The Architecture of the Arkansas Oqarks

Stay More #3

by Donald Harington, Donald Harrington (Illustrator)

Jacob and Noah Ingledew trudge 600 miles from their native Tennessee to found Stay More, a small town nestled in a narrow valley that winds among the Arkansas Ozarks and into the reader's imagination. The Ingledew saga - which follows six generations of 'Stay Morons' through 140 years of abundant living and prodigal loving - is the heart of Harington's jubilant, picaresque novel. Praised as one of the year's ten best novels by the American Library Association when first published, this tale continues to captivate readers with its winning fusion of lyricism and comedy.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor, Historical, Novels, Southern, Literature

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Donald 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.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

okay, i am going to try to harness this simmering undercurrent of interest in donald harington that i spy with my little eye here on goodreads.com to build it into a rolling boil!!!

yes. donald harington. yes.

do i frequently get enthusiastic here on goodreads.com?? do i bark at the mailman, chase balls, and develop a fondness for legs? guilty, yes. but besides dfw, who is my soul, who are the big three?? jonathan carroll, thomas hardy, and dear donald harington. that is not to say that other-enthusiasm is false or fleeting or unwarranted, but these three authors tame my beast and make me stop yipping and running in circles, and absorb all my attention as i curl up and get lost in their words for a few hours.

i am abandoning this metaphor...now!

so this book. if you are not going to follow my advice and read them all in order, this is probably the best starting point. i'm not a doctor, i don't know what's best for you, but i feel like i am qualified to make a recommendation based on loving donald harington more than most people. this book covers many generations of the ingledew family,just one of the families harington dreamed up before lovingly crafting and effortlessly detailing their lives and speech and motives. reading this will give you teasers about other characters, other places, right places, but will not give away too many surprises along the way. when i read this book, i did so after having only read one other of his books (choiring of the trees), and i put it down, thinking - "man, i wish i knew more about _____." or "_________was such a great character - i could read a whole book about her."

guess what??

one of my favorite parts of this book is the focus of an entire other book!! how many authors will do that for you?? did dickens write a whole novel about the origin story of miss havisham from her perspective?? no he did not, selfish man. harington knew what we wanted and he gave it to us.

you will learn about buildings,yes, but you will learn about the people whose lives revolved around those buildings; you will wish this book had been your history textbook in elementary school because even though it is not real, it feels real. harington is that good at creating a world - a town with people whose lives sometimes work magic but always always entertain.

i feel like a literary explorer out here. i need him to be more known and loved than he is - i want this to be my gift to goodreads.com.

he is not an author to miss out on, but he is an author to miss. terribly.

come to my blog!

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I think I have a mild form of prosopagnosia. When people say kids look like their parents, I always have to smile and nod, unless we're talking Martin Sheen/Emilio Estevez levels of facial similarity. And then there's this thing I do where I think someone I know looks like a famous person, or I think two actresses look alike, and I'll say something and be gently corrected by my girlfriend ("Yes, well, I suppose both of them do have two eyes...").

When I got about halfway through The Architecture of the American Ozarks, I wasn't entirely convinced I wasn't suffering from a case of literary prosopagnosia, because it was really reminding me of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Both books span a century (or more), chronicling the cyclical lives of the inhabitants of isolated rural communities (Macondo in Colombia, Stay More in the Ozarks). Both revel in the style of the oral tradition and are shared by winking narrators. Both love incest, but not in a gross way. I really thought I was onto something. I still doubted my judgment, but I was at least as confident as I am in the assertion that Adam Scott looks like Tom Cruise (it's the tiny mouth that really seals the deal). So I googled it.

It turns out that Donald Harington freely admits that TAOTAO was directly inspired by Gabriel García Márquez! This made me feel slightly less clever, but relieved I do not have brain damage. Of course, then I finished the book and realized that the similarities are so thuddingly obvious that not noticing them might be an indication of brain damage (especially considering I just read 100YOS last year). They are different in one important way, however: Harington is better. At the risk of infuriating the gods of Nobel: a lot better.

TAOTAO is, quite simply, the most satisfying book I have read in the last five years, and immediately one of my favorite books of all time. This means nothing to you, because you are not me, so: It is an intimate epic, following the offspring of Jacob Ingledew, the accidental founder of Stay More, from the establishment of the community through the 1970s. The history of the town is told in snippets and anecdotes -- the repeated visits of the traveling salesman, the time everyone ran out of fuel to burn and made do with living in the dark for a decade (this happened twice), the way the outside world tried and failed (the Civil War, World War I) and eventually succeeded in destroying a community that prides itself on looking askance at the institution they call PRO GRESS. These stories, these characters, as lightly sketched as they are, are alive in ways that few books and few writers can capture. They exist. Surely, they exist.

Harington's narrative voice is deceptively simple. You can read this book quickly. It goes down easy. It is a great story. But the telling of it is masterful, all the more because he makes it look so easy. Nearly every page reveals his genius -- an image, a joke, a memorable turn of phrase. If I was an underlinder or a dog-earer, this book would be a wrinkled, ink-blotched mess.

It's also a story that hits me directly in the heart and breaks it in two. My entire life I have been afflicted with the disease of nostalgia. I can be nostalgic for good times, and boring times, and shitty times. I can be nostalgic for yesterday. The denizens of Stay More are afflicted with nostalgia, except they don't know that word. And now I am going to quote a very long passage, because it kills me:

Obviously she missed "back home," and it was Sarah Indledew who is credited with the coinage of the adjective "old-timey" in reference to the lost past. Increasingly, for the rest of that century and down through our own century, mass nostalgia would employ this expression that Sarah invented... although nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Nor was this merely a fleeting mood on both their parts. It lingered, and it infected those around them, who in turn infected those around them, until all of the people were in the grips of epidemic nostalgia. Although the French had identified the disease early in that century, nostalgie had not been identified or named in America at this time... But it began with Sarah's casual remark to Jacob, and soon everyone had it, and because it had no name yet and no one could name it, they simply referred to it as it, and noted that there was a lot of it going around in those days. People would stop one another and ask, "Do you have it?" and admit "Yes, I caught it last night, I think."

This book gave me it while I was reading it, and now that I'm finished I have it even more. I am nostalgic for a world and a way of life I have never known, and for an author who has died, and for books I haven't read yet. I am nostalgic for the future.

Near the end, the narrator is feeling it too: "We are so close to the end of this epic that if it were a snake it would bite us, as folks used to say in Stay More, but don't anymore, because there are so few folks remaining. Yet endings make me nervous, not because I don't know what to expect but simply because they are endings, and there is nothing beyond them, as there is nothing beyond death and nothing beyond the universe. There will be something beyond this ending, but not for now."

Luckily there is, now: Donald Harington wrote 14 more books, many of them set in Stay More. Karen tells me that TAOTAO is like a Wikipedia entry for this world, and the other novels are hyperlinks to the larger stories of these people. I will read them. I can't not. I am already nostalgic about the day I will be done with them, and that really will be the end.

I have only read this book, but I feel confident in saying that Donald Harington is a genius. I don't think its my prosopagnosia.

Facebook 30 Day Book Challenge Day 27: Favorite fiction book.

[Lawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks: Donald Harington's History of Stay More, Arkansas

This novel has been nominated as a group read for the month of September, 2016, for On the Southern Literary Trail. A special thanks to "Trail Member" Jeffrey of Nashville, Tennessee, who has read all thirteen of the novels of Donald Harington for nominating this book. If you haven't visited "On the Southern Literary Trail, please do. We'd be pleased to have you join us. The reads are outstanding. Like this one. The polls for our September, 2016, Group Reads are up. Drop by. See if anything catches your fancy. I hope to see you on "The Trail."

THE STAY MORON'S OATH

Do you solemnly swear that country life is
not only more peaceful than city life but
more likely to last into contented old age?

That strictly speaking, a “moron” is simply
a person preferring to keep to the age span
between seven and twelve years?

That it is possible to remain this age for all
of one’s long life?

That this is a good age for the hearing or
reading of stories?

That a good story is the sweetest way to
escape from the ordinary life?

That nothing is to be gained by leaving, that
the greatest of all decisions is staying?

That “more” means until you’re good and
ready to leave, at least not before supper
and ideally not before breakfast.

Then I, with the authority vested in me by
The Grand Architect of the Universe, do
hereby pronounce you citizens of Stay More,
with all the rights and privileges and pleasures
pertaining thereto.

As administered by Donald Harington


Donald Harington, Born: December 22, 1935, Little Rock, Died: November 7, 2009, Springdale

What? You're not prepared to take this oath? You're not prepared to part with your iPhone 5? You've never wanted to get away from it all?


Big Creek Valley, Newton County, Arkansas

You're sitting there scratching your head, asking yourself, "What the Hell is this, anyway?" Well, I'll tell you. You knew I would, didn't you?

Contained in that oath is the philosophy of Donald Harington as he set out in his Stay More novels. There are twelve of them, with The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks actually being the third written by Harington.

You must understand that Harington did not write the novels in chronological sequence. We were first introduced to the town of Stay More in Lightning Bug, published in 1970, which was followed by Some Other Place. the Right Place.

The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks is Harington's complete history of Stay More beginning with its earliest white inhabitants and carries us to the present. Here is the genealogy of Stay More beginning with two brothers, Noah and Jacob Ingledew who have left Tennessee because a man couldn't say "Darn" without being sermonized by some meddlesome preacher.

The story is told by an omniscient narrator, an unnamed architectural historian, who structures his tale through individual chapters devoted to the various structures erected throughout the history of the town. Now, how this historian knows the intimate details of the people who occupied each of these structures is not explained.

One might almost believe that this historian was there from the beginning, an observer so to speak. I leave it to the reader's own interpretation. I will only say that one of the consistent techniques that Harinton uses is a reference to the future in the concluding chapter of his novels. For Harington knows the disappointment of loving a book to the degree one doesn't want to see it end.

Harington frankly admits that "The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks" was inspired by his reading of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez. In an interview with Edwin T. Arnold, Harington said:

"A dissertation could easily be written on the parallels between the two books. But at the time I wrote TAOTAO I didn't know what "Magic Realism" was. For that matter, I'm not sure I yet understand it. I admired what Garcia Marquez had done and wanted to emulate it, but I took pains to make sure that everything which happened in TAOTAO was possibly conceivable, believable. There are no flying carpets in TAOTAO nor any blood running endlessly down the street. So the "magic" of Garcia Marquez might be missing.

Of course, Appalachia and the Ozarks are naturally akin to the Latin Third World in the strange things that happen, and the only way to depict them is a touch of surrealism. The tall tale, the ghost story, the folk ballad, and other forms of narrative in Appalachia and in the Ozarks have common unnatural events, weird people, a magical atmosphere that transcends 'reality.'"

Harington's novel of Stay More is a tour de force of folklore, myth, and legend that mingles with that of the United States. Brother Noah is visited by Johnny Appleseed who helps him plant an apple orchard. In the years that follow, Noah, the perennial bachelor, becomes the favorite of Stay More's children whom he treats with candy apples when they visit him to listen to his stories.

And wouldn't you know it? Jacob Ingledew invents baseball at the very moment Abner Doubleday is credited with inventing the game at Cooperstown, New York.

Yet, while the history of Stay More may parallel that of America, Stay Morons are content to live by the old ways. They are firmly against "PROG RESS," as they call it. As Harington tells us,

“'Stay More' is synonymous with 'Status Quo' in fact, there are people who believe, or who like to believe, that the name of the town was intended as an entreaty, beseeching the past to remain present.”

Yet, change is inevitable, appearing in the form of Connecticut peddler Eli Willard. Willard sells the Ingledew brothers the first clock in Stay More. Over the years he brings whale oil, leading to a decade of light. He brings scissors for the women, pocket knives for the men, resulting in the fine art of whittling.

But there is also sinister change on the horizon, when Willard shows up with all manner of firearms. While Stay More has been a type of Eden, the American Civil War is looming. Jacob Ingledew is sent to the State Capital to determine the issue of secession. Of course, Ingledew is the only delegate to vote against secession, knowing that war will destroy the harmony of Stay More.

Arkansas is divided. However, Jacob returns to Stay More and does not relay the fact that war is coming, successfully keeping his town at peace for two years.

The Confederacy has a unique way of recruiting troops, however. Virdie Boatwright travels the countryside "raising" troops, by rewarding free sexual favors to any men who enlist with the Confederate Arkansawyers. She is quite successful. Even Jacob, who is recruited twice by Virdie, is tempted to join the Rebels.

Harington swings from comedy to tragedy as Arkansas is drawn into the war of brother against brother, with Jacob remaining a Union Man. Noah joins the Confederacy. As we are told at various times, the tale of Stay More is not always a happy one.

We travel through the generations of the residents of Stay More, the Ingledews, Dinsmores, Stains, Chisms. They are all here, including characters from the previous novels. Harington captures all the foibles, joys, and sadness of life. Oh, yes. If this hasn't piqued your interest, just know that the men and women of Stay More are a hard loving, libidinous bunch.

Caught with a lingering cold, The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks kept me company for over two weeks. Reading Donald Harington is as comforting as a warm blanket, a good hot toddy, and the love of a good woman, not necessarily in that order.

I took the Stay Moron Oath after reading Lightning Bug. I have an idea if you enter these magic pages, you will, too.

As Jacob told his first visitor, an Indian named Fanshaw, who speaks perfect English, "Stay More. Hell, you just got here."

For those interested, my review of Lightning Bug is here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... . You also might be interested in my review of Cockroaches of Stay More.

[Eh?Eh! · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm one of those idiots* who laughs when someone says "deliverance" and has heard a few jokes about, um, dishonored sisters. I've heard a little about the poverty and lack of education in some nonspecific mountain ranges over towards the east (this includes all the mountains east of the Rockies for me). I'm sorry for my ignorance. I've made my last pretty mouth joke and sent my last dueling banjos video link.

This is not to say that there may not be truth behind the lamentably lurid portrayals. I guess when life is difficult and a wider sense of the world and peoples isn't available, certain city manners and prudeness just don't develop. But maybe laughing about it all indicates a lower and meaner sense of humor than I want to own.

Why do I feel this now? This is a beautiful novel. The boring way to say it is that this covers 6 generations of the Ingledew family and certain significant people around them in a town called Stay More, and each chapter begins with a sketch of a building that relates to the goings on of that chapter. I wasn't sure if introducing that bit of oddness, magical realism?, near the end was a good thing?

The better way to describe the wonderful is to say I couldn't wait to get home to read this. There was so much that surprised me with how lovely and purposefully this unfolded, and a great deal of hilarity, pathos, storytime wonder, sweetness.

Thank you, again and again, karen. You're a gr god. ;o)






*We are many: "Since its recognition as a distinctive region in the late 19th century, Appalachia has been a source of enduring myths and distortions regarding the isolation, temperament, and behavior of its inhabitants. Early 20th-century writers focused on sensationalistic aspects of the region's culture, such as moonshining and clan feuding, and often portrayed the region's inhabitants as uneducated and prone to impulsive acts of violence. Sociological studies in the 1960s and 1970s helped to deconstruct these stereotypes, although popular media continued to perpetuate the image of Appalachia as a culturally backward region into the 21st century.[2]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachia (citing wikipedia probably isn't the best way to lift the idiot from me....)

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deserves an award. I loved it. It should be the first thing someone should see as a link for the term "American Myth," and it could bypass all that other stuff about dreams of success, achievement, melting pots, etc. Simply put, this was perfection. It was architecture, literature, tall tales, history, sex...everything was in there but in a state of grace. This book makes me less embarrassed to be an American. Harington makes a respectful case for all primitive and backwards people and the case he presents kind of goes like this: Hell yeah, we're young as a country and still pretty raw around the edges, so what? We still have a story to tell. And the story is this story, the story of the shy Ingledew brothers who finally reach a part of America they want to homestead and of what happens next. So sure, what happens next involves getting drunk, philosophizing, clearing a space for a cabin, and losing virginity. But that can be made beautiful.
The writing is simple storytelling and it is an amazing thing. I wish the writer were alive. I would have liked to wink at him. He spins his story without demeaning the characters, affording even the most ridiculous a chance to breathe and look around in wonder. No where else have I read about two twin sisters who share a man and a baby and then go on to form two pretty well defined religious sects (which is an entirely plausible story to add to the history of America, I think).
A year after finishing this book, I still want to know more. I want to stand in line and visit the tree house explained in such great detail. I need the medical condition of frakes to be further explained. I want a certain lady friend from the city to have more story. Sleepless Ingledew and his climbing wife were hilarious. I want more. Lots more. Harington was a big tease here, telling me that "that's all I'm going to say about that" or "you'll never here know her name" or "and they will show up much later." But he is a tease that will play keep away from me for only so long, because he's written plenty more Staymore books.
And you know what? I hope Harington surpasses Irving. If his works did, it sure would be a nice surprise- Harington's people are better adjusted, no matter what first cousin their sex partner is.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

this wonderful book covers pretty much the whole history of the fictional town of stay more, where harington's novels are set.

he must have thought at the time that he was done with the story, because he didn't write another novel for 11 years. i, for one, am truly thankful that he eventually decided to revisit stay more, because i am so looking forward to reading the rest of his novels.

i owe my knowledge of the existence of harington entirely to karen, so i strongly advise you to read her review of this book, which is much better than anything i could say.

all i know is that harington was a mighty fine writer, and the world is a lesser place without him in it.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminded me of One Hundred Years of Solitude, set in the Ozarks, which is what Mr. Harington set out to write. He has the elements: family saga, tragicomedy, magical realism, uncomfortable portrayals of sex & incest, but in a uniquely 'Merican style. Following the Ingledew family through 140 years and six generations, mundane and extraordinary events blend together to create the saga of Stay More, Arkansas.

TAotAO begins in the Antebellum era, when the first Ingledew brothers, Jacob and Noah Ingledew, move from Tennessee to an Arkansas valley, establishing Stay More, named for the phrase Jacob uses whenever a guest is preparing to leave. After the departure of the few remaining native inhabitants (a man named Fanshaw, who learned English from a British geologist, and his squaw), other settlers trickle into the valley. Despite their hereditary inability to talk to women, Jacob and his descendents manage to produce male offspring for six generations. Along the way, several wars change the world around them, although Stay Morons (as the inhabitants are called) try not to get involved in such events, with varying levels of success. A peddler from Connecticut brings outside technology to the valley again and again: clocks, scissors, photography, automobiles, etc, while preachers of various denominations attempt to convert the Stay Morons, with varying levels of success.

Mr. Harington's narrative voice is often excessively academic, discussing at length for instance the origins of the root "arc" and the way it is incorporated into every major word in the book title. In contrast, the lives of his backwoods characters are quite coarse. The narrator occasionally inserts himself into the story, implying that he grew up in Stay More, and at the very end things get very meta, with the narrator and readers becoming part of the story and the tense changing from past to present to future.

Overall, it was an interesting and mostly enjoyable (although sometimes really uncomfortable) read, one which I would recommend for a reading experience very different from the norm, but which I will probably not chose to reread (unlike OHYoS).

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are American authors, and not just Southern authors, who entertain mightily by bringing to life sections of the country and its people, complete with dialect, culture and, most of all, stories. Descendants of Twain, they see the humor in Americana. Ernest Hebert captured New Hampshire. Richard Russo brought us New York's smaller, decaying towns. T.R. Pearson told tale of A Short History of a Small Place, nestled somewhere in North Carolina. Donald Harington, in that same tradition, brings us the Ozarks.

The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks is just one of his many books about his fictionalized town of Stay More. This one tracks the Ingeldew clan through four or five generations. Each chapter starts with a pencil drawing (and quite good, too) of an abode or other building. Each one provides its own story. I liked the inventiveness of it. It's intelligent. But, Hell, I read it mostly for the laughs.

They built a school, but the instruction didn't take, so along came a series of different denominational preachers. The Ingeldew men were all non-believers, but Isaac Ingeldew sometimes accompanied his wife Salina "out of curiosity" which, we are told, is "the bottom rung on the ladder of motives for going to church." In ascending order, the other "motives" are:

2. Being too timid to refuse.
3. A sense of duty.
4. A desire to mingle with others.
5. A desire to learn the means of salvation.
6. A desire to be saved.
7. Lust for paradise in the hereafter.
8. Schizophrenic need to need.
9. Insanity.
10. Sainthood.

Tearle Ingeldew, on the other hand, "never gave up believing that life is futile, but the futility of it was always good for a laugh."

There's predictable slapstick and some cornponey magic realism. But we are warned that "We must not allow ourselves to feel that this is entirely a happy story."

I like Harington and I'm more than okay with the absence of political correctness. However, the way he writes about rape in a matter-of-fact way made me very uncomfortable.

[nettebuecherkiste · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to give this book 4 stars, but I liked the last chapter so much I'm giving 5 after all :-) German review to follow.

Eine deutsche Ausgabe scheint es leider nicht zu geben.

Irgendwann im 19. Jahrhundert erreichen die Brüder Jacob und Noah Ingledew die beinahe menschenleere Ozarks-Region in Arkansas. Beinahe menschenleer, denn der Indianer Fanshaw, der die englische Sprache spricht, lebt dort mit seiner Frau in einem Haus, das der Autor als “bigeminal” (etwa: “paarig”) bezeichnet. Jacob und Noah bauen eine Blockhütte und Jacob freundet sich mit Fanshaw an. Dies stellt die “Gründung” des Ortes “Stay More” dar, um den sich alles in diesem sehr humorvollen historischen Roman dreht. Schon die Entstehung des Namens “Stay More” ist einfach zum Schießen.

Was soll ich sagen? Ich habe eine Schwäche für Autoren, die mit viel Humor an ein bestimmtes Genre herangehen. Terry Pratchett ist nicht umsonst mein Lieblingsautor. Und wie ihr wisst, liebe ich Familienromane. Donald Harington erzählt uns auf urkomische Art die Geschichte des Aufstiegs und des Niedergangs des Ortes Stay More und der “Stay Morons”, insbesondere der Gründerfamilie Ingledew, über 6 Generationen hinweg. Der etwas ungewöhnliche Titel des Buchs verweist auf eines der Themen, das sich durch das ganze Buch zieht, die “Zweigeteiltheit” (Bigeminality) aller Dinge, insbesondere der Behausungen der Ingledews. Jedes Kapitel beginnt daher mit der Zeichnung eines dieser Häuser.

Die Stay Morons kann man als typische Hillbillys bezeichnen, die aber gleichzeitig eine gewisse Genialität, eine “Bauernschläue” mitbringen. So philosophiert Jacob etwa mit Fanshaw über Gott und die Welt. Zwischenzeitlich wird Jacob sogar Gouverneur von Arkansas!

Der Humor kommt an keiner Stelle des Buchs zu kurz, egal, welche Katastrophen und Beschwernisse die Stay Morons heimsuchen. Eines dieser Beschwernisse ist eine mysteriöse Krankheit, die Harington als “the frakes” bezeichnet: Sobald ein männlicher Bewohner zu hart gearbeitet hat, befällt ihn ein Ausschlag an einer besonders fiesen Stelle, und wenn dieser abgeheilt ist, verfällt der Ärmste für längere Zeit in Lethargie und hält sich selbst und das ganze Leben für nutzlos.

So begleiten wir die Ingledews durch die gesamte Lebenszeit des Ortes Stay More, von der Gründung, den ersten zusätzlichen Siedlern, der Einrichtung eines Ladens, einer Mühle und einer Bank, durch den amerikanischen Bürgerkrieg und zwei Weltkriege, vom ersten Automobil, das für den verhassten FORT SCHRITT steht, bis hin zum Niedergang des Ortes und dem allerletzten Ingledew. Manche Ereignisse, und zwar die skurrilsten, sind laut dem Nachwort des Autors sogar tatsächlich historisch. Das letzte Kapitel schließlich war für mich ein Geniestreich.

“The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks” ist ein echter Geheimtipp. Ich würde fast so weit gehen, den 2009 leider verstorbenen Donald Harington als einen Terry Pratchett des Familienromans zu bezeichnen. Die Lektüre dieses Buchs hat mir einen Riesenspaß bereitet.

[Mary Overton]

The first white settler, a woman-shy bachelor, to the Arkansas Ozarks discusses with the last Indian their first batch of Arkansas sour mash whiskey:

"Why do we drink this stuff?" [Fanshaw, the Indian, asks.:]
"You don't lak it?" Jacob said. "I 'low as how it aint near as good as that I brung from Tennessee, but..."
"Oh, it is fine. Ripping stuff, old boy. I simply raise the philosophical question: why do we drink it?"
Jacob pondered. "Wal, I kinder relish the taste, myself."
"Yo. But do we not more relish that which it does to us?"
"I don't feature drunkenness. I know when to stop."
"Yo. But in between? Between drunkenness and sobriety there is a wide country, and what is the Name of that Country?"
"Joy?"
"No. Not if, by joy, you mean that kind which, although you have never felt it and thus cannot understand it, comes to the gentleman when with the lady in one-on-top-together-fastened-between. Not a bit of it, old fellow."
"Wal, what do you call the Country, then?"
"Importance," Fanshaw uttered, and let the word hover in the air between them like a hummingbird before continuing. "We know that we are nothing, you and I. And it is true, we are as nothing in the sight of Wahkontah. We are but flies he swats in sport. But the pe-tsa-ni - firewater - permits us for a while to forget this. The fire burns away our personal insignificance, and leaves us for a while a great sense of importance."
"But aint that joy?"
"Not like - " Fanshaw began, but stopped and contemplated Jacob for a moment before declaring, "My friend, some day you must experience the one-on-top-together-fastened-between." [12-13:]

[Judi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant perspective. Captivating. Witty. A hundred stars. A tale that wends it way through history anchored by the architecture of each era. A history that begins with the inception of the first settler of the Arkansas Ozarks and his primitive hut. His invitation to his neighbor, a Native American kindred spirit, was to "Stay More". His guest often complied with the request. Stay More thus eventually evolved by chance, as most all things do, into the name of the town. And thus the tale continues . . . . a study in genealogy, evolving architecture, climate change, history. I must read more of Donald Harington's offerings.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reading Harington's novels in order, which means this is a reread. This one is a humorous folk history of Arkansas told through the Ingledew family of Newton County, situated up in the Ozarks. If every Arkansan read this, I think we might have just a little less of an inferiority complex. Not a thing wrong with being rural and poor.

[Zek · Rating 4 out of 5]

הספר הזה זכור לי כאחד המיוחדים שקראתי באותה עת. עולמם של ההילביליס האמריקאים, שהיה חדש עבורי, וכתיבתו המרתקת של הרינגטון שבו את ליבי. בעת קריאת הספר לא היה לי מושג שהוא חלק מסדרה עד שנחשפתי לכך כאן בגודרידס....

[smetchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the hillbilly Forrest Gump!

No wait. Forrest Gump sorta WAS a hillbilly. Hmm.

Forrest Gump of Arkansas and the Civil War.

[Kelsie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If any visitor to the Unforgettable Picnic might have happened to glance at the couple sitting silently side by side in the grass of the Field of Clover, the visitor would have noticed, and wondered at, the fact that both of them simultaneously closed their eyes for a long moment, and smiled, as if experiencing rapture. But no visitor happened to be looking at them during their moment"

[Siv30 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"לא מדברים מילים, חוץ מהבעות השמחה הרבות של האנשים בזמן שהם בונים את מבנה המגורים. הרמת בית היא טקס רועש ביותר, אבל לא במילים. הרבה בשר נאכל. הזוג המבורך מלא מידי בבשר אחר -כך כדי לעשות את ה- מעולם לא למדתי איך אתם קוראים לזה באנגלית - הזה, בחושך, אחד - מעל - השניה - יחד - מחוברים באמצע. אתה מכיר את זה? לא? חבל. זה אושר גדול" "הארכיטקטורה בחבל האוזרק בארקנסו" כשג`ייקוב ונח אינגלדיו הגיעו לארקנסו, שבדרום ארה"ב, הם פגשו במרחבים בלתי מיושבים ובזוג אינדיאנים. פנשאו והסקוואה שלו שחיו במבנה דו זוגי. למרות הסתייגותו הברורה של נח מזוגיות, אינדיאנים וכל מה שלא קשור בחקלאות, למד ג`ייקוב את סודות האינדיאנים, אפשר לאמר למידה פעילה, ואף הסיק את המסקנות האופרטיביות שאיפשרו לו לייסד את העיר סטיי מור ואת שושלת אינגלדיו, המבוססת על גברים שתקניים וביישנים (וחתיכים עם עיניים כחולות ושארם של קאבויים). בסאגה המרהיבה הזו, שכתב דונלד הרינגטון, נפרסים קורות 6 דורות של השושלת המפוארת. בהומור, שזור בתיאורים ארכיטקטונים ולא מעט היסטוריה של ארה"ב מתאר הרינגטון את התפתחות ההתיישבות האמריקאית והארכיטקטורה כמשל לזוגיות או לפעמים לאי זוגיות. הרינגטון אוסף את שלל הסטריאוטיפים האמריקאיים ומיישם אותם על שלל דמויות הזויות שמאכלסות את העיירה סטיי מור. ההתבוננות הרגישה שלו הופכת את הסיטואציות ליצירת מופת צינית וביקורתית להפליא. הדמויות שלו מתגלגלות עם ההיסטוריה ומכוננות אותה באופן אקראי וחי לקורא שחש את הקורים הולכים ונרקמים תחת עיניו. הכתיבה של הרינגטון עד כדי כך צינית ומשעשעת, שלפעמים צריך לקחת פסק זמן מנוחה. "ג`ייקוב הרהר בכך שזה לא רעיון כל -כך רע אחרי הכל, שאין שום סיבה ארצית למה גבר ואשה לא יקחו תורות, יחליפו מקומות מדי פעם בפעם ויתחלקו בעבודה, אם כמו במקרה הזה, האשה נהנית מזה כמו הגבר. וירדי צעקה, פלטה אנחה נמוכה וארוכה, אבל לא הפסיקה, וג`ייקוב הבין שאם היא תמשיך כך יש סיכוי לא רע שהוא יאלץ לצעוק בעצמו. אבל בדיוק אז קרא קול מחוץ לעגלה "ג`ייק! `תה שם?" והוא ידע שזו שרה. "תענה לי" היא ביקשה, אז הוא ענה. " כן, `ני כאן, אבל `ני מייד יוצא". הוא ניסה להוריד מעליו את משקלה של וירדי הרוכבת ולסיים. "מה `תה עושה שם, ג`ייק?" רצתה שרה לדעת. "`ני מחליף מילים-, הוא התנשם, "עם האוייבת המורדת כאן".הוא היה קרוב, למרות שהוא הבין שבוודאי נראה לעין שהעגלה רועדת. וירדי דחפה פתאום את השמלה שלה לפיה, אבל זה לא הספיק בשביל לעצור את אחת האנחות הנמוכות שלה."ג`ייק!" שאגה שרה. "`תה לא מכאיב לה, נכון?"רק קצת" הוא ענה, "כדי ללמד `תה לקח" ואז הוא הגיע לשם, באקסטזה, וחשב אלוהים הגדול, אם אני אוכל לקבל`ת זה באופן קבוע, אולי `ני `צטרף למורדים אחרי הכל" "הארכיטקטורה בחבל האוזרק בארקנסו"(110- 111) וזו המכשלה של הספר, שזכה לתרגום מושקע ומענג של אסף גברון. לפעמים מרוב התחכמויות, ציניות ושעשועי לשון, הרגשתי שאני פשוט צריכה מנוחה. בגדר תפסת מרובה לא תפסת. אני יודעת שזה כמעט נשמע סתירה, אבל תחשבו על שוקולד משובח. ברגע שאוכלים יותר מקוביה, שתיים, שורה, היחודיות והטעם הנהדר שוקעים ומה שנשאר זו מתיקות, שלפעמים גורמת לבחילה. שבועיים נמשכה קריאת הספר, אולי אפילו קצת יותר. אבל בסופה של קריאה אני יכולה להצהיר שכל דקה היתה שווה. הכי אהבתי את הרגישות של הרינגטון שבהומור דק מגיש לקורא סיפורי זוגיות, שגרמו לי לא אחת לפרוץ בצחוק. ביד אומן הוא מתבל אותם בתיאורי אירוטיקה סוריאליסטית משהו, כמו בקטע שהבאתי למעלה, אבל לא הופך אותם לסיפורי זימה וולגריים, מה שמשאיר טעם של עוד אצל הקורא. רק חבל שהספר לא זכה למספיק יחסי ציבור ואין לי מושג אם הוא בר השגה בחנויות או אולי צריך להזמין אותו במיוחד. מומלץ בחום! ממש בגדר ספר חובה. "הארכיטקטורה בחבל האוזרק בארקנסו" דונ��ד הרינגטון הוצאת טובי, תרגם אסף גברון (תרגום משובח) 2007, 366 עמ`

[Kathy Manus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit, this was slow going at first and I didn't think there would be much about it that would interest me. I was pleasantly surprised, though. Although I'm not originally from the Ozarks, I have made it my home for the past 5 years and the foreseeable future. That said, it was fun to read about the architecture and how it came to be. The writing is quirky and fun, much like where I live.

[Glee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't really know where to start with this one. It was charming, informative (about things that are of little or no interest generally, but become so with this author), playful, snarky, and above all, affectionate in the portrayal of the settlers/citizens of the hamlet of Stay More, Arkansas. (Happily referred to as Stay Morons.) I have to admit to a personal bias here, having been born in northwest Arkansas to a native Arkansan and a DamnYankee (who had only ventured out of the Hudson Valley to attend the University of Arkansas). Although we left for the Hudson Valley when I was very young, I have always had a somewhat romanticized notion of my Ozarks roots, and this book addresses many of my preconceptions. But even without that, this is a gifted author who skillfully (and again, very playfully) recounts a fictional history of the Arkansas Ozarks. The gimmick he uses is to begin each chapter with an example of architecture associated with the characters and history to be covered in that chapter. The point isn't the architecture, other than as it reflects the life and times of the people in this historical (but fictional) narrative.

Mr. Harington knows whereof he speaks as an architect (at one point he was on the faculty of the University of Arkansas) and as an observer of human nature. And his chapters all start with a drawing of the architectural example for the chapter.

An overlay at the beginning of the book is a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright:

"The true basis for any serious study of the art of Architecture still lies in those indigenous, more humble buildings everywhere that are to architecture what folklore is to literature or folk song to music and with which academic architects were seldom concerned....These many folk structures are of the soil, natural. Though often slight, their virtue is intimately related to the environment and to the heartlife of the people. Functions are usually truthfully conceived and rendered invariably with natural feeling. Results are often beautiful and always instructive."

A wonderful book that I thought about a lot both while I was reading it and after I finished it. I hope to keep thinking about it for a long time.

[Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you happen to be someone who says they no longer have the patience for reading books, this one will change your mind, for you might not be able to put it down.

An imaginative, hilarious yarn very loosely based on American history and the culture of the Ozarks’ more remote reaches, The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks is a thoroughly entertaining saga, allowing us to witness the stories of five generations of Ingledew men, and those who chose to make the town of Stay More their homestead along with them.

Loved this, and would recommend this book to nearly everyone I know (the only possible exceptions being those easily affronted by promiscuity and sexual innuendo). It’s obvious how much the author loved his characters, and wanted them to relish their lives, and thus, I loved them too, each quirk they displayed making them seem more human, and all the more endearing.

This is one of those books I wish every would-be fiction novelist would read before they publish any novel of their own. We need more fiction like this, which takes enough fanciful liberties to fire up our imaginations yet stays within the realm of the possible, as it pokes good-natured fun at us. The episode of the flood, and how it led to Noah Ingledew building his treehouse had me laughing out loud with delight: I hadn’t seen that coming when I advanced the Kindle page and saw the illustration.

Other surprises abound: This is a must-read for those who love a good story.

[Jae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I liked Harington's Butterfly Weed. Like most of Harington's books, TAOTAO is set in the small town of Stay More way back in the valleys of the Ozark Mountains. Beginning with the arrival of the first settlers in what would become Stay More, brothers Jacob and Noah Ingledew, TAOTAO meanders through the history and growth of this hamlet. It is part historical fiction, part tall tale, with a stong dose of folklore, explaining why Rotary and Lions clubs generally meet on the second Tuesday of each month and why outsiders think that all Ozarkian woodspeople are dumb hillbillies. It's rich with humor, horse sense, sex, resistance to PROG RESS, and, most of all, bigeminality.

TAOTAO is the Ozarkian version of One Hundred Years of Solitude, only much more enjoyable to read. It isn't a real page turner, but quite a bit of fun. My recommendation: Read this book on your front porch with a jug of corn whisky.

[Richda Mcnutt · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you enter the world of Stay More, Arkansas, you enter a world of absurd creativity, vivid characters, humorous situations, and the origin of expressions that older people of Southern regions have heard most of their lives. If you decide to leave, you will be encouraged to "Stay More," and in so doing, you will become a fellow Stay Moron. You won't regret it.

[Daniel Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book is phenomenal. A funny, touching look at the first Ozark settlers and how they grew into a town. Once the story moves from the town's founder on to his kids, the book loses steam.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh look, another good book recommended by Karen.

*Yawn*

[Styubud · Rating 5 out of 5]

No: this isn’t an academic text but rather a beautiful and rich novel.
The author is a hugely under-rated US author (1935-2009) who wrote novels set in the fictional Ozark Mountain settlement of Stay More. Many of his novels jump about in time giving the setting a sense of place that changes according to the local climate, wars and US politics, all of which tick along in the background. This book follows 6 generations of the original settler family from the late 19th century to the mid 20th. Many of the characters and plots in his other books intersect here. The term “hillbillies” is probably pejorative though the villagers happily refer to themselves as “Stay Morons”!
Some of the scenes in Harrington’s books have influenced Stephen King’s habit of including sex and violence, sometimes casual. That said, this is a beautiful book full of wonderfully described characters and settings, history and yes, even local architecture, which is way more compelling than I expected. Heartbreak, murder, corruption, love, loyalty – all the drama is here and it is beguiling, bewitching and compelling.
I don’t know if I like his writing because Harington is a lesser-known author and it feels like I’ve discovered a hidden gem. Probably, but I didn’t want this one to end. See also “Lightning Bug” and “The Choiring of the Trees” both of which should have been turned into successful plays or films by now.

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harington uses a clever method of chronicling the evolution of his fictional Ozark village, Stay More, by constructing a history of its architecture and the people involved with the structures. I didn't find this book as funny as two of his other titles I have read (which he alludes to in the story), and I think he plays too much on stereotypes of the Ozarks in this novel. At times the characters seem just a bit too simple, isolated, and naïve. At the same time, Harington is able to illustrate, albeit through exaggeration, how remote areas of the country found their way into the modern world. He also allows his narrator -- who is in essence the author -- to offer commentary along the way on philosophy, religion, and even popular psychology. This isn't a great book or a serious novel in my estimation, but it is interesting and mostly entertaining.

[Jessica Sahutoglu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost never give 5 stars to a book I've only read once. but this book deserves it. this whole SERIES is so incredibly impressive. It's like Vonnegut, Marukami, Steinbeck, Marquez and also all it's own. It's really the perfect book. read this series, maybe this book first. you won't be sorry.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally, I got into the rhythm of this book but it took some time. It is totally and acquired taste. And, I'm not sure that anyone without living adjacent to the Ozarks could totally appreciate the language and traditions.

Also, know this book was published in the 1970s so there's a lot of non-PC-ness to the book. I didn't like it enough to pick up any of the others in the series.

[Stephen Griffith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't finish this. I started it based on a recommendation from a friend who knows I like Harry Crews and some of Daniel Woodrell's books. It was ok but not quite what I was looking for and I just decided to stop spending time on it.

[kenzie · Rating 1 out of 5]

TOUGH read. Had to read it for a class, it’s decent for the first 200ish pages then gets over crowded and rushed for the next 225! Really really really did not need to go farther than Jacob and even bits of him were too much. Back half ruined any good parts of the beginning.

[Adriane Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books