to be fair game for their former masters. Calla's a much more sympathetic character - for obvious reasons - and we find it easy to root for her.
Their stories are interesting on their own, but I never felt that any of them went anywhere in particular, and they both fail to come together in any meaningful way. That's not the end of the novel's structural problems, though - for some bizarre reason Hunt decided to employ a third narrator, a mentally disabled person briefly introduced earlier in the novel, to provide us with a quasi coda to the story we never truly saw develop, and to offer commentary on an event we never even witnessed. Huh?
However, the real problem with the book lies elsewhere: the book lacks any sort of bite. Sure, at the very end of the novel Hunt offers us crumbs of - delivered second-hand, but still - the horrors of lynching, but is very careful to not use any racial slurs. In a book about racial relations in the 1930;s. How does he accomplish that, you might ask? It's simple: He invents his own vocabulary. You will not see the word "nigger" appear once in this novel, even though it would have been uttered regularly by a racist populace. Instead, racial slurs in this book are replaced by ficional euphemisms based on...corn: "cornflowers" are black, "cornsilks" are white, "cornroots" are Native American (yes, really), and so on. The reader is not given any explanation as to why it is so; we are expected to accept this state of affairs as fact using our own powers of deduction.
I understand that "nigger" is a sensitive word and reading or hearing it can be upsetting to many people - but its complete omission in a novel set during the height of the Jim Crow era is completely immersion breaking and dilutes the horror of that time. Although no doubt paved by good intentions, the removal of said word has a completely unintended effect - it reminded me of various countries censoring video games and movies, where to appease the censors producers turned human blood green, or in some extreme cases turned human characters into robots. Much like the game censors, Hunt undermines his own point: by erasing the word "nigger" from history he erases the verbal part of racial violence, or at the very least downplays it, softens its blow. Can one write about racial violence and pretend that the one, singular world which remains one of the calling cards of all racists worldwide to this day does not exist? I don't think so, and this is why I found The Evening Road to be not only disappointing, but borderline disrespectful and exploitative.
Why? The book is inspired by a real event - the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, which in turn inspired the poet Abel Meeropol's poem Strange Fruit, made famous by Billie Holiday - but does absolutely nothing with it.
The novel is split into three different sections - the first one is narrated by Ottie Lee Henshaw, a small-town woman who ventures to see the lynching in the town of Marvel with her boss and husband. Ottie is a feisty, engaging character, and her adventures on the road is meant to show the reader how many white Americans perceived lynchings of Black Americans at the time: good entertainment. Under the pretext of enforcing justice and punishing criminal acts, whites were free to partake in mob violence, murder and mutilation of blacks. To say that this racist vigilantism was barbaric is in itself a wild understatement. Some lynching attracted hundreds, even thousands of spectators, and were documented by professional photographers - who later sold their photos as postcards, in case any of them wanted a souvenir of participation or witnessing in brutal murder. Photos weren't the only souvenir, though - it wasn't uncommon for spectators to try to grab anything that belonged to the victim, or even dismember their body for keepsakes. Can you imagine going through your great-grandfather's things and finding a withered, severed black finger?
The second section is narrated by Calla Destry, a young African-American. Calla's adoptive family tries to whisk her away to safety - but Calla rebels, and chooses to drive to the lynching herself instead. Her section is full of rage - she's furious at her family's fear, at barbaric, white perpetrators, at the sheer injustice of a society which first enslaved people like her, and after it was forced to break their chains declared them to be fair game for their former masters. Calla's a much more sympathetic character - for obvious reasons - and we find it easy to root for her.
Their stories are interesting on their own, but I never felt that any of them went anywhere in particular, and they both fail to come together in any meaningful way. That's not the end of the novel's structural problems, though - for some bizarre reason Hunt decided to employ a third narrator, a mentally disabled person briefly introduced earlier in the novel, to provide us with a quasi coda to the story we never truly saw develop, and to offer commentary on an event we never even witnessed. Huh?
However, the real problem with the book lies elsewhere: the book lacks any sort of bite. Sure, at the very end of the novel Hunt offers us crumbs of - delivered second-hand, but still - the horrors of lynching, but is very careful to not use any racial slurs. In a book about racial relations in the 1930;s. How does he accomplish that, you might ask? It's simple: He invents his own vocabulary. You will not see the word "nigger" appear once in this novel, even though it would have been uttered regularly by a racist populace. Instead, racial slurs in this book are replaced by ficional euphemisms based on...corn: "cornflowers" are black, "cornsilks" are white, "cornroots" are Native American (yes, really), and so on. The reader is not given any explanation as to why it is so; we are expected to accept this state of affairs as fact using our own powers of deduction.
I understand that "nigger" is a sensitive word and reading or hearing it can be upsetting to many people - but its complete omission in a novel set during the height of the Jim Crow era is completely immersion breaking and dilutes the horror of that time. Although no doubt paved by good intentions, the removal of said word has a completely unintended effect - it reminded me of various countries censoring video games and movies, where to appease the censors producers turned human blood green, or in some extreme cases turned human characters into robots. Much like the game censors, Hunt undermines his own point: by erasing the word "nigger" from history he erases the verbal part of racial violence, or at the very least downplays it, softens its blow. Can one write about racial violence and pretend that the one, singular world which remains one of the calling cards of all racists worldwide to this day does not exist? I don't think so, and this is why I found The Evening Road to be not only disappointing, but borderline disrespectful and exploitative.
Read
January 15, 2023O Νυχτερινός δρόμος του είναι το δεύτερο βιβλίο του Laird Hunt που κυκλοφορεί μεταφρασμένο στην ελληνική αγορά από τις εκδόσεις Πόλις (μετάφραση Χρήστος Οικονόμου) μετά το Neverhome.
Εμπνευσμένο από τη ζοφερή πραγματική ιστορία του λιντσαρίσματος δύο έγχρωμων νέων, που έλαβε χώρα τον Αύγουστο του 1930 στο Μάριον της Ιντιάνα. Το οργισμένο πλήθος εισέβαλε στις φυλακές απονέμοντας τη δική τους δικαιοσύνη. Πάνω στην αναταραχή των στιγμών, ο τρίτος κατηγορούμενος καταφέρνει να ξεφύγει από τη μήνη των αυτόκλητων δικαστών και εκτελεστών.
Με βάση −για την ακρίβεια, με αφορμή− αυτό το τραγικό γεγονός, ο συγγραφέας στήνει τον λογοτεχνικό του καμβά. Όπως συνέβη και με το μυθιστόρημα Neverhome το οποίο έχει ως άξονα τον αμερικανικό εμφύλιο, η ιστορία, τα ιστορικά γεγονότα αυτά καθ’ αυτά περνούν σε δεύτερη μοίρα.
Αυτό που ενδιαφέρει τον συγγραφέα είναι να χτίσει τους χαρακτήρες του έργου έχοντας μεν ως επιφανειακή αφετηρία το ιστορικό πλαίσιο, να τους εγκιβωτίσει μερικώς, χρησιμοποιώντας τη δική του λογοτεχνική τεχνική, ώστε να εστιάσει στα συναισθήματα των ηρώων του και κυρίως των ηρωίδων του.
Τονίζονται μέσα από την αφηγηματική ροή οι αντιθέσεις των δύο κοινοτήτων, λευκών και έγχρωμων. Τα καλαμποκομούστακα από τη μια, και τα καλαμποκολούλουδα από την άλλη, αντιλαμβάνονται διαφορετικά την υπόθεση δολοφονίας ενός λευκού από τους τρεις κατηγορούμενους νεαρούς μαύρους.
Στο γαϊτανάκι της αφήγησης πιάνονται χαρακτηριστικές φιγούρες του αμερικανικού Νότου: δημαγωγοί, ασφαλιστές, αγρότες, τεχνίτες, νικήτριες σε τοπικά φεστιβάλ ομορφιάς, μέλη της Κου Κλουξ Κλαν, νεαρές ερωμένες και άγουροι εραστές.
Μέσα από τις διηγήσεις των δύο κεντρικών ηρωίδων, της λευκής Ότι Λι και της έγχρωμης Κάλα Ντέστρι, αναπαράγεται αφενός το κλίμα της τότε εποχής και αφετέρου −όπως έχει προλεχθεί− τα συναισθήματα, τις πράξεις, τις ιδέες και τις ιδεοληψίες ενδεχομένως των αντιμαχόμενων πλευρών. Γιατί επί της ουσίας αυτό είναι το ιδεολογικό σημείο στο οποίο εδράζεται όλο το λογοτεχνικό οικοδόμημα. Στο να αναδείξει τις αντιθέσεις των λευκών και των μαύρων. Κι η αλήθεια είναι, αγγίζοντας τα όρια του τραγικού, πως οι ίδιες πάνω-κάτω αντιλήψεις επικρατούν και στην Αμερική του σήμερα.
Ο συγγραφέας, μέσα από την τεχνική του, λειαίνει τις διαφορές, κάνοντας τους χαρακτήρες οικείους, χαρίζοντάς τους όμως μια –κι ας ακουστεί υπερβολικό- θεόπνευστη υπόσταση. Κλείνοντάς τους σε ένα διάφανο κουκούλι αγιοσύνης.
Μεταφέρω από το οπισθόφυλλο:
Μια ζεστή αυγουστιάτικη μέρα του 1930, στην Πολιτεία της Ιντιάνα.
Στο Μάρβελ, οι κάτοικοι της πόλης ετοιμάζονται να λιντσάρουν τρεις νεαρούς μαύρους που κατηγορούνται για τη δολοφονία ενός λευκού. Όλοι οι λευκοί (τα καλαμποκομούστακα) της περιοχής κατευθύνονται προς την πόλη για να απολαύσουν το θέαμα. Οι μαύροι (τα καλαμποκολούλουδα), έντρομοι, προσπαθούν να ξεφύγουν από το «καρναβάλι του θανάτου».
Μια συλλογική φρενίτιδα επικρατεί στους δρόμους που οδηγούν στην πόλη. Συναντάμε τρελαμένους δημαγωγούς, βίαιους ��λιατσικολόγους, ανθρώπους που διψούν για αίμα, και μέλη της Κου Κλουξ Κλαν.
Οι ζωές, τα μυστικά και οι χωριστές πορείες δύο γυναικών διασταυρώνονται. Η λευκή Ότι Λι, τοπική καλλονή και πρώην νικήτρια καλλιστείων, είναι εγκλωβισμένη σ’ έναν γάμο που παραπαίει και σε μια σχέση χωρίς έρωτα με το αφεντικό της, έναν φιλήδονο ασφαλιστή με άξεστους τρόπους. Η δεκαεξάχρονη μαύρη Κάλα Ντέστρι, μεγαλωμένη σε ορφανοτροφείο, αναζητά τον εραστή της, ο οποίος της έχει υποσχεθεί μια καινούργια ζωή. Στο καλάθι της, όμως, βρίσκεται κρυμμένο ένα πιστόλι.
Εμπνευσμένο από αληθινά γεγονότα, παραπέμποντας στα έργα των Louise Erdrich, Edward P. Jones και Marilynne Robinson, το μυθιστόρημα του Λερντ Χαντ καταγράφει με ολοζώντανη γλώσσα τις συνταρακτικές περιπέτειες αυτών των δύο ξεχωριστών γυναικών, που περιπλανιούνται στο «φεγγαρόλουστο σκοτάδι» της αμερικανικής ενδοχώρας, αναζητώντας οδό διαφυγής όχι μόνο από τα προσωπικά τους μυστικά και αδιέξοδα, αλλά και από μια κοινωνία που σπαράσσεται από το μίσος και τον φόβο
Τέλος, η πολύ καλή μετάφραση του Χρήστου Οικονόμου αποδίδει το ύφος της γραφής του συγγραφέα.
Εμπνευσμένο από τη ζοφερή πραγματική ιστορία του λιντσαρίσματος δύο έγχρωμων νέων, που έλαβε χώρα τον Αύγουστο του 1930 στο Μάριον της Ιντιάνα. Το οργισμένο πλήθος εισέβαλε στις φυλακές απονέμοντας τη δική τους δικαιοσύνη. Πάνω στην αναταραχή των στιγμών, ο τρίτος κατηγορούμενος καταφέρνει να ξεφύγει από τη μήνη των αυτόκλητων δικαστών και εκτελεστών.
Με βάση −για την ακρίβεια, με αφορμή− αυτό το τραγικό γεγονός, ο συγγραφέας στήνει τον λογοτεχνικό του καμβά. Όπως συνέβη και με το μυθιστόρημα Neverhome το οποίο έχει ως άξονα τον αμερικανικό εμφύλιο, η ιστορία, τα ιστορικά γεγονότα αυτά καθ’ αυτά περνούν σε δεύτερη μοίρα.
Αυτό που ενδιαφέρει τον συγγραφέα είναι να χτίσει τους χαρακτήρες του έργου έχοντας μεν ως επιφανειακή αφετηρία το ιστορικό πλαίσιο, να τους εγκιβωτίσει μερικώς, χρησιμοποιώντας τη δική του λογοτεχνική τεχνική, ώστε να εστιάσει στα συναισθήματα των ηρώων του και κυρίως των ηρωίδων του.
Τονίζονται μέσα από την αφηγηματική ροή οι αντιθέσεις των δύο κοινοτήτων, λευκών και έγχρωμων. Τα καλαμποκομούστακα από τη μια, και τα καλαμποκολούλουδα από την άλλη, αντιλαμβάνονται διαφορετικά την υπόθεση δολοφονίας ενός λευκού από τους τρεις κατηγορούμενους νεαρούς μαύρους.
Στο γαϊτανάκι της αφήγησης πιάνονται χαρακτηριστικές φιγούρες του αμερικανικού Νότου: δημαγωγοί, ασφαλιστές, αγρότες, τεχνίτες, νικήτριες σε τοπικά φεστιβάλ ομορφιάς, μέλη της Κου Κλουξ Κλαν, νεαρές ερωμένες και άγουροι εραστές.
Μέσα από τις διηγήσεις των δύο κεντρικών ηρωίδων, της λευκής Ότι Λι και της έγχρωμης Κάλα Ντέστρι, αναπαράγεται αφενός το κλίμα της τότε εποχής και αφετέρου −όπως έχει προλεχθεί− τα συναισθήματα, τις πράξεις, τις ιδέες και τις ιδεοληψίες ενδεχομένως των αντιμαχόμενων πλευρών. Γιατί επί της ουσίας αυτό είναι το ιδεολογικό σημείο στο οποίο εδράζεται όλο το λογοτεχνικό οικοδόμημα. Στο να αναδείξει τις αντιθέσεις των λευκών και των μαύρων. Κι η αλήθεια είναι, αγγίζοντας τα όρια του τραγικού, πως οι ίδιες πάνω-κάτω αντιλήψεις επικρατούν και στην Αμερική του σήμερα.
Ο συγγραφέας, μέσα από την τεχνική του, λειαίνει τις διαφορές, κάνοντας τους χαρακτήρες οικείους, χαρίζοντάς τους όμως μια –κι ας ακουστεί υπερβολικό- θεόπνευστη υπόσταση. Κλείνοντάς τους σε ένα διάφανο κουκούλι αγιοσύνης.
Μεταφέρω από το οπισθόφυλλο:
Μια ζεστή αυγουστιάτικη μέρα του 1930, στην Πολιτεία της Ιντιάνα.
Στο Μάρβελ, οι κάτοικοι της πόλης ετοιμάζονται να λιντσάρουν τρεις νεαρούς μαύρους που κατηγορούνται για τη δολοφονία ενός λευκού. Όλοι οι λευκοί (τα καλαμποκομούστακα) της περιοχής κατευθύνονται προς την πόλη για να απολαύσουν το θέαμα. Οι μαύροι (τα καλαμποκολούλουδα), έντρομοι, προσπαθούν να ξεφύγουν από το «καρναβάλι του θανάτου».
Μια συλλογική φρενίτιδα επικρατεί στους δρόμους που οδηγούν στην πόλη. Συναντάμε τρελαμένους δημαγωγούς, βίαιους ��λιατσικολόγους, ανθρώπους που διψούν για αίμα, και μέλη της Κου Κλουξ Κλαν.
Οι ζωές, τα μυστικά και οι χωριστές πορείες δύο γυναικών διασταυρώνονται. Η λευκή Ότι Λι, τοπική καλλονή και πρώην νικήτρια καλλιστείων, είναι εγκλωβισμένη σ’ έναν γάμο που παραπαίει και σε μια σχέση χωρίς έρωτα με το αφεντικό της, έναν φιλήδονο ασφαλιστή με άξεστους τρόπους. Η δεκαεξάχρονη μαύρη Κάλα Ντέστρι, μεγαλωμένη σε ορφανοτροφείο, αναζητά τον εραστή της, ο οποίος της έχει υποσχεθεί μια καινούργια ζωή. Στο καλάθι της, όμως, βρίσκεται κρυμμένο ένα πιστόλι.
