Status
Available
Call number
Call number
F Pea
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
New York : Viking, 2002.
Description
With this bittersweet tale of Deputy Ray Tatum's search for a missing child in the wilds of the Virginia Blue Ridge, T. R. Pearson revisits the seamier side of the South. Among the local citizens are Ray's hothead girlfriend, his ill-tempered mongrel, and, most significantly, Clayton, a ne'er-do-well who is notorious for his devotion to pornographic movies. But Clayton has suddenly undergone a personality change: he asks to be called "Titus" and seems able to predict the future-though in random and meaningless ways. As Ray unravels the mystery of Clayton's condition and thereby closes in on his quarry, the story moves to its surprising end, never losing the poignant magical realism that is a Pearson trademark.
Original publication date
2002
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User reviews
LibraryThing member debnance
I went to an all-Texas MeetUp in Austin last weekend. Texas BookCrossers came from all parts to eat lunch together and swap book stories. "What's your all-time must-read-before-you-die book?" I asked. Two different BookCrossers named books by T.R. Pearson. Each was amazed to find there was another
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Pearson fan in the immediate vicinity. So, well, mercy, I had to read Polar, a book that's been languishing in my TBR for months. JennyO described this book perfectly at the MeetUp. "It's the kind of book where the author rambles around for forty pages and has actually written two pages of plot." Moreover, JennyO went on, "T.R. Pearson writes like your grandma sitting on the backporch in the summertime talks." Recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member miriamparker
I am such a huge fan of TR Pearson. He is hip and funny and a damn good writer. The literary descriptions of porn movie plots alone make this book a must-read.
LibraryThing member mstrust
An unnamed narrator takes the reader through their small Virginia town, introducing various residents and their situations. We meet the Dunn family, transplants from Dayton who lived an upper class lifestyle until the husband decided he wanted to be a dairy farmer and moved his family to the
This is an odd book, but I mean that in a good way. The writing is florid and verbose, which at first put me off, but within a couple of pages it struck me that it was verbose in the way the show "Deadwood" could often be. It's a richness of language that doesn't occur too often now (it was published in 2002) and there are passages of comic genius.
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outskirts of town. We also meet Clayton, a man who does nothing but watch porn all day until something unexplained happens to turn him into the town prophet, and Ray, a deputy sheriff who is an enigma to the single ladies, but is the only one concerned about Clayton's drastic change. There's also Mrs. Humphries, who is so full of bile that she goes to the graveyard to chew out her dead relatives, the death of a famous actor and many more peripheral characters.This is an odd book, but I mean that in a good way. The writing is florid and verbose, which at first put me off, but within a couple of pages it struck me that it was verbose in the way the show "Deadwood" could often be. It's a richness of language that doesn't occur too often now (it was published in 2002) and there are passages of comic genius.
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Pages
243