Coasters - Hardcover
Waylon McPhee, middle-aged and divorced, moves back in with his widowed father in hopes of coasting through another year. But his father is dating again, and his sisters are trying to manipulate Waylon into asking their father for their inheritance before he gives it to a second wife. The sarcastic Waylon, juggling his relationships and responsibilities caustically but light-heartedly, hangs on hoping to recover something he lost in his youth: enough momentum to reach escape velocity. By turns humorous and melancholy, this novel cruises to a conclusion where all its characters satisfyingly reap what they have sown. Gerald Duff is a splendid writer of sparkling dialogue, and has perfect pitch for the ennui of contemporary life in the suburbs of the petroleum-chemical corridor that stretches along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Mississippi.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Gerald Duff is a native of the Texas Gulf Coast, and has taught literature and writing at Vanderbilt University, Kenyon College, and Johns Hopkins University. The title story of Fire Ants won the Cohen Prize from Ploughshares Magazine, was cited in Best American Short Stories, and republished in The Editors’ Choice: New American Stories. His novels have been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Prize, an Edgar Allan Poe Award, an International eBook Award, and a Texas Institute of Letters Award. He has published two collections of poetry, A Ceremony of Light and Calling Collect, and six novels, including Indian Giver, That’s All Right, Mama: The Unauthorized Life of Elvis’s Twin, Memphis Ribs, and Coasters and Fire Ants from NewSouth Books.
Review:
"Deft, often droll comedy is at the fore in Duff’s story ... Hilarious scenes of family outings and school play rehearsals round out the realistic depiction of life in the oft-neglected other New South ... wit and subtlety as simply satisfying as a tall cold one on a hot Gulf Coast afternoon." ―Publishers Weekly
"Like its title, Coasters soars and plummets ... you hit a point near the middle of the ride where gravity feels as if it has been suspended. Duff ... roars to a fine finish." ―Jane Henderson
"Gerald Duff’s dialogue is among the best being written, and his sense of the absurd is Portis-like (there’s even a little set piece about a chicken). A native Texan, Duff has gone back to his roots for this novel, and the oil patch is a funny place indeed." ―Kevin Freking
"Gerald Duff’s newest book, Coasters, is a comic novel with a serious undertone. A gifted dialogue writer, Duff writes with compassion for that part of us that lives ’just south of the line of consciousness.’" ―Mary Gay Shipley
"Coasters is Gerald Duff’s sixth novel, and it is full of the assurance of an accomplished novelist. If Coasters sounds offbeat, perhaps it is. If its characters sound desperate, they are. Desperation comes from too much coasting, from not taking the risk. It is a roller coaster ride, this novel. It is also a poignant comment on our need for ‘something,’ as the ‘big wheel’ of the roller coaster of our lives keeps on turning. Coasters is a joyride of a novel, and, in the best of ways, very much a novel about the New South with its collection of ‘coasters’ on the Texas Gulf Coast." ―Anniston Star
"Duff, who has drawn acclaim from writers like Lee Smith and Madison Smartt Bell for his previous novels, offers a frantic fictional account of midlife crises in the New South in Coasters." ―Huntsville Times
"Gerald Duff’s Coasters is a deftly written novel that alternates between dark comedy and surreal tragedy ... With witty, sardonic dialogue and a thought-provoking core, Coasters is original, compelling, and highly recommended." ―Wisconsin Bookwatch
"Raunchy, redemptive, and readable as hell, Coasters is a great comic novel with a serious undertow. Nobody in America writes better dialogue than Gerald Duff. He never condescends to his sometimes marginal characters, treating these lives with wit, understanding, and compassion. I know these people ... you probably do, too. And I’ll bet you can’t put this book down either." ―Lee Smith
"Gerald Duff’s Coasters is a wild carnival ride to the rocky bottom of the New Economy―ferociously funny all the way through, and washed in a shade of deep poignancy." ―Madison Smartt Bell
"Unlike most people, Duff keeps getting better. Everybody ought to read this coast-to-coast." ―Roy Blount, Jr.
"Coasters seldom coasts. Instead, it gathers steam all the way, and when you finally crest the big hill and head home, hang on to the bar over your legs, because Gerald Duff doesn’t know what it means to slow down. This book is a world of fun." ―Tom Franklin
"Duff’s novel is a worthy successor to Flannery O’Connor’s dark Southern grotesques. He tells us more about ourselves than we generally acknowledge and goes beyond our fierce independence to the darker truths." ―Greg Langley
"Mr. Duff’s novel is grotesquely amusing and provides great action and comedy." ―Benjamin Schwarz
"Gerald Duff’s work is reminiscent, in both its humor and bitterness, of the early work of Harry Crews." ―Madison Smartt Bell
"Expert plotting, pitch perfect dialect and sparkling dialogue ... I can't think of anyone who has blended to perfection such a marinade of satiric humor and an expertly crafted novel." ―Kevin Freking
"Gerald Duff has an unerring ear for dialect." ―Eve Zibart
"Gerald Duff is among the best fiction writers working today, and I anticipate that he will go on to become one of the great names in American Literature." ―Nashville Magazine
"Here is a writer that shows us a well-controlled comic touch. Gerald Duff is a new name in contemporary fiction." ―Steve Hedgepeth
"Seizing upon Duff’s facility with characters and situations, I’m reminded of Carl Hiaasen at his peak. Hilarious, gripping, tough and original." ―Shawn Badgley
"Duff is more amusing that Elmore Leonard, with a similar eye for ironic detail and ear for pitch-perfect dialogue." ―Clare Suddath
"Duff’s novel is a parable of innocence and corruption intertwined with deadly social satire. It is an impressive piece of work, entertaining, thoughtful and beautifully written. Gerald Duff has announced himself as a serious new voice." ―Anniston Star
"Gerald Duff's work is big, spellbinding, and as deep as the Texas river for which it is named. The mystery and relevance of the past is Gerald Duff's great theme, as he masterfully traces one family's history from the Civil War to the present day. His novel Sabine is an American classic." ―Lee Smith
"Like its title, Coasters soars and plummets ... you hit a point near the middle of the ride where gravity feels as if it has been suspended. Duff ... roars to a fine finish." ―Jane Henderson
"Gerald Duff’s dialogue is among the best being written, and his sense of the absurd is Portis-like (there’s even a little set piece about a chicken). A native Texan, Duff has gone back to his roots for this novel, and the oil patch is a funny place indeed." ―Kevin Freking
"Gerald Duff’s newest book, Coasters, is a comic novel with a serious undertone. A gifted dialogue writer, Duff writes with compassion for that part of us that lives ’just south of the line of consciousness.’" ―Mary Gay Shipley
"Coasters is Gerald Duff’s sixth novel, and it is full of the assurance of an accomplished novelist. If Coasters sounds offbeat, perhaps it is. If its characters sound desperate, they are. Desperation comes from too much coasting, from not taking the risk. It is a roller coaster ride, this novel. It is also a poignant comment on our need for ‘something,’ as the ‘big wheel’ of the roller coaster of our lives keeps on turning. Coasters is a joyride of a novel, and, in the best of ways, very much a novel about the New South with its collection of ‘coasters’ on the Texas Gulf Coast." ―Anniston Star
"Duff, who has drawn acclaim from writers like Lee Smith and Madison Smartt Bell for his previous novels, offers a frantic fictional account of midlife crises in the New South in Coasters." ―Huntsville Times
"Gerald Duff’s Coasters is a deftly written novel that alternates between dark comedy and surreal tragedy ... With witty, sardonic dialogue and a thought-provoking core, Coasters is original, compelling, and highly recommended." ―Wisconsin Bookwatch
"Raunchy, redemptive, and readable as hell, Coasters is a great comic novel with a serious undertow. Nobody in America writes better dialogue than Gerald Duff. He never condescends to his sometimes marginal characters, treating these lives with wit, understanding, and compassion. I know these people ... you probably do, too. And I’ll bet you can’t put this book down either." ―Lee Smith
"Gerald Duff’s Coasters is a wild carnival ride to the rocky bottom of the New Economy―ferociously funny all the way through, and washed in a shade of deep poignancy." ―Madison Smartt Bell
"Unlike most people, Duff keeps getting better. Everybody ought to read this coast-to-coast." ―Roy Blount, Jr.
"Coasters seldom coasts. Instead, it gathers steam all the way, and when you finally crest the big hill and head home, hang on to the bar over your legs, because Gerald Duff doesn’t know what it means to slow down. This book is a world of fun." ―Tom Franklin
"Duff’s novel is a worthy successor to Flannery O’Connor’s dark Southern grotesques. He tells us more about ourselves than we generally acknowledge and goes beyond our fierce independence to the darker truths." ―Greg Langley
"Mr. Duff’s novel is grotesquely amusing and provides great action and comedy." ―Benjamin Schwarz
"Gerald Duff’s work is reminiscent, in both its humor and bitterness, of the early work of Harry Crews." ―Madison Smartt Bell
"Expert plotting, pitch perfect dialect and sparkling dialogue ... I can't think of anyone who has blended to perfection such a marinade of satiric humor and an expertly crafted novel." ―Kevin Freking
"Gerald Duff has an unerring ear for dialect." ―Eve Zibart
"Gerald Duff is among the best fiction writers working today, and I anticipate that he will go on to become one of the great names in American Literature." ―Nashville Magazine
"Here is a writer that shows us a well-controlled comic touch. Gerald Duff is a new name in contemporary fiction." ―Steve Hedgepeth
"Seizing upon Duff’s facility with characters and situations, I’m reminded of Carl Hiaasen at his peak. Hilarious, gripping, tough and original." ―Shawn Badgley
"Duff is more amusing that Elmore Leonard, with a similar eye for ironic detail and ear for pitch-perfect dialogue." ―Clare Suddath
"Duff’s novel is a parable of innocence and corruption intertwined with deadly social satire. It is an impressive piece of work, entertaining, thoughtful and beautifully written. Gerald Duff has announced himself as a serious new voice." ―Anniston Star
"Gerald Duff's work is big, spellbinding, and as deep as the Texas river for which it is named. The mystery and relevance of the past is Gerald Duff's great theme, as he masterfully traces one family's history from the Civil War to the present day. His novel Sabine is an American classic." ―Lee Smith
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherNewSouth Books
- Publication date2001
- ISBN 10 1588380297
- ISBN 13 9781588380296
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages300
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Coasters
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NewSouth Books
(2001)
ISBN 10: 1588380297
ISBN 13: 9781588380296
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