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Clive Barrow
Shy, introverted, Clive Barrow knows that he’s different. He tries to keep to himself but that can be difficult for a boy growing up in a western-Georgia town as small as Crossroads. His one outlet to “the world out there” is his only real friend, Ludy Porter.
In the winter of 1950, in the throes of adolescence, the two go on a hunting trip. High on a successful hunt, bold from overindulgence of illicit moonshine, libidos raging, Clive and Ludy have a sexual experience.
For Ludy, the incident is all alcohol and hormones, something to be dismissed, never discussed, never repeated. For Clive, however, the encounter awakens a profound new aspect of himself, a genie he can’t return to the bottle.
But this is the 1950s in the Deep South. Clive knows he can do, must do, nothing. Being himself could not only destroy his lifelong friendship, it could cost him his life.
The conflict drives him into a marriage he doesn’t want, a war he barely survives, and an obsession to drive out the demon within. On the death of his abusive father, he takes on a hardscrabble farm and turns it into a lucrative cattle business. All seems well until his old urges arise and he’s threatened with exposure and the loss of everything he’s built with his own two hands. He retaliates the only way he knows to protect what he’s gained.
A thing done once becomes easier a second time. Or a third. Or a fourth.
Clive Barrow explores how a castigated sexual identity and unrequited love can push a human being into an instability that grows into something insane and terrifying.
In the winter of 1950, in the throes of adolescence, the two go on a hunting trip. High on a successful hunt, bold from overindulgence of illicit moonshine, libidos raging, Clive and Ludy have a sexual experience.
For Ludy, the incident is all alcohol and hormones, something to be dismissed, never discussed, never repeated. For Clive, however, the encounter awakens a profound new aspect of himself, a genie he can’t return to the bottle.
But this is the 1950s in the Deep South. Clive knows he can do, must do, nothing. Being himself could not only destroy his lifelong friendship, it could cost him his life.
The conflict drives him into a marriage he doesn’t want, a war he barely survives, and an obsession to drive out the demon within. On the death of his abusive father, he takes on a hardscrabble farm and turns it into a lucrative cattle business. All seems well until his old urges arise and he’s threatened with exposure and the loss of everything he’s built with his own two hands. He retaliates the only way he knows to protect what he’s gained.
A thing done once becomes easier a second time. Or a third. Or a fourth.
Clive Barrow explores how a castigated sexual identity and unrequited love can push a human being into an instability that grows into something insane and terrifying.
- GenresHistorical
228 pages, Paperback
First published April 17, 2013
14 people want to read
About the author
Thomas C. Young
4 books2 followersThomas Young grew up steeped in the stories of country life.
"The early years of my life saw us on the road. A lot. I was born in central Florida and recall many moves between there and the northern part of the state. Over several summers before I turned the ripe age of twelve, I traveled with my paternal grandmother to my uncle's farm in southwest Georgia. Images from that time come to me now sure and crisp."
Those hours spent sitting cross-legged on the front porch of his uncle's house, enraptured by tales his family told, instilled a deep love of stories that turned later to a deep love of writing. In 1996, when he retired from a career as a nurse, he followed his heart. He has been writing since.
He is an active member of the Carrollton Creative Writers Club and the Atlanta Writers Club, past member of Sisters In Crime, Atlanta Chapter, and of The Bard Society of Jacksonville, Florida. His first novel, Coming Out of Winter, has just been released by Vabella Publishing.
He lives, with his dog, several cats and other magical creatures, outside Carrollton, Georgia, surrounded by one of the world's last enchanted forests.
"The early years of my life saw us on the road. A lot. I was born in central Florida and recall many moves between there and the northern part of the state. Over several summers before I turned the ripe age of twelve, I traveled with my paternal grandmother to my uncle's farm in southwest Georgia. Images from that time come to me now sure and crisp."
Those hours spent sitting cross-legged on the front porch of his uncle's house, enraptured by tales his family told, instilled a deep love of stories that turned later to a deep love of writing. In 1996, when he retired from a career as a nurse, he followed his heart. He has been writing since.
He is an active member of the Carrollton Creative Writers Club and the Atlanta Writers Club, past member of Sisters In Crime, Atlanta Chapter, and of The Bard Society of Jacksonville, Florida. His first novel, Coming Out of Winter, has just been released by Vabella Publishing.
He lives, with his dog, several cats and other magical creatures, outside Carrollton, Georgia, surrounded by one of the world's last enchanted forests.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 5, 2013
Thomas Young’s novel Clive Barrow, the sequel to his 2012 novel Coming Out of Winter, completes the story of Clive and his best friend Ludy Porter during the time period of the 1950s to the 1990s. Set in western Georgia, the novel explores the psychological stresses of the title character who struggles against his culture and against his own physical and psychological needs, which drive him to desperate measures.
Young’s novel is a page-turner. His use of vivid description and action keeps the reader motivated to explore the characters’ lives and interactions. Young’s use of dialogue conveys the characters’ feelings about themselves and about each other as they collide throughout the novel. Young explores the psychological repression that American culture imposed on many people who lived outside the norms of society in the mid-to-late twentieth century. Clive in particular reveals his own anguish as he struggles to fit into a society that does not understand or accept him. Young puts the reader inside Clive’s tortured mind as his conflicted sexual identity drives him to a violent psychotic break. While Clive develops into a monstrous character, the reader empathizes with him through most of the novel because the author explores the forces that drive Clive, and the novel, to a violent and surreal denouement.
Readers looking for a fast-paced novel, realistic and interesting characters, and vivid concrete detail will enjoy Clive Barrow. Young’s psychological study takes its place in the existential tradition of Crime and Punishment, The Stranger, and other modern studies of the human mind in conflict with itself. While the reader may be uncomfortable being inside Clive Barrow’s head, he will certainly profit from the disturbing experience.
Young’s novel is a page-turner. His use of vivid description and action keeps the reader motivated to explore the characters’ lives and interactions. Young’s use of dialogue conveys the characters’ feelings about themselves and about each other as they collide throughout the novel. Young explores the psychological repression that American culture imposed on many people who lived outside the norms of society in the mid-to-late twentieth century. Clive in particular reveals his own anguish as he struggles to fit into a society that does not understand or accept him. Young puts the reader inside Clive’s tortured mind as his conflicted sexual identity drives him to a violent psychotic break. While Clive develops into a monstrous character, the reader empathizes with him through most of the novel because the author explores the forces that drive Clive, and the novel, to a violent and surreal denouement.
Readers looking for a fast-paced novel, realistic and interesting characters, and vivid concrete detail will enjoy Clive Barrow. Young’s psychological study takes its place in the existential tradition of Crime and Punishment, The Stranger, and other modern studies of the human mind in conflict with itself. While the reader may be uncomfortable being inside Clive Barrow’s head, he will certainly profit from the disturbing experience.
April 12, 2013
Highly recommended. CLIVE BARROW by Thomas Young is the first book in years I’ve read through in one day. Staying up last night to finish it cost me a few yawns in church this morning. It was a good trade.
It is said that you learn about a place better by driving through than by flying over, and that by driving on a place’s small roads you learn more than speeding by on the Interstate highway. From those roads one sees a small town’s houses, places of business, schools, & churches, but its residents’ stories remain as hidden from the small road driver as from the airline passenger at 30,000 feet.
Thomas Young knows their stories, and knows how to tell them. He gives us of CLIVE BARROW with the palette of a poet, the structure of a symphonist, and the precision of a portraitist. Enjoy his work.
It is said that you learn about a place better by driving through than by flying over, and that by driving on a place’s small roads you learn more than speeding by on the Interstate highway. From those roads one sees a small town’s houses, places of business, schools, & churches, but its residents’ stories remain as hidden from the small road driver as from the airline passenger at 30,000 feet.
Thomas Young knows their stories, and knows how to tell them. He gives us of CLIVE BARROW with the palette of a poet, the structure of a symphonist, and the precision of a portraitist. Enjoy his work.
April 28, 2013
Disturbing and sad, but it's a page turner.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews