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Stay More #6
Ekaterina
The newest resident of a faculty mansion inhabited by ghosts and filled with drunks, writer Ekaterina soon takes over the top floor of the Halfmoon Hotel in Arcata Springs, where she takes on pubescent lovers.
373 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
8 people are currently reading
199 people want to read
About the author
Donald Harington
37 books114 followersDonald Douglas Harington was an American author. All but the first of his novels either take place in or have an important connection to "Stay More," a fictional Ozark Mountains town based somewhat on Drakes Creek, Arkansas, where Harington spent summers as a child.
Harington was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. He lost nearly all of his hearing at age 12 due to meningitis. This did not prevent him from picking up and remembering the vocabulary and modes of expression among the Ozark denizens, nor in conducting his teaching career as an adult.
Though he intended to be a novelist from a very early age, his course of study and his teaching career were in art and art history. He taught art history in New York, New England, and South Dakota before returning to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, his alma mater, where he taught for 22 years before his retirement on 1 May 2008.
Harington is acclaimed as one of America's greatest writers of fiction, if not one of its best known. Entertainment Weekly called him "America's greatest unknown writer." The novelist and critic Fred Chappell said of him "Donald Harington isn't an unknown writer. He's an undiscovered continent." Novelist James Sallis, writing in the Boston Globe: "Harington's books are of a piece -- the quirkiest, most original body of work in contemporary U.S. letters."
Harington died of pneumonia, after a long illness, in Springdale on 7 November 2009.
Harington's novels are available from The Toby Press in a uniform edition, with cover illustrations by Wendell Minor. Since his death, The Toby Press has made available the entire set of Harington novels as The Complete Novels of Donald Harington.
Harington was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. He lost nearly all of his hearing at age 12 due to meningitis. This did not prevent him from picking up and remembering the vocabulary and modes of expression among the Ozark denizens, nor in conducting his teaching career as an adult.
Though he intended to be a novelist from a very early age, his course of study and his teaching career were in art and art history. He taught art history in New York, New England, and South Dakota before returning to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, his alma mater, where he taught for 22 years before his retirement on 1 May 2008.
Harington is acclaimed as one of America's greatest writers of fiction, if not one of its best known. Entertainment Weekly called him "America's greatest unknown writer." The novelist and critic Fred Chappell said of him "Donald Harington isn't an unknown writer. He's an undiscovered continent." Novelist James Sallis, writing in the Boston Globe: "Harington's books are of a piece -- the quirkiest, most original body of work in contemporary U.S. letters."
Harington died of pneumonia, after a long illness, in Springdale on 7 November 2009.
Harington's novels are available from The Toby Press in a uniform edition, with cover illustrations by Wendell Minor. Since his death, The Toby Press has made available the entire set of Harington novels as The Complete Novels of Donald Harington.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 14, 2011
If I were better at book analysis and using my words to express my thoughts, and much smarter than I am, I would discuss Harington's delight in Nabokov and my discomfort with it, play with language, exploration of why he writes, what seems to have shaped him, his coming to terms with lack of recognition, his wrangling with the publishing world, thoughts on life and death and the in between, love in the forms presented here, meta things (and freakin' how!), and structure and form and style.
Instead, because Harington is such a grand storyteller, all I can confidently state is wow, what a ride! This is a giant cat, sprawled out across the mountains he loved, bonelessly luxuriating in imaginative light that shone from amazing creativity, stretching out a paw with claws extended to draw blood, releasing a thrumming purr to soothe the sting away, intriguing, joyous, should be read by all.
Instead, because Harington is such a grand storyteller, all I can confidently state is wow, what a ride! This is a giant cat, sprawled out across the mountains he loved, bonelessly luxuriating in imaginative light that shone from amazing creativity, stretching out a paw with claws extended to draw blood, releasing a thrumming purr to soothe the sting away, intriguing, joyous, should be read by all.
May 27, 2011
May I be permitted to strangle this author? Pleeeeeez can I?
I once thought there could be nothing more annoying than a novel written in the present tense by an author not qualified to pull it off. Oh, how mistaken I was. Here's something about twice as annoying:
A NOVEL WRITTEN IN THE SECOND PERSON. Awful!! It's like reading a very long letter written to the main character telling her about her own experiences.
Example from page 28:
"Well, where have you been?" exclaimed Loretta Elmore when you used your key to let yourself into the mansion's foyer.
"To main city. Shopping," you told her, and began to count the places on your fingers.
AAAAAAAARRRRRGGHGGGHHH!!!!!!!
I think the narrative perspective may change later in the book, but who cares? It's not worth the torture to find out.
I once thought there could be nothing more annoying than a novel written in the present tense by an author not qualified to pull it off. Oh, how mistaken I was. Here's something about twice as annoying:
A NOVEL WRITTEN IN THE SECOND PERSON. Awful!! It's like reading a very long letter written to the main character telling her about her own experiences.
Example from page 28:
"Well, where have you been?" exclaimed Loretta Elmore when you used your key to let yourself into the mansion's foyer.
"To main city. Shopping," you told her, and began to count the places on your fingers.
AAAAAAAARRRRRGGHGGGHHH!!!!!!!
I think the narrative perspective may change later in the book, but who cares? It's not worth the torture to find out.
November 19, 2011
The book comes off as very writerly.. Harington switches between tenses, uses the second person for the first half of the novel, obviously refers to 'Lolita' throughout the course of the book, and probably makes use of a whole lot of other literary devices that I'm not qualified to pick up on. It strikes me as a lit class exercise, but I find that I really enjoy it. The author's playing with a wider scope of storytelling techniques than can be seen in many books. It's cool, check it out.
May 8, 2007
The best novel of the 1990s. Mind-blowing, charming, and magical.
April 20, 2009
This one-of-a-kind novel turns LOLITA on its head. Echoes of Nabokov not just in the storyline but also in the wordplay and musical prose. This was one of the second or third of Harington's novels that I read and I kept reading, and reading, and wanting more. A compelling set of characters kept me reading at an almost-breathless pace and I finished the novel in two, long readings. It is that engrossing.
July 31, 2014
This is a switched-gender Ozarkian novel presented as a bizarro-universe Lolita alternative. I appreciate it for its folkiness and rare voice style.
November 12, 2017
Harington's most extensive and elaborate excursion into post-modern self-referentiality, and not very good for all that. The whole older woman attracted only to pre-pubescent boys aspect is rather silly, not scandalous, and especially silly is how she gets away with it, with no one calling her on it, like the child-protection cops. The premise of the character, a woman fleeing from the perverse wrath of the Soviet psychiatric establishment is okay. Her learning English so quickly that she can become a fabulously successful author with her first novel is quite a stretch. That she can then fit in with the culture of Middle America is another stretch. Not to mention her stupid "disguise" in Pittsburgh that fools no one. What saves the book somewhat is, as always, Harington's lovely style, but the switch into the future tense does not at all work in this one. What does work, however, is the excellent interpolation of the review of V. Kelian's first novel.
My memory of this was so vague that this re-reading was like a first reading. My only memory images were of her living in Stay More/Stick Around, but she never really did that in the body of the story, so so much for memory. All the narrative tricks and tics that sometimes work so well - Montross as narrator presence, Harington as a character/narrator, the working in of Diana and Day from SOPTRIP, and the Ingledews from TAOTAO and Sharon from Cockroaches - did not work for me this time.
I will remember the use of the cat, rather stupidly named Morris, as the deus ex machina. I will remember the dopey sex scenes in the Jacuzzi, and the incredibly stupid Quilty-esque scene with Bolshakov in her triplex apartment in the hotel, with him forcing Ekaterina to bugger him with a strap on. Yes, this did happen. Dawny, what were you thinking!
My memory of this was so vague that this re-reading was like a first reading. My only memory images were of her living in Stay More/Stick Around, but she never really did that in the body of the story, so so much for memory. All the narrative tricks and tics that sometimes work so well - Montross as narrator presence, Harington as a character/narrator, the working in of Diana and Day from SOPTRIP, and the Ingledews from TAOTAO and Sharon from Cockroaches - did not work for me this time.
I will remember the use of the cat, rather stupidly named Morris, as the deus ex machina. I will remember the dopey sex scenes in the Jacuzzi, and the incredibly stupid Quilty-esque scene with Bolshakov in her triplex apartment in the hotel, with him forcing Ekaterina to bugger him with a strap on. Yes, this did happen. Dawny, what were you thinking!
January 4, 2018
3.5 stars. I didn't like this one as much as earlier ones in the series. I previously said about this author "John Fowles + T.R. Pearson". So much meta! Include John Barth too.
December 21, 2021
I loved the autobiographical component of this book.
May 17, 2016
First, if you haven't read Donald Harington, you should and you should start at the beginning.
The reviews of this are mixed, I think because of the sex with underage boys - see Lolita - but it's not overly gratuitous and, although a part, not the whole story.
Mr Harington just writes wonderful stories about folks from the rural areas of Arkansas, pointing out something in all of us.
I am quite sure I missed most of the literary references and the parallels to other writers while Ekaterina takes place, but I don't think it detracts generally from the story.
His books are just a fun read, about real people.
The reviews of this are mixed, I think because of the sex with underage boys - see Lolita - but it's not overly gratuitous and, although a part, not the whole story.
Mr Harington just writes wonderful stories about folks from the rural areas of Arkansas, pointing out something in all of us.
I am quite sure I missed most of the literary references and the parallels to other writers while Ekaterina takes place, but I don't think it detracts generally from the story.
His books are just a fun read, about real people.
September 17, 2016
Another brilliant novel by a favorite author. Technically, not a Stay More book, although the slightly re-named town does play a part. Nabkov in the Ozarks, the story is a sly reworking of Lolita, with Harington's trademark wit, warmth, and touches of magic realism. There's his trademark play with tenses and narrators, but nothing that distracts from a beautifully told story. "Kat" is a fiercely independent and unique protagonist. I can't jump into another book until this one fully departs.
February 2, 2008
This book was the vice-versa to the story Lolita, with an adult female who falls head over heels with a minor child. Totally taboo!
December 28, 2010
A departure from what I expected from this author, but a good one. I found this volume on the "Erotica" section in a book store. Funny.
November 13, 2013
Incredibly uncomfortable to read, but couldn't put it down.
October 16, 2015
What an amazingly beautiful novel, just stunning.
April 28, 2016
A very interesting novel that is twisted with fate and coincidence and ghosts. It deserves a second reading.
June 10, 2016
It stayed with me long after I had finished it. Is there a better measure of a piece of literature than how thoroughly it haunts you?
April 30, 2017
not Haringtons' best. plot absurdity is part of his talent, but it doesn't work this time.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews