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Weedy Rough
Duny Gene Pay, son of one of Weedy Rough, Arkansas's leading citizens, is mysteriously involved in a bank robbery which leaves two people dead and ends in a trail of murder
345 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1981
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 9, 2020
"Weedy Rough" was the first of seventeen Douglas C. Jones novels that I have read, most of them more than once. I would have read more, but that is all that he wrote. Years ago when I picked up this book at my local library I had no idea who he was; I just liked the title. Little did I know then that it was chronologically, if not in the order of publication, the conclusion of a long series of books about the Hasford-Pay family that began with Elkhorn Tavern and The Barefoot Brigade. Over the years I did a lot of backtracking.
In Winding Stair, set in the 1890's, the reader became acquainted with young Eben Pay, a wet behind the ears assistant prosecutor in Judge Isaac Parker's court, who also rode with marshal Oscar Schiller and his Osage tracker, Joe Mountain, in a manhunt for a gang of murderous cutthroats in the Indian Territory.
Eben not only found adventure in the Territory, but also found a wife, a member of the Cherokee tribe. They married and eventually had a son, whom they named Barton.
Fast forward to the years after World War I and Barton and his family have moved to the town of Weedy Rough in the northwestern corner of Arkansas. Barton soon becomes one of the small town's (with a name like Weedy Rough, it would have to be a small town) leading citizens. But there's one hitch: his wife has never come to terms with her husband's Indian blood, nor that of her son. Duny Gene.
Duny Gene comes to age during the '20's engaging in mischief and sometimes actions of a more serious nature. There is concern that he is being led astray by a roughneck named Hoadie Renkin (with a name like that he would have to be a roughneck).
To tell what eventually develops would spoil a good story for anyone who has not read the book. But I will mention as a teaser, however, that before the story ends Eben Pay, Duny Gene's grandfather, does make an appearance.
By the way, the town of Weedy Rough is based on the real town of Winslow, which is located about half-way between Fayetteville and Fort Smith. You can rest assured that Jones' descriptions of the town and its environs are on target since he was born there in 1924. I don't know how small it was then, but today it has a population of less than four hundred people.
In Winding Stair, set in the 1890's, the reader became acquainted with young Eben Pay, a wet behind the ears assistant prosecutor in Judge Isaac Parker's court, who also rode with marshal Oscar Schiller and his Osage tracker, Joe Mountain, in a manhunt for a gang of murderous cutthroats in the Indian Territory.
Eben not only found adventure in the Territory, but also found a wife, a member of the Cherokee tribe. They married and eventually had a son, whom they named Barton.
Fast forward to the years after World War I and Barton and his family have moved to the town of Weedy Rough in the northwestern corner of Arkansas. Barton soon becomes one of the small town's (with a name like Weedy Rough, it would have to be a small town) leading citizens. But there's one hitch: his wife has never come to terms with her husband's Indian blood, nor that of her son. Duny Gene.
Duny Gene comes to age during the '20's engaging in mischief and sometimes actions of a more serious nature. There is concern that he is being led astray by a roughneck named Hoadie Renkin (with a name like that he would have to be a roughneck).
To tell what eventually develops would spoil a good story for anyone who has not read the book. But I will mention as a teaser, however, that before the story ends Eben Pay, Duny Gene's grandfather, does make an appearance.
By the way, the town of Weedy Rough is based on the real town of Winslow, which is located about half-way between Fayetteville and Fort Smith. You can rest assured that Jones' descriptions of the town and its environs are on target since he was born there in 1924. I don't know how small it was then, but today it has a population of less than four hundred people.
August 10, 2020
This is the last of the Pay/Hasford books, following characters from Elkhorn Tavern in 1862 for 70 years or so, sending them out west and back to Arkansas over time. Eban Pay was the star of the last two books, and Weedy Rough finds his son, Barton, and grandson, Duny Gene living in the little town as respected citizens, although we start out with Duny Gene Pay as a boy and watch him grow up. The first two thirds of the book was pleasant enough, but the antics of a young boy in a small town began to get old and boredom was setting in. Then Duny Gene grew up, got into a world of trouble, and his grandfather Eban came to help. The last 100 pages gave this book an extra star.
Eban Pay is a cagey old lawyer with a trick or two up his sleeve, and the trial that ensues is grand entertainment. And Eban realizes that even old men can learn new things about themselves.
I'm sorry to be finished with this series, but not with Douglas C. Jones. He has become a favorite author (thank you, Howard), but he was very prolific before his death, so I have more to look forward to.
Eban Pay is a cagey old lawyer with a trick or two up his sleeve, and the trial that ensues is grand entertainment. And Eban realizes that even old men can learn new things about themselves.
I'm sorry to be finished with this series, but not with Douglas C. Jones. He has become a favorite author (thank you, Howard), but he was very prolific before his death, so I have more to look forward to.
March 12, 2020
(Another 'Undrat,' = under-rated books with less than 50 reviews.)
Thanks again to the folks at Kirkus Reviews for giving attention to Douglas Jones, who, more than any other writer I like deserves many, many more readers. I particularly liked the characters.
copied and pasted "KIRKUS REVIEW
"In Winding Stair (1979), young 1890s-Oklahoma lawyer Eben Pay fell in love with a Cherokee woman involved in that novel's courtroom drama. But now it's nearly 30 years later, and the focus is chiefly on Eben's half-Cherokee son Barton and on Barton's small son Duny Gene--who arrive, along with Barton's hoity-toity wife Lydia, in the south Ozarks town of Weedy Rough just after the Great War. Right-minded, gentle Barton, a timber-buyer for the railroad, soon becomes a leading citizen, a part-time letter-carrier and preacher--though his good works always seem to go wrong in the end. Lydia becomes a prime mover in the Ladies' Aid Society--though she stews in the shame of Barton's (and Duny Gene's) Indian blood. But little Duny Gene, though raised right and even lovingly, grows up just a little bad through the Twenties: he does exactly as much mischief as he knows he can get away with; he throws rocks at the goats kept by tetchy neighbor Parkins Muller (who, with sister Veda, owns the bank and half the town); and he hangs out with Hoadie Renkin, a hillbilly ""sticks"" kid who's always up to no good. So the low-key yet substantial suspense here--heightened by a prologue referring to a 1933 Weedy Rough bank robbery--is: how will Duny Gene, an essentially decent kid, turn out? And the omens seem to be stacking up against Duny Gene when his beloved dog dies (he's sure it was poisoned by Parkins Muller); when his first true love marries somebody else; and when he sees his father's gentle ways being taken advantage of. Worst of all, however, Hoadie--who left town to get rich quick somewhere--reappears in Weedy Rough one 1933 day in the company of a cut-rate Bonnie (Ruby) and Clyde (Lester). Will Duny Gene, now working at his father's lumber-yard, fall in with this sleazy gang? Well, though we do see Duny Gene getting drunk and near-seduced, Jones then slyly jumps to the robbery itself: banker Parkins Muller kills robber Hoadie, then himself gets shot--and Duny Gene is identified (by both Muller's sister and by confessed robber Ruby) as the accomplice who shot Muller dead. The last part of the novel, then, is a courtroom drama--with old Eben Pay coming in from out-of-town to defend his grandson; and while Eben brilliantly coaxes out a not-guilty verdict, guilt will hang over the whole family ever after. . . . Jones hasn't found precisely the right balance for his mix of genres this time--Duny Gene's coming-of-age, Barton's disillusionment, the socio-historical crime, the courtroom suspense--and readers may be only half-involved till Eben Pay arrives on the scene. But, as always, the storytelling is sure and steady; the rough period atmosphere is engaging without being folksy; and if this doesn't grip the attention in quite the way that Jones' more historical books did, it lingers in the mind with equal grit and vividness."
Thanks again to the folks at Kirkus Reviews for giving attention to Douglas Jones, who, more than any other writer I like deserves many, many more readers. I particularly liked the characters.
copied and pasted "KIRKUS REVIEW
"In Winding Stair (1979), young 1890s-Oklahoma lawyer Eben Pay fell in love with a Cherokee woman involved in that novel's courtroom drama. But now it's nearly 30 years later, and the focus is chiefly on Eben's half-Cherokee son Barton and on Barton's small son Duny Gene--who arrive, along with Barton's hoity-toity wife Lydia, in the south Ozarks town of Weedy Rough just after the Great War. Right-minded, gentle Barton, a timber-buyer for the railroad, soon becomes a leading citizen, a part-time letter-carrier and preacher--though his good works always seem to go wrong in the end. Lydia becomes a prime mover in the Ladies' Aid Society--though she stews in the shame of Barton's (and Duny Gene's) Indian blood. But little Duny Gene, though raised right and even lovingly, grows up just a little bad through the Twenties: he does exactly as much mischief as he knows he can get away with; he throws rocks at the goats kept by tetchy neighbor Parkins Muller (who, with sister Veda, owns the bank and half the town); and he hangs out with Hoadie Renkin, a hillbilly ""sticks"" kid who's always up to no good. So the low-key yet substantial suspense here--heightened by a prologue referring to a 1933 Weedy Rough bank robbery--is: how will Duny Gene, an essentially decent kid, turn out? And the omens seem to be stacking up against Duny Gene when his beloved dog dies (he's sure it was poisoned by Parkins Muller); when his first true love marries somebody else; and when he sees his father's gentle ways being taken advantage of. Worst of all, however, Hoadie--who left town to get rich quick somewhere--reappears in Weedy Rough one 1933 day in the company of a cut-rate Bonnie (Ruby) and Clyde (Lester). Will Duny Gene, now working at his father's lumber-yard, fall in with this sleazy gang? Well, though we do see Duny Gene getting drunk and near-seduced, Jones then slyly jumps to the robbery itself: banker Parkins Muller kills robber Hoadie, then himself gets shot--and Duny Gene is identified (by both Muller's sister and by confessed robber Ruby) as the accomplice who shot Muller dead. The last part of the novel, then, is a courtroom drama--with old Eben Pay coming in from out-of-town to defend his grandson; and while Eben brilliantly coaxes out a not-guilty verdict, guilt will hang over the whole family ever after. . . . Jones hasn't found precisely the right balance for his mix of genres this time--Duny Gene's coming-of-age, Barton's disillusionment, the socio-historical crime, the courtroom suspense--and readers may be only half-involved till Eben Pay arrives on the scene. But, as always, the storytelling is sure and steady; the rough period atmosphere is engaging without being folksy; and if this doesn't grip the attention in quite the way that Jones' more historical books did, it lingers in the mind with equal grit and vividness."
January 8, 2008
Weedy Rough, Winding Stair, Elkhorn, all go together as Arkansas frontier novels. Much as I like the better known McMurtry, these are better.
March 30, 2018
The book is set in the Great Depression, the story is very well written and holds your attention. Weedy Rough was a tough place to live in, there isn't a lot of hope there. The Pays are the featured family; Barton, Lydia, and their son Duny Gene. Barton becomes very important to the rural people of the community and Lydia is well respected. Despite the opportunities that are available to him, Duny Gene is attracted to trouble. Much of this story is his story. Interestingly, the cover of my paperback is not available, but the cover with this review is a better fit to the story.
February 20, 2022
WEEDY ROUGH is Douglas Jones' last installment of the Eben Pay family saga set in backwoods Arkansas. Jones incorporates real life characters in his fi ti ok nalized story of Americana following WWI through the Great Depression. He unfolds a well-developed tale with believable characters and actual events duting the depression era. I found myself amidst the story told through the hill country jargon of the residents of Weedy Rough, an actual town, no longer in existence. This is a wonderful story, quick and easy read with a strong, heartfelt ending. Americana at it's finest.
August 25, 2010
I'm sure I liked this book as much as I did partly because it takes place in Fayetteville, and "Weedy Rough" is Winslow, Arkansas, and I could "picture" a lot of it....it added to my love of this area's history, even though it's historical fiction...life in the 20's and 30's in this area. Loved it.
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