Night People (Gifford, Barry) - Softcover

Gifford, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080213369X ISBN 13: 9780802133694

Publisher: Grove Press, 1994

Synopsis

The author of Wild at Heart and The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula writes of what Tennessee Williams called something wild in the country/that only the night people know.” He draws his characters from the shadows of the Deep South, where they confront the chaotic horror of the United States at the end of the twentieth century.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Gifford (Wild at Heart) never shies away from confrontational fiction even when it strains credulity. Yet these four well-wrought, linked novellas, all dealing with struggle and violence--particularly violence toward women--and all set in dark corners of the South, all have the stamp of truth. Big Betty Stalcup and Miss Cutie Early, two lesbian ex-convicts, preach the gospel of Miss Jesus our Holy Mother as they search for one redeemable man--and leave in their wake the severed heads of the irredeemable. Beatifica Brown, a devout abortionist, is visited by the spirit of abolitionist John Brown, who counsels her to adopt his methods in fighting the anti-abortion zealots of Louisiana. Dallas and Dilys Salt, brother and sister rival evangelists and the parents of a 14-year-old with Down's syndrome, preach their respectively pro-life and pro-choice messages from the pulpits of the Church on the One Hand and the Church on the Other Hand. Fourteen-year-old Marble Lesson, who survives a bus wreck and an attempted rape, defines her philosophy in letters to Jesus. Gifford delights in improbable names: this volume is filled with characters known as the brothers Mano and Boca Demente, and places dubbed Egypt City, Fla., and Checkerboard Chucky's Change of Heart Bar. He writes with clarity and great economy, imbuing these weird and unsavory vignettes with an engaging lyricism. And the ever-present black humor buoys the narrative without trivializing either the characters or their plights.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Big Betty Stalcup and Cutie Early, lesbian cons on the lam, unleash a bloody reeducation campaign for "Miss Jesus." Twin pastors Dallas and Dilys Salt engage in guerrilla warfare over choice and homophobia. John Brown's body returns to inspire abortionist Beatifica Brown. Alcoholic Wes Lesson tries to turn his life around but gets a job with dope smugglers. His daughter Marble survives a lightning strike and attempted rape to become Jesus' special pen pal. Gifford again employs the formula of quirky characters, desperate situations, hilarious black humor, steamy Gulf Coast settings, simmering sexuality, neo-gothic horror, and interweaving plotlines that worked so well in earlier books like Wild at Heart ( LJ 3/1/91) and Sailor's Holiday (Grove Weidenfeld, 1990). The results are anything but formulaic. Night People will enrage pious partisans of both the religious right and the politically correct left but will utterly delight lovers of good satire and thrill-a-minute road stories. Very highly recommended, but if you decide to motor on down to the Nabakov Juvenile Depository for Females in Thanatossa, don't pick up no strangers or fill up at the Red Devil, hear?-- Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. at Chico
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 080213369X
• ISBN 13: 9780802133694
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208