Εμπνευσμένο από αληθινά γεγονότα, παραπέμποντας στα έργα των Louise Erdrich, Edward P. Jones και Marilynne Robinson, το μυθιστόρημα του Λερντ Χαντ καταγράφει με ολοζώντανη γλώσσα τις συνταρακτικές περιπέτειες αυτών των δύο ξεχωριστών γυναικών, που περιπλανιούνται στο «φεγγαρόλουστο σκοτάδι» της αμερικανικής ενδοχώρας, αναζητώντας οδό διαφυγής όχι μόνο από τα προσωπικά τους μυστικά και αδιέξοδα, αλλά και από μια κοινωνία που σπαράσσεται από το μίσος και τον φόβο
Τέλος, η πολύ καλή μετάφραση του Χρήστου Οικονόμου αποδίδει το ύφος της γραφής του συγγραφέα.
December 11, 2023
The Evening Road, Laird Hunt
The Evening Road is a story about one night in Indiana, told from two different women’s perspectives. The first half of the book is told by Ottie Lee; the second half by Calla Destry. The importance of this night is that there is to be a multiple lynching in Marvel. And these women are headed there, albeit on two separate journeys altogether.
I expected these two women’s fates to end up intertwining, offering a satisfying ending to the story where many components of their separate experiences of the night were somehow brought together neatly, but I was wrong. For me, the satisfaction from reading this book was not from the ending or any kind of conclusion: it was from the writing itself and the characters that Hunt creates and fills out over the course of the book.
I found myself, while reading, trying to figure out just how a contemporary author could come up with the details and personal experiences these women (and their compadres) went through. The ‘evening’ happens in August of 1930. The author was born in 1968. I know that various and diverse documents about the Jim Crow era are available to those who need and want to understand that time period better, and certainly Hunt needed to do his research to understand what life was like, even for common folk like those he created for The Evening Road. And I’m not crazy: I know authors pull this off all the time. But the use of language! The details! The personalities! The mental pictures he created - these things are what make me love this book. The writing puts it in a class by itself.
I should not have been surprised. I thought this was the first Laird Hunt book I’d read, but when I searched more closely, I recognized another title: Neverhome. This was another of those books that made me want to talk to other people about it. (I did, in fact, loan my copy of Neverhome to someone with a deep interest in the Civil War, and that book never came home to roost. I can only assume it has made its way into many, many other hands.)
Laird Hunt is a writers’ writer. His books are inspirational as well as aspirational.
The Evening Road is a story about one night in Indiana, told from two different women’s perspectives. The first half of the book is told by Ottie Lee; the second half by Calla Destry. The importance of this night is that there is to be a multiple lynching in Marvel. And these women are headed there, albeit on two separate journeys altogether.
I expected these two women’s fates to end up intertwining, offering a satisfying ending to the story where many components of their separate experiences of the night were somehow brought together neatly, but I was wrong. For me, the satisfaction from reading this book was not from the ending or any kind of conclusion: it was from the writing itself and the characters that Hunt creates and fills out over the course of the book.
I found myself, while reading, trying to figure out just how a contemporary author could come up with the details and personal experiences these women (and their compadres) went through. The ‘evening’ happens in August of 1930. The author was born in 1968. I know that various and diverse documents about the Jim Crow era are available to those who need and want to understand that time period better, and certainly Hunt needed to do his research to understand what life was like, even for common folk like those he created for The Evening Road. And I’m not crazy: I know authors pull this off all the time. But the use of language! The details! The personalities! The mental pictures he created - these things are what make me love this book. The writing puts it in a class by itself.
I should not have been surprised. I thought this was the first Laird Hunt book I’d read, but when I searched more closely, I recognized another title: Neverhome. This was another of those books that made me want to talk to other people about it. (I did, in fact, loan my copy of Neverhome to someone with a deep interest in the Civil War, and that book never came home to roost. I can only assume it has made its way into many, many other hands.)
Laird Hunt is a writers’ writer. His books are inspirational as well as aspirational.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews