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I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories
William Gay firmly established himself as "the big new name to include in the storied annals of Southern Lit" ( Esquire ) with his debut novel, The Long Home, and his critically acclaimed follow-up, Provinces of Night. Like Faulkner's Mississippi and Cormac McCarthy's American West, Gay's Tennessee is redolent of broken, colorful souls hard at work charting the pathos of their interior lives. His debut collection, I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, brings together what Gay's dedicated readers are eager for and what new readers will find the perfect introduction to his thirteen stories that are mined from this same fertile soil teeming with the grizzled, everyday folk that Gay is famous for bringing to life. In these pages readers meet old man Meecham, who escapes from his new nursing home only to find his son has rented their homestead to "white trash"; Quincy Nell Qualls, who not only falls in love with the town lothario but, pregnant, is faced with an inescapable end when he abandons her; Finis and Doneita Beasley, whose forty-year marriage is broken up by a dead dog; Bobby Pettijohn, who is awakened in the middle of the night by the noise and lights of a search party looking for clues after a body is discovered in his backwoods. William Gay expertly sets these conflicted people who make bad choices in life and love against lush back-country scenery, and somehow manages to defy moral logic as we grow to love his characters for the weight of their human errors. Diverse as these tales are, what connects them is the powerful voice of a born storyteller.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published September 24, 2002
111 people are currently reading
5055 people want to read
About the author
William Gay
37 books539 followersWilliam Elbert Gay was the author of the novels Provinces of Night, The Long Home, and Twilight and the short story collection I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down. He was the winner of the 1999 William Peden Award and the 1999 James A. Michener Memorial Prize and the recipient of a 2002 Guggenheim Fellowship.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 234 reviews
February 14, 2018
Excellent writing within these thirteen stories without one happy ending. Not one.
The endings will range from sad and regretful to down right gut wrenching.
Characters will meet their demise by accident, murder, suicide, disease and delusion.
The title story, one of my favorites, has been made into a movie starring Hal Holbrook.
In an interview with Holbrook about this movie he states that his in-laws are from this area of Tennessee and that he believes he has a good grasp of this type of people. "Did not know the meaning of quit" he says. I have to say that I've seen that "no quit" attitude in different people from every station in life, in Supreme Court justices, and in leaders of nations all over the world. But yes, that certainly does describe a lot of the people in Tennessee and some of those characters are within these stories.
That Evening Sun trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq4Kn...
William Gay made evident his love for music within this book. Song title's and lyrics are used throughout the writing.
My own search for these referenced songs always proved interesting.
Good 'Til Now by Gillian Welch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFmFV...
1) I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down - 5 stars
2) A Death in the Woods - 4 stars
3) Bonedaddy, Quincy Nell, and the Fifteen Thousand BTU Electric Chair - 4 stars
4) The Paperhanger - 5 stars
5) The Man Who Knew Dylan - 3 stars
6) Those Deep Elm Brown's Ferry Blues - 4 stars
7) Crossroads Blues - 3 stars
8) Closure and Roadkill on the Life's Highway - 4 stars
9) Sugarbaby - 5 stars
10) Standing by Peaceful Waters - 4 stars
11) Good 'Til Now - 5 stars
12) The Lightpainter - 4 stars
!3) My Hand Is Just Fine Where It Is - 4 stars
excerpts may be spoiler(ish)
The endings will range from sad and regretful to down right gut wrenching.
Characters will meet their demise by accident, murder, suicide, disease and delusion.
The title story, one of my favorites, has been made into a movie starring Hal Holbrook.
In an interview with Holbrook about this movie he states that his in-laws are from this area of Tennessee and that he believes he has a good grasp of this type of people. "Did not know the meaning of quit" he says. I have to say that I've seen that "no quit" attitude in different people from every station in life, in Supreme Court justices, and in leaders of nations all over the world. But yes, that certainly does describe a lot of the people in Tennessee and some of those characters are within these stories.
That Evening Sun trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq4Kn...
William Gay made evident his love for music within this book. Song title's and lyrics are used throughout the writing.
My own search for these referenced songs always proved interesting.
Good 'Til Now by Gillian Welch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFmFV...
1) I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down - 5 stars
2) A Death in the Woods - 4 stars
3) Bonedaddy, Quincy Nell, and the Fifteen Thousand BTU Electric Chair - 4 stars
4) The Paperhanger - 5 stars
5) The Man Who Knew Dylan - 3 stars
6) Those Deep Elm Brown's Ferry Blues - 4 stars
7) Crossroads Blues - 3 stars
8) Closure and Roadkill on the Life's Highway - 4 stars
9) Sugarbaby - 5 stars
10) Standing by Peaceful Waters - 4 stars
11) Good 'Til Now - 5 stars
12) The Lightpainter - 4 stars
!3) My Hand Is Just Fine Where It Is - 4 stars
excerpts may be spoiler(ish)
September 13, 2021
The desolation is laid out and it is complete in these 13 short stories by William Gay. "...a smell of sweat and whiskey and slow ruin." Pick your pleasure and get your beer at either Big Mama's or Goblin's Knob. A man name of Bonedaddy. Bugler smoking tobacco and rolling papers. The pounding heat of the day turning malign. Split second decisions that result in irrevocable damage. Take a look at the folks you are reading about - you can read their lives written in their faces. No happy outcomes are to be had.
January 9, 2019
William Gay peoples his world with a lot of pathological characters… They live dangerously… They abide in twilight… Their brains squirm like toads…
His dark and despondent style may be traced to Flannery O’Connor and Raymond Carver. And at times even to Charles Bukowski.
The future is uncertain. Death is always near.
She’d asked him about drugs once and never forgotten what he’d said. Everybody’s on drugs, he said. The world’s on drugs. Heroin, sex, booze, money. Television. Comfort. What I get from you, that’s a drug. Calmness. Any kind of crutch you can hobble through the goddamned day on is a drug. Darkness.
His dark and despondent style may be traced to Flannery O’Connor and Raymond Carver. And at times even to Charles Bukowski.
The Grim Reaper had leaned to him face to face and laid a hand to each of his shoulders and kissed him hard on the mouth, he could smell the carrion breath and taste graveyard dirt on his tongue. He suddenly saw that all his youthful optimism was long gone, that his time had come and gone to waste. That things were not all right and would probably not be all right again.
The future is uncertain. Death is always near.
September 17, 2017
I hate to see that evenin sun go down,
cause it makes me think I'm on my last go-around.*
Gay uses lovely prose to lay down stories of some unhappy people involved in nasty affairs and even nastier murders.
Sometime that night, or another night, he went out the screen door onto the back porch, dressed only in his pajama bottoms, the night air cool on his skin. Whippoorwills were tolling out of the dark and a milky blind cat's eye of a moon hung above the jagged treeline. Out there in the dark patches of velvet, patches of silver where moonlight was scattered through the leaves like coins. The world looked strange yet in some way familiar. Not a world he was seeing, but one he was remembering. He looked down expecting to see a child's bare feet on the floorboards and saw that he had heard the screen door slap to as a child but had inexplicably become an old man, gnarled feet on thin blue shanks of legs, and the jury-rigged architecture of time itself came undone, warped and ran like melting glass.
See? Wasn't that a beautiful piece of writing? But trust me - something bad will happen soon.
Though I was quite enamored of these great titles: Closure and Roadkill on the Life's Highway and Boonedaddy, Quincy Nell, and the Fifteen Thousand BTU Electric Chair, my favorite tale was the title story in which an elderly man escapes from an old folks' home - It's a factory where they make dead folks, and I ain't workin there no more. He arrives at his house to find that his dirty rotten son has sold it out from under him. Not one to run away from a fight, he takes up residence in the old tenant shack, and sets about making life miserable for the new owners.
Once again - these are not pretty, feel-good stories, but if you're looking for well written tales of hard people living hard lives, you need look no further than this collection.
*Jimmie Rodgers, Blue Yodel No. 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSbQI...
cause it makes me think I'm on my last go-around.*
Gay uses lovely prose to lay down stories of some unhappy people involved in nasty affairs and even nastier murders.
Sometime that night, or another night, he went out the screen door onto the back porch, dressed only in his pajama bottoms, the night air cool on his skin. Whippoorwills were tolling out of the dark and a milky blind cat's eye of a moon hung above the jagged treeline. Out there in the dark patches of velvet, patches of silver where moonlight was scattered through the leaves like coins. The world looked strange yet in some way familiar. Not a world he was seeing, but one he was remembering. He looked down expecting to see a child's bare feet on the floorboards and saw that he had heard the screen door slap to as a child but had inexplicably become an old man, gnarled feet on thin blue shanks of legs, and the jury-rigged architecture of time itself came undone, warped and ran like melting glass.
See? Wasn't that a beautiful piece of writing? But trust me - something bad will happen soon.
Though I was quite enamored of these great titles: Closure and Roadkill on the Life's Highway and Boonedaddy, Quincy Nell, and the Fifteen Thousand BTU Electric Chair, my favorite tale was the title story in which an elderly man escapes from an old folks' home - It's a factory where they make dead folks, and I ain't workin there no more. He arrives at his house to find that his dirty rotten son has sold it out from under him. Not one to run away from a fight, he takes up residence in the old tenant shack, and sets about making life miserable for the new owners.
Once again - these are not pretty, feel-good stories, but if you're looking for well written tales of hard people living hard lives, you need look no further than this collection.
*Jimmie Rodgers, Blue Yodel No. 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSbQI...
October 24, 2022
Here is where I started to write a list of favorites but it was just every story. I loved that Bonedaddy either survived Quincy Nell to die by Scribner’s hand three stories later, or Bonedaddy is such the specter and legend that his death happened a hundred different times, a hundred different ways.
September 7, 2022
It is only fitting that this collection and the first story are titled I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, since it was the first story that Gay published that gained him the recognition that here was a new writer who had to be reckoned with, this despite his being self-educated, self-taught, and in his late fifties.
There are thirteen stories in the collection and twelve of them have unhappy endings, the only exception being one that ends on a happy, though bittersweet, note. But that is to be expected since the stories are populated with hardscrabble, poverty-stricken characters, many of whom are immoral -- or worse, amoral -- and are dealing with emotional pain, or fear, or rage, and who often resort to violence in an effort to solve their problems.
One of Gay’s talents is the crafting of opening lines that reel in the reader. For example, the title story opens this way:
“When the taxicab let old man Meecham out in the dirty roadbed by his mailbox the first thing he noticed was that someone was living in his house.”
That opening had Flannery O’Connor written all over it, and the story, especially the ending, re-enforced my belief that it had been influenced by one of the masters of short fiction. I wasn’t surprised when I later discovered that O’Connor was one of Gay’s acknowledged influences. He said the Signet edition of O’Connor’s short story collection, A Good Man is Hard to Find, was the best 35 cents he ever spent.
His other major influence was Cormac McCarthy. He said that McCarthy was simply the greatest writer he had ever read. He said that when he first read McCarthy that he immediately knew what kind of writer he wanted to be.
******
I think writers have to have a touchstone. The rural landscape is mine. Sometimes I write scenes just to get to write a summer storm.” – William Gay
******
Speaking of opening lines, The Paperhanger begins this way:
“The vanishing of the doctor’s wife’s child in broad daylight was an event so cataclysmic that it forever divided time into then and now, the before and the after.”
This story is probably the one that readers most remember, and will never forget. It has appeared in over a dozen anthologies, making it one of the most anthologized stories ever, and it also won an O. Henry Award.
That said, I’m not going to divulge anything about the plot other than what is in the opening line. But if you read the story be sure to buckle-up, for it is a bumpy ride.
William Gay was born in the small town of Hohenwald, Tennessee, not far from the Alabama line. He grew up there and after serving in the navy during the Vietnam War and spending some years living in New York and Chicago he returned to Hohenwald where he lived until his death in 2012.
Folks who had known him all his life and knew him as the son of a sharecropper, as a person with limited education, who made his living hanging sheetrock or paper, painting houses, or working at other odd jobs, had a hard time believing that a best-selling author had blossomed in their midst.
One woman he knew asked him if anyone was helping him to write his books.
“I said, ‘What do you mean by that?’” he recalled. “And she said, ‘Well I knew your family a long time, and they’re not that smart. I knew you when you were younger, and you’re not that smart. I was wondering if you had somebody who took out the little words and put in the big words.'”
There is no record of his response.
Finally, here is the opening line to “Good ‘Til Now”:
“Vangie thought this day would never end, and what got her through it was thinking about the time her husband had been fired for having sex with a woman in a cardboard carton.”
I don’t know whose influence led Gay to write that line, but I assume it wasn’t Flannery O’Connor
There are thirteen stories in the collection and twelve of them have unhappy endings, the only exception being one that ends on a happy, though bittersweet, note. But that is to be expected since the stories are populated with hardscrabble, poverty-stricken characters, many of whom are immoral -- or worse, amoral -- and are dealing with emotional pain, or fear, or rage, and who often resort to violence in an effort to solve their problems.
One of Gay’s talents is the crafting of opening lines that reel in the reader. For example, the title story opens this way:
“When the taxicab let old man Meecham out in the dirty roadbed by his mailbox the first thing he noticed was that someone was living in his house.”
That opening had Flannery O’Connor written all over it, and the story, especially the ending, re-enforced my belief that it had been influenced by one of the masters of short fiction. I wasn’t surprised when I later discovered that O’Connor was one of Gay’s acknowledged influences. He said the Signet edition of O’Connor’s short story collection, A Good Man is Hard to Find, was the best 35 cents he ever spent.
His other major influence was Cormac McCarthy. He said that McCarthy was simply the greatest writer he had ever read. He said that when he first read McCarthy that he immediately knew what kind of writer he wanted to be.
******
I think writers have to have a touchstone. The rural landscape is mine. Sometimes I write scenes just to get to write a summer storm.” – William Gay
******
Speaking of opening lines, The Paperhanger begins this way:
“The vanishing of the doctor’s wife’s child in broad daylight was an event so cataclysmic that it forever divided time into then and now, the before and the after.”
This story is probably the one that readers most remember, and will never forget. It has appeared in over a dozen anthologies, making it one of the most anthologized stories ever, and it also won an O. Henry Award.
That said, I’m not going to divulge anything about the plot other than what is in the opening line. But if you read the story be sure to buckle-up, for it is a bumpy ride.
William Gay was born in the small town of Hohenwald, Tennessee, not far from the Alabama line. He grew up there and after serving in the navy during the Vietnam War and spending some years living in New York and Chicago he returned to Hohenwald where he lived until his death in 2012.
Folks who had known him all his life and knew him as the son of a sharecropper, as a person with limited education, who made his living hanging sheetrock or paper, painting houses, or working at other odd jobs, had a hard time believing that a best-selling author had blossomed in their midst.
One woman he knew asked him if anyone was helping him to write his books.
“I said, ‘What do you mean by that?’” he recalled. “And she said, ‘Well I knew your family a long time, and they’re not that smart. I knew you when you were younger, and you’re not that smart. I was wondering if you had somebody who took out the little words and put in the big words.'”
There is no record of his response.
Finally, here is the opening line to “Good ‘Til Now”:
“Vangie thought this day would never end, and what got her through it was thinking about the time her husband had been fired for having sex with a woman in a cardboard carton.”
I don’t know whose influence led Gay to write that line, but I assume it wasn’t Flannery O’Connor
May 3, 2021
You won't want to come here if your looking for rainbows and sunshine and happy endings. Thats soooo not William Gay. Move along.
This collection of 13 stories, like his novels, are invariably, decidedly, the exact opposite of that. Dark, ominous, sorrowful, often violent tales of ordinary people native to his rural Tennessee landscape. I'm beginning to realize that versatility is not Gay's thing. He's quite comfortable writing in his niche- a dark and dangerous world where bad things often happen. But he does it with a homespun lyrical prose, a stylish vernacular, a whiskey voice that evokes the harsh reality of his characters fated existence.
Broken marriages beset with infidelity and violence, old people cast aside, life's course irrevocably altered in a heartbeat by a single bad decision. Vangie in 'Good 'Til Now' asks herself:
'Maybe we are all the authors of our own doom, she thought. Maybe we lay by the cobwebbed artifacts we'll need for our future undoing. At some unknown point we'll rummage through them for the cord that fits the throat just so, the knife with the perfect edge.'
Like I said, no rainbows here. Gay has no use for them. But HELLFIRE, he is so good.
1) I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down
5/5
2) A Death In The Woods - 4/5
3) Bonedaddy - 4/5
4) The Paperhanger - 5/5
5) The Man Who Knew Dylan - 3/5
6) The Deep Elm's Brown Ferry Blues - 5/5
7) Crossroads Blues - 4/5
8) Closure and Roadkill On The Lifes
Highway - 5/5
9) Sugarbaby - 5/5
10) Standing By Peaceful Waters - 5/5
11) Good Til Now - 3/5
12) The Light painter-5/5
13) My Hand Is Fine Where It Is - 3/5
This collection of 13 stories, like his novels, are invariably, decidedly, the exact opposite of that. Dark, ominous, sorrowful, often violent tales of ordinary people native to his rural Tennessee landscape. I'm beginning to realize that versatility is not Gay's thing. He's quite comfortable writing in his niche- a dark and dangerous world where bad things often happen. But he does it with a homespun lyrical prose, a stylish vernacular, a whiskey voice that evokes the harsh reality of his characters fated existence.
Broken marriages beset with infidelity and violence, old people cast aside, life's course irrevocably altered in a heartbeat by a single bad decision. Vangie in 'Good 'Til Now' asks herself:
'Maybe we are all the authors of our own doom, she thought. Maybe we lay by the cobwebbed artifacts we'll need for our future undoing. At some unknown point we'll rummage through them for the cord that fits the throat just so, the knife with the perfect edge.'
Like I said, no rainbows here. Gay has no use for them. But HELLFIRE, he is so good.
1) I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down
5/5
2) A Death In The Woods - 4/5
3) Bonedaddy - 4/5
4) The Paperhanger - 5/5
5) The Man Who Knew Dylan - 3/5
6) The Deep Elm's Brown Ferry Blues - 5/5
7) Crossroads Blues - 4/5
8) Closure and Roadkill On The Lifes
Highway - 5/5
9) Sugarbaby - 5/5
10) Standing By Peaceful Waters - 5/5
11) Good Til Now - 3/5
12) The Light painter-5/5
13) My Hand Is Fine Where It Is - 3/5
June 18, 2017
I read this in about 2 days on vacation in South Carolina, and it was perfect. The emotional content of these stories is intense, and the relationships of men and women in love is blended with spike needles of violence which arrives suddenly and shockingly. These are real people, down and outers mixing with the newly successful. People losing their culture and land due to modern encroachments in culture and politics. Gay is a special writer, he reminds me of Larry Brown and is every bit as talented. I know less about this author and that mystery allows me to approach his art openly. These stories interlace through characters, sometimes contradictory but mostly a coming together over time and from different perspectives, evincing Raymond Carver.
Gay is master of the trope of short story, often revealing the surprising truth at the end. He is gone but I would like to honor his memory and dedication by encouraging all you writers out there, toiling for some future reader who, like myself who will derive great knowledge and pleasure from what you do, perhaps long after you have laid down your inspiration.
Gay is master of the trope of short story, often revealing the surprising truth at the end. He is gone but I would like to honor his memory and dedication by encouraging all you writers out there, toiling for some future reader who, like myself who will derive great knowledge and pleasure from what you do, perhaps long after you have laid down your inspiration.
August 19, 2022
The late William Gay became a publishing sensation late in his life after many of his early manuscripts were rejected and lost. Gay's short stories, accounts of various rustic southerners who are often forced afoul of the law as they attempt to defend their own principles in a world that has passed them by, were his first sip of literary success; many of his early efforts are collected here. The stories themselves are related to, but also wildly different than, those of Flannery O'Connor, set to the guiding principles of old blues songs rather than those of Catholicism.
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down - 4/5
A Death in the Woods - 4/5
Bonedaddy, Quincy Nell, and the Fifteen Thousand BTU Electric Chair - 5/5
The Paperhanger - 4/5
The Man Who Knew Dylan - 4/5
Those Deep Elm Brown's Ferry Blues - 5/5
Crossroads Blues - 3/5
Closure and Roadkill on the Life's Highway - 4/5
Sugarbaby - 4/5
Standing by Peaceful Waters - 3/5
Good 'Til Now - 4/5
The Lightpainter - 4/5
My Hand Is Just Fine Where It Is - 3/5
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down - 4/5
A Death in the Woods - 4/5
Bonedaddy, Quincy Nell, and the Fifteen Thousand BTU Electric Chair - 5/5
The Paperhanger - 4/5
The Man Who Knew Dylan - 4/5
Those Deep Elm Brown's Ferry Blues - 5/5
Crossroads Blues - 3/5
Closure and Roadkill on the Life's Highway - 4/5
Sugarbaby - 4/5
Standing by Peaceful Waters - 3/5
Good 'Til Now - 4/5
The Lightpainter - 4/5
My Hand Is Just Fine Where It Is - 3/5
September 5, 2015
I purchased a used hardcover copy via Amazon for cheap. When it arrived I realized for the first time that I actually purchased from the Goodwill Industry of Middle Tennessee. Then I opened up the package and OMG!!!!
Signed by William Gay himself!
Signed by William Gay himself!
December 27, 2012
I love William Gay's writing and was so sad to learn of his passing.
His writing is unlike any I've ever read before. People praise Cormac McCarthy - and rightfully so - but Gay surpasses the portraits he paints with his words, even as sparse as McCarthy.
Such a treat.
His writing is unlike any I've ever read before. People praise Cormac McCarthy - and rightfully so - but Gay surpasses the portraits he paints with his words, even as sparse as McCarthy.
Such a treat.
May 19, 2017
I don't pass out fives casually and I don't play. Best Collection of Short Stories- Ever
April 4, 2015
Gay has a way of mixing the most unlikely of elements together in a way that provides genuine realism to each of these twisted, quick plots. Each of these tales could have easily been developed into full blown novels, but yet, they are in no way incomplete in the presented format. Who would think a teenage mutant ninja turtle backpack would have a non-cheesy place in a short about a love gone wrong, failed suicide attempt? Yet, these little quirks are blended into the story in a way that without that detail would be somehow incomplete.
Having read Twilight earlier, I was reluctant to think that short stories would be his "thing" with so much detailed imagery in the novel.....boy was I wrong. These little tales all remind me of something I have once known somewhere along the way, but without his nudges I might have regrettably forgotten. All tragic, but each unique. His descriptions of rural Tennessee seem to reveal his unique place in just that same spot; no doubt the characters are developed (I would think) straight out of the pages of his own all too short life. Wish he was still around because his unique vantage is one that I will miss, and from which there is much to gain. My favorites were the first four stories along with "Sugarbaby" and The "Lightpainter", but none are not worthy of the time it takes to read.
Having read Twilight earlier, I was reluctant to think that short stories would be his "thing" with so much detailed imagery in the novel.....boy was I wrong. These little tales all remind me of something I have once known somewhere along the way, but without his nudges I might have regrettably forgotten. All tragic, but each unique. His descriptions of rural Tennessee seem to reveal his unique place in just that same spot; no doubt the characters are developed (I would think) straight out of the pages of his own all too short life. Wish he was still around because his unique vantage is one that I will miss, and from which there is much to gain. My favorites were the first four stories along with "Sugarbaby" and The "Lightpainter", but none are not worthy of the time it takes to read.
January 22, 2026
Glum stories about rednecks and redneck-hippies. Gay's atmospheric writing made all 13 stories good reading, but when I finished and thought about it, I can only count three that I actually liked: The titular story, Those Deep Elm Brown’s Ferry Blues, and Sugarbaby. These three stories were about grouchy geezers who finally snap.
November 26, 2014
I hate absolutes and grand statements, but I'm going to say it anyway...this is probably the best collection of short stories I've ever read. Okay, that's probably too grand, so I'll just say it's one of the best I've read in a while.
Firstly - I love Southern Gothic fiction.
Secondly - William Gay is a master wordsmith. His descriptions are perfectly poetic and poetically perfect.
Thirdly - I love interesting and layered characters and Gay's characters are some of the best (even the ones that might be viewed as stereotypes).
Fourthly - One of the biggest issues that people seem to have with short stories is they feel incomplete and though they end, lack a real ending. And while I enjoy reading short stories, I would say in many cases this is true. But Gay? Gay somehow tells a complete story with well-developed characters and themes while managing a satisfying ending in almost every case, all within 20-30 pages.
I could probably go on, but I think I've made my case.
I first became interested in Gay after reading an interview with him in the literary magazine Glimmer Train, but it wasn't until I read an interview with Ron Rash--whose writing I also enjoy--where he named Gay as one of his biggest influences that I finally ordered a few novels/short-story collections. Needless to say, I'm hooked.
Would recommend to fans of Flannery O'Connor, Ron Rash, William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Wolfe, etc.
Firstly - I love Southern Gothic fiction.
Secondly - William Gay is a master wordsmith. His descriptions are perfectly poetic and poetically perfect.
Thirdly - I love interesting and layered characters and Gay's characters are some of the best (even the ones that might be viewed as stereotypes).
Fourthly - One of the biggest issues that people seem to have with short stories is they feel incomplete and though they end, lack a real ending. And while I enjoy reading short stories, I would say in many cases this is true. But Gay? Gay somehow tells a complete story with well-developed characters and themes while managing a satisfying ending in almost every case, all within 20-30 pages.
I could probably go on, but I think I've made my case.
I first became interested in Gay after reading an interview with him in the literary magazine Glimmer Train, but it wasn't until I read an interview with Ron Rash--whose writing I also enjoy--where he named Gay as one of his biggest influences that I finally ordered a few novels/short-story collections. Needless to say, I'm hooked.
Would recommend to fans of Flannery O'Connor, Ron Rash, William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Wolfe, etc.
October 2, 2010
I read this one very slowly because, one, it demands it, and two, I never wanted it to end — much like the rural Tennesseean characters themselves in the collection. Most of them are faced with some inevitable life change, some "setting sun," and they rage against this dying of the light in their own ways, whether it's adultery or murder or . . . okay, so mostly adultery or murder. These are prideful, stubborn folk.
Here in short form, Gay really shines, because it better focuses and balances the meandering tendency of his novels with the gorgeous, painterly language that keeps me reading. This one's coming with me to that desert island. Though I suppose having it in my Kindle negates that debate.
Here in short form, Gay really shines, because it better focuses and balances the meandering tendency of his novels with the gorgeous, painterly language that keeps me reading. This one's coming with me to that desert island. Though I suppose having it in my Kindle negates that debate.
December 29, 2024
5-stars is not enough to express what a stunningly brilliant collection this is. It is just overwhelming. “The Paperhanger” is probably a masterpiece of short fiction.
I should add that I am not Southern, and I sure as hell ain’t rural. And so, it takes a lot for me to be able to connect with rural Southern writers. So add yet an extra star for that. Anyway, fwiw…
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down (2003):
“The Paperhanger” [6]
“I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down” [5.5]
“A Death in the Woods” [5.5]
“Bonedaddy, Quincy Nell, & the 15,000 BTU Electric Chair” [5.5]
“Good ’Til Now” [5.5]
“The Lightpainter” [5.5]
“The Man Who Knew Dylan” [5]
“Closure and Roadkill on the Life’s Highway” [5]
“My Hand Is Just Fine Where It Is” [4.5]
“Those Deep Elm Brown’s Ferry Blue” [4]
“Crossroads Blues” [4]
“Sugarbaby” [—]
“Standing by Peaceful Waters” [—]
Referring to “The Paperhanger”, I had missed this reference (I should have caught it) from the famous 1937 speech by Cardinal Mundelein on the recent transformation of German public opinion: ‘Perhaps you will ask how it is that a nation of 60 million intelligent people will submit in fear and servitude to an alien, an Austrian paper hanger, and a poor one at that, and a few associates like Goebbels and Göring, who dictate every move of the people's lives?' [The Cardinal went on to suggest that the brains of 60 million Germans had been removed without their even noticing it.]
I should add that I am not Southern, and I sure as hell ain’t rural. And so, it takes a lot for me to be able to connect with rural Southern writers. So add yet an extra star for that. Anyway, fwiw…
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down (2003):
“The Paperhanger” [6]
“I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down” [5.5]
“A Death in the Woods” [5.5]
“Bonedaddy, Quincy Nell, & the 15,000 BTU Electric Chair” [5.5]
“Good ’Til Now” [5.5]
“The Lightpainter” [5.5]
“The Man Who Knew Dylan” [5]
“Closure and Roadkill on the Life’s Highway” [5]
“My Hand Is Just Fine Where It Is” [4.5]
“Those Deep Elm Brown’s Ferry Blue” [4]
“Crossroads Blues” [4]
“Sugarbaby” [—]
“Standing by Peaceful Waters” [—]
Referring to “The Paperhanger”, I had missed this reference (I should have caught it) from the famous 1937 speech by Cardinal Mundelein on the recent transformation of German public opinion: ‘Perhaps you will ask how it is that a nation of 60 million intelligent people will submit in fear and servitude to an alien, an Austrian paper hanger, and a poor one at that, and a few associates like Goebbels and Göring, who dictate every move of the people's lives?' [The Cardinal went on to suggest that the brains of 60 million Germans had been removed without their even noticing it.]
February 2, 2008
Gay's prose is both electric and unplugged, to be quite cliche about it. Seriously, though, this is like listening to a scratchy old recording of a great blues singer and feeling as though they are there in the room with you, and that everything they are saying about life and love and regret and the amazing brutality humans are capable of enacting against one other and themselves is a universal chain of language stretching from one social class, gender, and era to the next, unending and unbreakable. I am loathe to praise most writers' prose in such a way, but Gay earns it. You always know when you are reading his work.
May 23, 2017
Update 5/22/17: Reread The Paperhanger Short Story out of this collection. 5 stars hands down. My favorite short story of all time. Dark and Mysterious and intense. This particular short story was another work of literature that has shaped Donald Ray Pollock's writing.
September 1, 2012
I'm giving up now. The fifth story was also murder, evil and people lost to the world. I'll give it 3 stars because of the quality of the writing, but it's too dark for me.
July 17, 2015
Review To Follow
December 2, 2017
These stories are incredible. I’d never heard of this writer before but now I’m so so happy that I did. 🖤
October 8, 2012
William Gay is a fantastic writer. How I hadn't heard of him before is baffling, but I'm glad I know of him now & can read more of his work. Hopefully it'll be just as good as this because this was one of the best short story collections I've ever read. That the writing is so amazing & the stories so riveting & pretty much flawless is what enabled me to ignore that they all shared something else in common: they were really dark, sometimes twisted, often bordering on creepy and always, always heartbreaking. This, surprisingly, doesn't take from the wonderfulness that is William Gay. The first story stole my heart. The Paperhanger broke it. Most gave me chills. And perhaps the most telling thing of all: I remember each and every story in this collection even though it's been about a month since I finished the book & I've read many books after it. It's not easy to write short stories & have them be as good as novels & have them be memorable & have them matter. I think William Gay achieved all this in this collection & I hope I love his other work just as much.
May 27, 2017
I had never read William Gay before this book. Not even sure I'd heard of him. This one popped up on some list of crime short stories and I decided to try him out. Really glad I did. He's a master. I wouldn't say crime is the main element in these stories, though. They're really stories about loss and irreversible decisions.
August 14, 2017
GODDAMN YOU, SUGARBABY!
February 16, 2021
Blasphemy, but I think Flannery O’Connor was a better novelist than a short story writer. No, I don’t think the same about Gay, but his stories differ greatly from conventional stories. Gay’s stories differ greatly from almost all writers’, for he includes nearly as much plot and setting in them as most writers put into a novel. This quirk makes for quite odd and wonderful stories that defy Aristotle’s concept of unity. Another oddity about Gay’s stories concerns his language: his novels strive toward a vocabulary that borders sublime; his stories stay more earthly. Perhaps his focus in the stories stayed more . . . Terrestrial if you will. At any rate, this collection will surely make you wish he has written more. Perhaps your wish will come true, for Michael White has indicated there may be enough manuscripts for one more collection. There was enough for one more novel, which will appear in June of this year, 2021. Fugitives of the Heart, from Livingston Press.
March 16, 2008
William Gay has a gift for portraying the ugly side of human nature and the many dark and violent situations that arise from it with a prose style that is downright lyrical and poetic, even (or especially) if it seems overwrought at times. Comparisons to Cormac McCarthy are a little much, but there is some of that same darkly overwrought elegance in the dna of these stories.
The last two stories of the collection are by far the strongest and most moving, which I mention only because it may at times seem tempting to put the book down long before you get to them because you're tired of reading about poor bastards being screwed over or taken advantage of. This is a book that definitely leaves its mark.
The last two stories of the collection are by far the strongest and most moving, which I mention only because it may at times seem tempting to put the book down long before you get to them because you're tired of reading about poor bastards being screwed over or taken advantage of. This is a book that definitely leaves its mark.
September 30, 2019
My first ride with William Gay and I am blown away. Not a happy ending in sight in this 13 short story collection but that’s ok. He kept my interest with these murderers, drug addicts, down and outs and the whole host of weirdos and degenerates in their attempts to live up to something. I’ve never come across anything similar to these humans he writes about and hope I never will however compelling they are but did they fascinate me in some “what the hell” kind of way? Yes. How does one come up with these scenarios? Hey, if you’re a fan of the riveting Cormac McCarthy you’ll dig this. Recommended!
February 5, 2016
I don't think I have ever read the works of a better writer than William Gay. He is absolutely brilliant. I was THERE in every story. His writing is so evocative that, if I weren't so swept up in the action and the moment, I would reread a sentence or paragraph for the sheer joy of it.
August 21, 2018
William Gay feels like a writer stuck between novels and short stories. His first two novels have felt as if they had more gaps than they should, and this book of stories has felt like perhaps some of the tales were meant to be novel-length and just didn't make it there. That's not to say that some of the stories aren't good - some are amazing. But there is still that sense that Gay wasn't sure exactly who he wanted to be as a writer. Still, all in all, this book is a fine read for anyone who likes McCarthy or Carver.
"I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down" - this condensed story about "old man Meecham" coming home to what, he finds, is no longer home, was well written, but not particularly evocative of the depth I've come to expect of Gay's writing. The characters fit into the world of the Harrikin as it exists in either of his first novels, but the story itself is sort of straight-forward and shallow. I will say that the fact that the story starts off as if it's taking place in the 1920s and then suddenly Meecham's son comes in and it becomes obvious that it's much later was interesting as I've become used to seeing the world in Gay's novel as inherently older, forever stuck in, at the latest, the 1950s.
"A Death in the Woods" - this is the first hint from Gay that he has flirted with the lines between Southern Gothic literature and actual horror writing, which I welcome more of, because this story was very eerie and yet firmly staunched in reality, without the need to resort to the supernatural while evoking true horror nonetheless. The story lags a bit in the middle, where Gay relied on some less-than-stellar dialogue, but the story between the husband and wife carries the story to such a degree that it's impossible not to be enthralled.
"Bonedaddy..." - Flirting with horror just a bit, Bonedaddy goes back to true Southern Gothic, feeling like a complete tale, told by your uncle or your grandfather - no gaps or ambiguous endings. This is also somewhat of a morality tale, which is an interesting twist on Gay's usual formula. The characters are a bit stereotypical, or more stereotypical than Gay's other characters, but the story itself is good without hitting you particularly hard.
"The Paperhanger" - This is a true horror story, and a great one. A fantastic ghost story that, for all intents and purposes, leaves out the ghost. The doctor and his wife aren't fleshed out particularly well, but they're not the most essential characters. I would have liked this to have been a full novela, because I think the story is that good and would allow for such an extension, though without changing the ending, which, in my opinion, is absolutely perfect.
"The Man Who Knew Dylan" - Firmly Gothic and character-driven this time around, Gay has almost written three stories here, with one - Crosswaithe's run-down current life - intersecting and introducing the second - the girl, Carmie, and her father - only to lead to the third - Crosswaithe's old life and perhaps future. It's muddled, to be sure, but the pieces fit together fairly well. The girl feels almost overdone at times, and though the dialogue is good, it reminds me less of Gay's other works and more of Daniel Woodrell in his Bayou Trilogy - punchy, but altogether shallow and meaningless. Still a good story, this might have worked better as two separate stories told from both character's perspectives, allowing them to be fleshed out even further.
"Those Deep..." - This story utilizes a familiar theme in Gay's writing, namely the relationship between parents, once powerful, growing older, and their effect on their children (and grandchildren, as is the case in Gay's second novel, Provinces of Night). "Those" is about a father seemingly in the early stages of dementia (but then again, maybe not, as the story plays with the reader a bit) and his caretaker son. It is, by far, the saddest story I've read within Gay's writing so far, and he is no stranger to sad stories. Interestingly enough, one of my criticisms of Gay's first two novels is that . The writing itself wasn't particularly great, at least compared with the other stories, but the characters themselves, while somewhat derivative of his other characters (Bloodworth, again, from Provinces comes to mind), carried the lack of punch in the writing.
"Crossroads Blues" - This has been the one story in this collection so far that I didn't particularly enjoy. The story wends itself from an almost Chambers-like fantasy/horror landscape into something more akin to Carver's bleak portraits of working-class marriages torn apart. There were times in its ten pages or so that I found myself completely lost, and I felt almost like stopping and starting over, just to get my bearings. It's not that any one aspect of the story is bad or poorly written, but the culmination of all the elements together is disconcerting.
"Closure..." - Another less than stellar offering, which is making me feel as if this collection was front-loaded because the first few stories were arguably the best. Again, Gay has put together some decent, somewhat stereotypical characters, thrown them into a strange but believable plot, and then created an ending that is both surreal and grotesque, while still leaving the reader with a sense of justice. Tennessee itself seems to be playing a bigger part in these stories than in his first two novels, which I like, and this story certainly uses that to its advantage, but it's not enough to sell the plot, in my opinion.
"Sugarbaby" - Now I'm convinced that this collection was organized to be top heavy because this story was barely recognizable when compared to some of the strong early stories in the volume. It feels almost rote to continue to bring up the strength of the characters, but there isn't much besides the characters in this story, and they're not great. I feel like this story has been told before, and more ably, by Faulkner.
"Standing by Peaceful Waters" - "Standing" brings this volume back to form. The story brings an aspect of Tennessee history - the TVA flooding (touched on in Provinces of Night) - into cold relief against the characters and their lives. Again, this story feels like something Faulkner would have written, and certainly McCarthy (the wolf is more than a little reminiscent of Crossing the Border), but Gay brings his own flair to the story, and, thankfully, it ends in a way that feels real.
"Good 'Til Now" - A solid, if atypical, entry into the volume. Gay rarely seems to write from the female perspective, but Vangie is a well-written character, and, although some of the story seems like a sop to those (like me) who enjoy some of the less well-known folk music types, with some unnecessary name drops, the most interesting parts come not in Vangie's relationship with Vandaveer, but with her husband and herself, as she contemplates past wrong done to her and possible future wrongs committed by her. By far not the best story in the volume, but certainly worth reading.
"The Lightpainter" - The premise of the story itself isn't great, and the characters, like some of those previously featured in the book, are somewhat reminiscent of others he's used before, so it's hard to get too involved with them - the empathy that is normally evoked seems strangely absent. Honestly, the story might have worked better from the perspective of Tidewater's wife, having to deal with "the Lightpainter" as this irrational, idealistic man, rather than from Tidewater's perspective, which felt one-dimenstional.
"My Hand..." - A very good, brief story (possibly the shortest in the volume), which focuses on the language itself, and that again evokes a sense of Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love in its focus on a lower-middle-class couple with plenty of history already between them, and more unfolding in the 4 or 5 pages of the story itself. Also like Carver, we're left with a very vague understanding of what came before and how the story ends in the medium to long term.
"I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down" - this condensed story about "old man Meecham" coming home to what, he finds, is no longer home, was well written, but not particularly evocative of the depth I've come to expect of Gay's writing. The characters fit into the world of the Harrikin as it exists in either of his first novels, but the story itself is sort of straight-forward and shallow. I will say that the fact that the story starts off as if it's taking place in the 1920s and then suddenly Meecham's son comes in and it becomes obvious that it's much later was interesting as I've become used to seeing the world in Gay's novel as inherently older, forever stuck in, at the latest, the 1950s.
"A Death in the Woods" - this is the first hint from Gay that he has flirted with the lines between Southern Gothic literature and actual horror writing, which I welcome more of, because this story was very eerie and yet firmly staunched in reality, without the need to resort to the supernatural while evoking true horror nonetheless. The story lags a bit in the middle, where Gay relied on some less-than-stellar dialogue, but the story between the husband and wife carries the story to such a degree that it's impossible not to be enthralled.
"Bonedaddy..." - Flirting with horror just a bit, Bonedaddy goes back to true Southern Gothic, feeling like a complete tale, told by your uncle or your grandfather - no gaps or ambiguous endings. This is also somewhat of a morality tale, which is an interesting twist on Gay's usual formula. The characters are a bit stereotypical, or more stereotypical than Gay's other characters, but the story itself is good without hitting you particularly hard.
"The Paperhanger" - This is a true horror story, and a great one. A fantastic ghost story that, for all intents and purposes, leaves out the ghost. The doctor and his wife aren't fleshed out particularly well, but they're not the most essential characters. I would have liked this to have been a full novela, because I think the story is that good and would allow for such an extension, though without changing the ending, which, in my opinion, is absolutely perfect.
"The Man Who Knew Dylan" - Firmly Gothic and character-driven this time around, Gay has almost written three stories here, with one - Crosswaithe's run-down current life - intersecting and introducing the second - the girl, Carmie, and her father - only to lead to the third - Crosswaithe's old life and perhaps future. It's muddled, to be sure, but the pieces fit together fairly well. The girl feels almost overdone at times, and though the dialogue is good, it reminds me less of Gay's other works and more of Daniel Woodrell in his Bayou Trilogy - punchy, but altogether shallow and meaningless. Still a good story, this might have worked better as two separate stories told from both character's perspectives, allowing them to be fleshed out even further.
"Those Deep..." - This story utilizes a familiar theme in Gay's writing, namely the relationship between parents, once powerful, growing older, and their effect on their children (and grandchildren, as is the case in Gay's second novel, Provinces of Night). "Those" is about a father seemingly in the early stages of dementia (but then again, maybe not, as the story plays with the reader a bit) and his caretaker son. It is, by far, the saddest story I've read within Gay's writing so far, and he is no stranger to sad stories. Interestingly enough, one of my criticisms of Gay's first two novels is that . The writing itself wasn't particularly great, at least compared with the other stories, but the characters themselves, while somewhat derivative of his other characters (Bloodworth, again, from Provinces comes to mind), carried the lack of punch in the writing.
"Crossroads Blues" - This has been the one story in this collection so far that I didn't particularly enjoy. The story wends itself from an almost Chambers-like fantasy/horror landscape into something more akin to Carver's bleak portraits of working-class marriages torn apart. There were times in its ten pages or so that I found myself completely lost, and I felt almost like stopping and starting over, just to get my bearings. It's not that any one aspect of the story is bad or poorly written, but the culmination of all the elements together is disconcerting.
"Closure..." - Another less than stellar offering, which is making me feel as if this collection was front-loaded because the first few stories were arguably the best. Again, Gay has put together some decent, somewhat stereotypical characters, thrown them into a strange but believable plot, and then created an ending that is both surreal and grotesque, while still leaving the reader with a sense of justice. Tennessee itself seems to be playing a bigger part in these stories than in his first two novels, which I like, and this story certainly uses that to its advantage, but it's not enough to sell the plot, in my opinion.
"Sugarbaby" - Now I'm convinced that this collection was organized to be top heavy because this story was barely recognizable when compared to some of the strong early stories in the volume. It feels almost rote to continue to bring up the strength of the characters, but there isn't much besides the characters in this story, and they're not great. I feel like this story has been told before, and more ably, by Faulkner.
"Standing by Peaceful Waters" - "Standing" brings this volume back to form. The story brings an aspect of Tennessee history - the TVA flooding (touched on in Provinces of Night) - into cold relief against the characters and their lives. Again, this story feels like something Faulkner would have written, and certainly McCarthy (the wolf is more than a little reminiscent of Crossing the Border), but Gay brings his own flair to the story, and, thankfully, it ends in a way that feels real.
"Good 'Til Now" - A solid, if atypical, entry into the volume. Gay rarely seems to write from the female perspective, but Vangie is a well-written character, and, although some of the story seems like a sop to those (like me) who enjoy some of the less well-known folk music types, with some unnecessary name drops, the most interesting parts come not in Vangie's relationship with Vandaveer, but with her husband and herself, as she contemplates past wrong done to her and possible future wrongs committed by her. By far not the best story in the volume, but certainly worth reading.
"The Lightpainter" - The premise of the story itself isn't great, and the characters, like some of those previously featured in the book, are somewhat reminiscent of others he's used before, so it's hard to get too involved with them - the empathy that is normally evoked seems strangely absent. Honestly, the story might have worked better from the perspective of Tidewater's wife, having to deal with "the Lightpainter" as this irrational, idealistic man, rather than from Tidewater's perspective, which felt one-dimenstional.
"My Hand..." - A very good, brief story (possibly the shortest in the volume), which focuses on the language itself, and that again evokes a sense of Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love in its focus on a lower-middle-class couple with plenty of history already between them, and more unfolding in the 4 or 5 pages of the story itself. Also like Carver, we're left with a very vague understanding of what came before and how the story ends in the medium to long term.
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