Read For Free The Evening Road Formulated By Laird Hunt Made Available In Paper Copy

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 dreamlike 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, I finished this book a week ago and have been wondering what I could possibly write in a review, I received this book in a lottery from Goodreads, com so feel compelled to write the review therefore, The subject of a modern day lynching is so abhorrent that it takes a while just to be able to get into the mind set of the characters, Mostly I was thinking all along: what white trash these people are! Once in a while a couple of them seemed to express that that they knew what they were doing was wrong: making a spectacle of a planned murder.
Actually, the roles these various people PLAY in their lives is already sometimes a lie, so it stands to reason that they all understand drama and artificiality from the getgo.
We never do know what theguys in jail have been accused of, And maybe that's part of the fiasco: doesn't matter what they've done or not, I did previously know that Indiana was a hot bed of the KKK, And that shames me since I was born there, but fortunately, apparently, good that I was not raised there, All we know is that everyone in the county knows that those lives are going to end TONIGHT, so we want to be there to witness this historic event, The fact that the book is based on a real event is intriguing,too, I liked the second half much better, which was written from the viewpoint of a black woman, It took me this long to figure out why, just maybe, whites were referred to as cornsilks think long blond hair, blacks as cornflowers, but who were these few cornroots Aha! Native Americans.
I found this to be a clever way without mentioning color to designate race, And after all, they WERE riding/walking a long side real fields of corn, As far as I could tell, there was no negativity associated with any part of the corn plant, No particular part of the plant was more important than another, which is pretty much the moral of the story, isn't it I dont 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 doesnt 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, 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 halfway 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, ΣτιςΑυγούστου τουέλαβε χώρα το τελευταίο λιντσάρισμα στην Αμερική. Τα θύματα ήταν ο Thomas Shipp και ο Αbram Smith.

Με αφορμή αυτό το γεγονός ο συγγραφέας βάζει στο κέντρο της ιστορίας αυτήν την αποτρόπαια πράξη και μας εξιστορεί την ιστορία δύο γυναικών.

Η λευκή Ότι Λι παρά την αψεγάδιαστη ομορφιά της στην προσωπική της ζωή είναι σε ένα γάμο που έχει φτάσει στο τέλος του. Η ερωτική νύξη του αφεντικού της την έχει οδηγήσει να είναι σε δύο ιστορίες που δεν υπάρχει η αγάπη. Η Ότι αντιπροσωπεύει την πλευρά των λευκών που θέλουν να πάνε στο Μάρβελ να παρακολουθήσουν την διαπόμπευση των νεαρών μαύρων.

Η μαύρη Κάλα Ντέστρι έχει ζήσει την ορφάνια και την απόρριψη. Το μόνο που της δίνει δύναμη είναι να βρει τον εραστή που της υποσχέθηκε να την βγάλει από τον βούρκο. Σε αντίθεση με την Ότι η Κάλα θέλει να αποφύγει το λιντσάρισμα και να μην αντικρίσει τις φρικιαστικές εικόνες που θα εκτυλιχθούν.

Στον Νυχτερινό δρόμο ο Hunt θέλει να δείξει το μίσος και την βία που υπέστη η φυλή των μαύρων. Αυτό οδήγησε στον διχασμό της κοινωνίας σε δύο κατηγορίες που οι μεν να δικάζουν και οι δεν να δέχονται τα αδικαιολόγητα πυρά.

Η γραφή του είναι απλή, μεστή και ουσιώδης. Καταφέρνει να δημιουργεί εικόνες και χαρακτήρες με βάθος.

Άλλο ένα αξιόλογο βιβλίο από τις εκδόσεις Πόλις με εξαιρετική μετάφραση από τον Χρήστο Οικονόμου.

Αναζητήστε το και καλή ανάγνωση.
Πέρυσι τον Σεπτέμβριο ήρθα για πρώτη φορά σε επαφή με το έργο του Λερντ Χαντ, διαβάζοντας και σε μεγάλο βαθμό απολαμβάνοντας το "Neverhome". Αυτό είναι το δεύτερο βιβλίο του που διαβάζω, αν και λίγο ήθελε να μην το αγοράσω λόγω των εξαιρετικά αντιφατικών και ως επί το πλείστον μέτριων κριτικών που έχει δεχθεί από αναγνώστες. Όμως, αποφάσισα να το τσιμπήσω τελικά και στο καπάκι να το διαβάσω, πρώτον γιατί μου άρεσε πολύ η γραφή του Χαντ στο προηγούμενο βιβλίο και δεύτερον γιατί τη θεματολογία του Νυχτερινού Δρόμου τη βρήκα ενδιαφέρουσα και εντός των αναγνωστικών μου γούστων. Λοιπόν, ο συγγραφέας αγγίζει ένα σοβαρό και πάντα επίκαιρο κοινωνικό ζήτημα ή, μάλλον, μια σειρά από τέτοια ζητήματα με ιδιαίτερο τρόπο, που όντως ίσως ξενίσει ή προβληματίσει πολλούς αναγνώστες. Προσωπικά όμως βρήκα τη γραφή πάρα πολύ καλή, οξυδερκή και αιχμηρή όπου χρειαζόταν, αλλά και την ιστορία αρκετά ενδιαφέρουσα και εν μέρει καθηλωτική, σίγουρα ο συγγραφέας με κράτησε μέχρι το τέλος, δηλαδή ούτε την μπάλα έχασα, ούτε το ενδιαφέρον μου. Φυσικά μπορώ να κατανοήσω αυτούς που θα απογοητευτούν από το βιβλίο, μιας και έχει τα θεματάκια του σε διαφορετικά επίπεδα, πάντως εγώ που είχα τις αμφιβολίες μου λόγω των μέτριων κριτικών και δεν κρατούσα τόοοσο μεγάλο καλάθι για το συγκεκριμένο πόνημα του Λερντ Χαντ, δηλώνω ικανοποιημένος, σίγουρα τουλάχιστον ως προς το στιλ γραφής και τον ιδιαίτερο τρόπο αφήγησης της ιστορίας αν μη τι άλλο απόλαυσα τις περιγραφές και την ατμόσφαιρα!. Και περιμένω πώς και πώς το "Zorrie", που θα είναι το επόμενο βιβλίο του που θα κυκλοφορήσει στα ελληνικά, από τις εκδόσεις Πόλις/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 ayear 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 thes, 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 ebook 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, 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, The story itself is probably worth three, 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, There were some amazing moments, I wonder about some author choices but I'll still read anything by Laird Hunt, 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, Callas experiences that day were scary and emotionally heart wrenching,
I wish there was more of an “ending” that elaborated on Ottie Lees 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, On August,, 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,.
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 Lees husband Dale, and further down the road, Pops Nelson, This begins a strange pilgrims 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 familys fear, saying they cant 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 thats 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 wasnt the word for what was happeningThere wasnt 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 multiracial 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 shes 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 realitythe use of the corn euphemisms, Callas 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 dont 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 Theres 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,


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