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Billy Ray's Farm: Essays
In his first work of nonfiction since the acclaimed On Fire , Brown aims for nothing short of ruthlessly capturing the truth of the world in which he has always lived. In the prologue to the book, he tells what it's like to be constantly compared with William Faulkner, a writer with whom he shares inspiration from the Mississippi land. The essays that follow show that influence as undeniable. Here is the pond Larry reclaims and restocks on his place in Tula. Here is the Oxford bar crowd on a wild goose chase to a fabled fishing event. And here is the literary sensation trying to outsmart a wily coyote intent on killing the farm's baby goats. Woven in are intimate reflections on the Southern musicians and writers whose work has inspired Brown's and the thrill of his first literary recognition. But the centerpiece of this book is the title essay which embodies every element of Larry Brown's most emotional attachments-to the family, the land, the animals. This is a book for every Larry Brown fan. It is also an invaluable book for every reader interested in how a great writer responds, both personally and artistically, to the patch of land he lives on.
205 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
16 people are currently reading
236 people want to read
About the author
Larry Brown
73 books653 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Larry Brown was an American writer who was born and lived in Oxford, Mississippi. Brown wrote fiction and nonfiction. He graduated from high school in Oxford but did not go to college. Many years later, he took a creative writing class from the Mississippi novelist Ellen Douglas. Brown served in the United States Marine Corps from 1970 to 1972. On his return to Oxford, he worked at a small stove company before joining the city fire department. An avid reader, Brown began writing in his spare time while he worked as a firefighter in Oxford in 1980.
Brown was awarded the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for fiction. Brown was the first two-time winner of the Southern Book Award for Fiction, which he won in 1992 for his novel, Joe and again in 1997 for his novel Father and Son. In 1998, he received a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award, which granted him $35,000 per year for three years to write. In 2000, the State of Mississippi granted him a Governor's Award For Excellence in the Arts. For one semester, Brown taught as a writer-in-residence in the creative writing program at the University of Mississippi, temporarily taking over the position held by his friend Barry Hannah. He later served as visiting writer at the University of Montana in Missoula. He taught briefly at other colleges throughout the United States.
Brown died of an apparent heart attack at his home in the Yocona community, near Oxford, in November 2004.
Larry Brown was an American writer who was born and lived in Oxford, Mississippi. Brown wrote fiction and nonfiction. He graduated from high school in Oxford but did not go to college. Many years later, he took a creative writing class from the Mississippi novelist Ellen Douglas. Brown served in the United States Marine Corps from 1970 to 1972. On his return to Oxford, he worked at a small stove company before joining the city fire department. An avid reader, Brown began writing in his spare time while he worked as a firefighter in Oxford in 1980.
Brown was awarded the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award for fiction. Brown was the first two-time winner of the Southern Book Award for Fiction, which he won in 1992 for his novel, Joe and again in 1997 for his novel Father and Son. In 1998, he received a Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Award, which granted him $35,000 per year for three years to write. In 2000, the State of Mississippi granted him a Governor's Award For Excellence in the Arts. For one semester, Brown taught as a writer-in-residence in the creative writing program at the University of Mississippi, temporarily taking over the position held by his friend Barry Hannah. He later served as visiting writer at the University of Montana in Missoula. He taught briefly at other colleges throughout the United States.
Brown died of an apparent heart attack at his home in the Yocona community, near Oxford, in November 2004.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
October 26, 2023
I've read most of Brown's fiction and loved it, so now I'm finding that I like his non-fiction just as well. These essays are about his life in Tula, Mississippi, just outside Oxford. A good old boy who could write like a dream and tell some great stories.
December 4, 2023
I didn’t know this book existed until recently. I was excited to read it because I am a huge fan of Larry Brown’s fiction. Brown is such a good writer, this collection of essays was a pleasure to read.
Read
December 21, 2011In BILLY RAY'S FARM, as in ON FIRE and Brown's fiction, he pulls no punches with his readers; moreover, BILLY RAY'S FARM spares its author nothing. Which isn’t to say that this new book will put Brown alongside those memoirists who mistakenly equate their genre with verbal exhibitionism. The title piece and “The Whore in Me” are so tough, so grown-up, and so mercilessly wise that I want to punch in the noses of the lazy-ass reviewers who continue to categorize Brown as “king of the white trash.” Labels are cheap; self-knowledge is not. Someone with Brown’s phrasing, vocabulary, syntax, heart, and penetrating vision stands at God’s right hand, I’m quite sure, and when he asks how I spent my time on this earth—well, I’m rereading parts of this book and getting an answer ready.
November 19, 2010
A great look inside the daily life of a man who became an author through hard work. Another great writer who stepped off the mortal coil far to soon.
August 11, 2018
The chapter “Harry Crews: Mentor and Friend” alone was worth seeking out this book.
4.5 Stars
4.5 Stars
June 29, 2024
Well, this book by Larry Brown was way better than Tiny Love, which I had to abandon due to the disturbing content.
This is a lovely book to read in the summer because it describes Brown’s home in Mississippi with humor and tenderness, and with some James Herriot-type situations with farm animals, catfish, coyotes, and other creatures. Interesting neighbors appear as well. This is kind of a memoir in that it includes personal memories, however, it strikes me more as a collection of observations sharing Brown’s inspiration as a writer.
This is a lovely book to read in the summer because it describes Brown’s home in Mississippi with humor and tenderness, and with some James Herriot-type situations with farm animals, catfish, coyotes, and other creatures. Interesting neighbors appear as well. This is kind of a memoir in that it includes personal memories, however, it strikes me more as a collection of observations sharing Brown’s inspiration as a writer.
July 14, 2019
A nice small collection of essays. Some will like his tales of life in rural Mississippi, but I liked best his short essays on the life of a writer and going to conferences for the first time, meeting writers he admired.
July 11, 2008
I have, had, and will continue to have such respect for Larry Brown--first off, that this man quite simply decided to be a writer one day, and from there worked his butt off to make that happen. His tales of writing several novels and over a hundred short stories before he wrote anything that he considered the work of a writer is quite simply archetypal. When there seems to be some concern about the effect of prodigious MFA program on the state and audience of writing, Larry Brown reminded us that it is work ethic, not education, that makes a writer.
Another great aspect of the legend of Larry Brown is the simplicity of his intent and execution. While the critic looks at writing as a mish-mash of symbols and metaphors removed from intent, Brown saw it from the blue-collar perspective--a story about characters who remind us of ourselves. The connections people have with their environments are direct and substantial--people come from a place, a patch of ground that smells and feels familiar to them; they come from groups of people who help shape them and help them identify who they are.
And it is this last point that this book revolves around. While Brown reminds us in one or two of the essays in this collection of his work ethic in the realm of writing, most of the writing here is about place and the anchor that it provides. We are taken through a tour of blues bars and fishing, of working on a farm and chasing coyotes and helping calves emerge from their mothers and building houses by hand. While some of these essays, for example the tremendously long centerpiece, don't hold a lot of drive to make each page worth turning only after the previous has been soaked up for its every syllable, the simple ethic that speaks volumes is distinctly there.
Of course, there is also the spirit of play that is such a commodity in Brown's work--an essay in second-person about the hardships of a book tour, for example--and this only fuels Brown's pure love for his work. While sometimes I found myself preferring his fiction over his nonfiction, I have been inspired to pick up The Rabbit Factory again, or Joe, just to touch that flavor of Brown all over again.
Perhaps this book is more enjoyable as an occasional read, something to pick up when between books or between episodes of another book, to let the essays sit separately and resound in the mind on their own rather than read one next to the other and hope for overriding connections to progress and develop, but this is no doubt a good reminder of the pure talent we lost when Larry Brown left us.
Another great aspect of the legend of Larry Brown is the simplicity of his intent and execution. While the critic looks at writing as a mish-mash of symbols and metaphors removed from intent, Brown saw it from the blue-collar perspective--a story about characters who remind us of ourselves. The connections people have with their environments are direct and substantial--people come from a place, a patch of ground that smells and feels familiar to them; they come from groups of people who help shape them and help them identify who they are.
And it is this last point that this book revolves around. While Brown reminds us in one or two of the essays in this collection of his work ethic in the realm of writing, most of the writing here is about place and the anchor that it provides. We are taken through a tour of blues bars and fishing, of working on a farm and chasing coyotes and helping calves emerge from their mothers and building houses by hand. While some of these essays, for example the tremendously long centerpiece, don't hold a lot of drive to make each page worth turning only after the previous has been soaked up for its every syllable, the simple ethic that speaks volumes is distinctly there.
Of course, there is also the spirit of play that is such a commodity in Brown's work--an essay in second-person about the hardships of a book tour, for example--and this only fuels Brown's pure love for his work. While sometimes I found myself preferring his fiction over his nonfiction, I have been inspired to pick up The Rabbit Factory again, or Joe, just to touch that flavor of Brown all over again.
Perhaps this book is more enjoyable as an occasional read, something to pick up when between books or between episodes of another book, to let the essays sit separately and resound in the mind on their own rather than read one next to the other and hope for overriding connections to progress and develop, but this is no doubt a good reminder of the pure talent we lost when Larry Brown left us.
Read
December 21, 2011Brown’s new nonfiction collection pulls no punches with its reader; moreover, it spares its author nothing. Which isn’t to say that this new book will put Brown alongside those memoirists who mistakenly equate their genre with verbal exhibitionism. The title piece and “The Whore in Me” are so tough, so grown-up, and so mercilessly wise that I want to punch in the noses of the lazy-ass reviewers who continue to categorize Brown as “king of the white trash.” Labels are cheap; self-knowledge is not. Someone with Brown’s phrasing, vocabulary, syntax, heart, and penetrating vision stands at God’s right hand, I’m quite sure, and when he asks how I spent my time on this earth—well, I’m rereading parts of this book and getting an answer ready.
(originally published in the NASHVILLE SCENE)
(originally published in the NASHVILLE SCENE)
July 12, 2021
My 7th Larry Brown, this one non-fiction and largely set at and near his home in North Mississippi. The essays about meeting other writers and going on book tours seem like they're from a bygone era, even if it's not even a generation ago. The worst part was the first half of So Much Fish, which was pointless. The title story was good quality, and oddly enough the 2nd time in 3 books I've found myself reading about distressed animal births. It does not make farming and ranching sound easy for sure.
The best was the last, Shack, in which Brown builds a house by a pond on his land. It conveys a strong sense of place, and the desire to make something with your own hands, something you can use for both work and relaxation. Solid enough collection overall.
The best was the last, Shack, in which Brown builds a house by a pond on his land. It conveys a strong sense of place, and the desire to make something with your own hands, something you can use for both work and relaxation. Solid enough collection overall.
May 18, 2012
I began reading Larry Brown's work in the 80's after reading an interview with Harry Crews. There is an essay in this book about their friendship.
Larry writes about a number of gifted authors including Madison Jones, an influence on Crews.
What strikes me most about Larry's writing is how honest, simple and emotional it is.
I spent some time in Oxford MS which is also home to the great Living Blues Magazine and Fat Possum Records. It's like an oasis in Misssissippi.
Larry writes about a number of gifted authors including Madison Jones, an influence on Crews.
What strikes me most about Larry's writing is how honest, simple and emotional it is.
I spent some time in Oxford MS which is also home to the great Living Blues Magazine and Fat Possum Records. It's like an oasis in Misssissippi.
November 28, 2019
I just love the way Larry Brown writes. His characters are always believable and his sense of place is unsurpassed even in his essays. I need to find a copy of "On Fire" and I will have all his books.
A side note, if you have not seen it try and find a copy of the movie "Big Bad Love" based on his writings. An amazing movie, in my opinion.
A side note, if you have not seen it try and find a copy of the movie "Big Bad Love" based on his writings. An amazing movie, in my opinion.
September 21, 2021
Billy Ray’s Farm: Essays From a Place Called Tula by Larry Brown (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 2001) (Biography) (3574).
Larry Brown’s book Billy Ray’s Farm: Essays From a Place Called Tula is, simply put, nonfiction at its best. It is a collection of ten essays / stories of bone-hard truth which seem to bubble up to Brown’s conscious mind during his daydreams.
I love Larry Brown’s voice as well as his writing. Each of these tales is at least tangentially connected to life on Brown’s hobby farm in Mississippi (though he might take issue with my characterization of his homestead as a “hobby farm”). These stories all read like we Southerners think, act, and talk; the voice rings pleasantly and absolutely authentic.
I have not decided which of these stories I like the most. There are “By the Pond” (On restoring a pond), ‘‘Thicker Than Blood” (Hounds, hunting, and raising kids), “Harry Crews: Mentor and Friend” (On learning the art and craft of writing), “Chattanooga Nights” (Literary conferences and book tours), “Billy Ray’s Farm” (Eli the bull), “Fishing With Charlie” (Eulogy for a bluesman), “So Much Fish So Close To Home” (Bull’s out, fish grab), “Goatsongs” (Coyotes and baby goats), and “Shack” (teaching oneself to build house).
I gleaned some interesting trivia from these pages: When the author was a kid, the old folks in Mississippi called Pileated Woodpeckers “Indian Hens” (“Shack”). From the title story “Billy Ray’s Farm” I learned that there is a product called a “range cube” which is used to spur the growth of cattle (think of it as a multivitamin for cows).
I think this volume must give insight (or at least a clue) into how Larry Brown’s mind works. It’s like listening to an old friend who’s off on a rant or at least on a verbal roll.
Billy Ray’s Farm was too short for me. I was very sorry to come to the end of this wonderful collection. I have read several of Brown’s books including the biographical nonfiction work On Fire: A Personal Account of Life and Death and Choices. His fiction can be stunning; his novels are usually page turners, his short stories are often inspired, but his nonfiction - and most particularly Billy Ray’s Farm: Essays From a Placed Called Tula - rises to a level reached by very few writers.
I would be remiss if I failed to include Brown’s own list of his writing role models. It reads like a who’s who of all-star Southern authors. From the stories “Harry Crews: Friend and Mentor” and “Chattanooga Nights”, this is Brown’s list: William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Raymond Carver, Cormac McCarthy, Charles Bukowski, Harry Crews, and Madison Jones. Brown named several additional authors to this list as “Mississippi friends”: Barry Hannah, Ellen Douglas, Jack Butler, and Willie Morris.
While that may not be an exhaustive list of great Southern “Grit Lit” writers or their Yankee counterparts (think Charles Bukowski), the authors named to this list comprise a pretty impressive bunch of pencil pushers.
I’ll definitely read this one again. In fact, I'm going to add this to my library.
My rating: 7.5, finished 9/21/21.
April 12, 2024
The world lost a terrific writer when Larry Brown died in his 50's. One wonders what kind of talent the world was then deprived of.
This was one of his last works. It's a collection of non fiction essays mainly centered on the grueling farm work done by his son Billy Ray. Billy Ray is young and new to farming. He is passionate about it but not very experienced and sometimes downright ignorant. He learns as he goes but often at the expense of his poor animals. Larry Brown tries to help but there are some long passages about cows dying in childbirth that made me cringe and close my book. Suffering animals, coyotes killing baby goats...tough to read. Brown's reactions are part compassion, part realism and a lot of devotion to Billy Ray and to the land in Mississippi.
His essays about writing and being on a book tour were more to my liking. Loved his attempts at building a writing cabin without any real knowledge of construction. Brown was a gritty, down to earth writer with so, so much talent. I grieve for the things he never got a chance to write.
This was one of his last works. It's a collection of non fiction essays mainly centered on the grueling farm work done by his son Billy Ray. Billy Ray is young and new to farming. He is passionate about it but not very experienced and sometimes downright ignorant. He learns as he goes but often at the expense of his poor animals. Larry Brown tries to help but there are some long passages about cows dying in childbirth that made me cringe and close my book. Suffering animals, coyotes killing baby goats...tough to read. Brown's reactions are part compassion, part realism and a lot of devotion to Billy Ray and to the land in Mississippi.
His essays about writing and being on a book tour were more to my liking. Loved his attempts at building a writing cabin without any real knowledge of construction. Brown was a gritty, down to earth writer with so, so much talent. I grieve for the things he never got a chance to write.
June 29, 2020
I'm not quite sure what made me pick up this book. I started with an interest in Larry Brown, whom I had never read before. He is a "Southern Grit Lit" author who lives near Oxford, Mississippi and has written a series of novels in the rough South genre. The current book is a series of essays about where he lives and his everyday life in Tula MS. I won't kid you, it's folksy stuff full of good old boys and "down on the farm" stories, but written in an engaging style. It is clear that although he talks like a local yokel, the author is an intelligent and thoughtful writer. I found the stories a bit uneven, with some good ones but others that were either mediocre or just plain boring. A couple, like the title story and "Goatsongs" hit the mark. It was a lighthearted and easy read, but not particularly inspiring. I do, however, want to try one of his novels such as "Fay" or "Father and Son".
February 28, 2022
My second time to read. I have no idea how long ago I initially read the book but when looking for my copy it was nowhere to be found. So, I found a signed first edition online, ordered it and read it again. Reading Larry Brown after a long time since reading him was like curling up with a warm quilt. I could imagine his narrating his essays as I read them. Find videos of his narration online. I loved all the essays except initially “ So much fish, so close to home”. I just could not understand this story. However, luckily I also own “Larry Brown A Writers Life” by Jean W. Cash which includes a chapter about Billy Ray’s Farm. This chapter explained what is going on in “So much fish” and I got it, the genius of Larry Brown. I. Looking forward to a reread of all available works by Mr. Brown.
December 15, 2019
4.5 stars.
Larry Brown never lets me down. I admire self-made writers, writers who had to work their ass off just to get some recognition. Writers like William Gay and Donald Ray Pollack, and Larry Brown. Because writers like this do not give off an air of pretension in their work. In these essays, Brown writes simply and effectively. You can relate to him. He is humble, and it’s this charming humbleness that you feel close to him, like you are sitting in his porch with him or at some cheap Oxford bar and he’s telling you his stories while Muddy Waters plays. And what a collection of essays - what a life, Larry.
Larry Brown never lets me down. I admire self-made writers, writers who had to work their ass off just to get some recognition. Writers like William Gay and Donald Ray Pollack, and Larry Brown. Because writers like this do not give off an air of pretension in their work. In these essays, Brown writes simply and effectively. You can relate to him. He is humble, and it’s this charming humbleness that you feel close to him, like you are sitting in his porch with him or at some cheap Oxford bar and he’s telling you his stories while Muddy Waters plays. And what a collection of essays - what a life, Larry.
August 12, 2017
A great collection of autobiographical essays (i.e., short stories) about a Southern writer and the challenges of writing as well as being a friend, father and farmer in the modern South. Good stuff! Enjoy.
December 18, 2019
This was my first work by Brown and I really enjoyed it. Not sure how I've missed him for so long. The writing is real and puts you right in the middle of what's going, even when it seems from a distance you as the reader shouldn't care. Highly recommend.
November 8, 2023
This is a beautiful essay collection from the late Larry Brown. I would’ve given it five stars but I thought the last two essays were just not nearly as good as the rest of them. Still excellent though, and worth reading.
November 25, 2018
Wanted more of the farm and less of the other. Brown's musings on living in rural America.
July 4, 2020
The culture of life on a farm comes through in a full
Sensory experience! I laughed so much! Great essays and a beautiful story of farm
Life.
Sensory experience! I laughed so much! Great essays and a beautiful story of farm
Life.
November 9, 2020
This was the first book I read by Larry Brown. I've read it twice now, and will read it again. There's something about his writing that makes me feel at home, makes me feel closer to other humans than I would have without it. It's simple and direct, straight from his heart to mine. I suppose it helps that I grew up in a similar place in the rural south, so I recognize the cast of characters he develops. (I'm speaking of his fiction work). His characters are real. I've known them and been them. In this collection of essays, he shows with his easy prose, all the ugliness along with the beauty of living.
If you are a writer or aspire to be, you must read this book.
If you are a writer or aspire to be, you must read this book.
March 20, 2016
In the Prologue to this book Larry Brown writes "And I think whatever you write about, you have to know it. Concretely. Absolutely. Realistically." And then he proceeds to write about things he knows about: baby goats and coyotes, Billy Ray's farm, where all that grows is bad luck, building a small house on the perfect spot by the small pond, the prospect of free fish if the spillway is pumped down to be checked for cracks, his mentoring by and friendship with Harry Crews.
In reading Brown previously I've heard him discuss his learning the art, craft, and business of writing over a seven year period in which he wrote about one hundred stories and five novels. In this book he writes
And a note: I love pithy little sayings, many of them coming from the south and particularly people who worked the land there. In "So Much Fish, So Close to Home: An Improv" he remarks of the weather: "It was hot enough to make a cow pee on a flat rock." Huh?
In reading Brown previously I've heard him discuss his learning the art, craft, and business of writing over a seven year period in which he wrote about one hundred stories and five novels. In this book he writes
I had learned by then that the price of success for a writer came high, that there were years of a thing called the apprenticeship period, and that nobody could tell you when you'd come to the end of it. You just had to keep writing with blind faith, and hope, and trust in yourself that you would eventually find your way, that the world would one day accept your work.I enjoy essays very much and am a Larry Brown fan. But I was a little disappointed by this book. No, that's not the way to say it. This book couldn't have been his first book. This is the book that comes later, long after the apprenticeship, and after the world has accepted your work. You may have a ritual after a hard day's work. Maybe you watch your favorite TV show, or perhaps sit on the porch and watch the sun fall from the sky, or maybe swirl brandy in a snifter in the library of your house. This is that book, that piece of writing that is your reward, Brown's reward, for a job well done. So while I don't find these essays nearly as perceptive and rewarding as those of, say Tim Kreider, I do feel in them the pairing of his writing and his life at that point, a point where he could slow down, marvel at what was right in front of him, and write about it.
And a note: I love pithy little sayings, many of them coming from the south and particularly people who worked the land there. In "So Much Fish, So Close to Home: An Improv" he remarks of the weather: "It was hot enough to make a cow pee on a flat rock." Huh?
March 24, 2015
My husband is a huge fan of Larry Brown, and I watched the documentary on him, so I was eager to read his work. I don't believe I should've begun with his essays.
It's not that Brown isn't a good essayist in his own right; he's got a unique voice and he shares great details from his eventful life full of bovine and construction dramas, worlds as foreign to me as Navy Seals or coal mining. I think that's what kept me reading, the details of whether this cow would give birth or whether this house he was building would get built. But I can't say the language was particularly rich or that the essay structure was tight. I felt as if the work wasn't really taut, meandering at times, or not particularly interested in finding the right words for the jobs. The first essays in particular had that sense for me.
If the intent was to give a feel of sitting on a porch with Brown and hear a tale that doesn't really have a beginning, middle, and end--just a rambling of facts and occasional reflections--then that goal was achieved. I guess I need my essays sprinkled with more explorations and reflections. I love how Anne Lamott or Elizabeth Gilbert tell their personal stories, so I suppose that sets me up as someone who isn't exactly of the Brown school of essays. I loved Tim McLaurin's Keeper of the Moon, I guess because I felt it fed my soul and I got more inside the man. I just didn't get a sense as strongly that I knew Brown; he didn't get to dangerous places in his self mining.
But I did finish, because the book was short enough and Brown, a most interesting man. I will give his fiction a try.
It's not that Brown isn't a good essayist in his own right; he's got a unique voice and he shares great details from his eventful life full of bovine and construction dramas, worlds as foreign to me as Navy Seals or coal mining. I think that's what kept me reading, the details of whether this cow would give birth or whether this house he was building would get built. But I can't say the language was particularly rich or that the essay structure was tight. I felt as if the work wasn't really taut, meandering at times, or not particularly interested in finding the right words for the jobs. The first essays in particular had that sense for me.
If the intent was to give a feel of sitting on a porch with Brown and hear a tale that doesn't really have a beginning, middle, and end--just a rambling of facts and occasional reflections--then that goal was achieved. I guess I need my essays sprinkled with more explorations and reflections. I love how Anne Lamott or Elizabeth Gilbert tell their personal stories, so I suppose that sets me up as someone who isn't exactly of the Brown school of essays. I loved Tim McLaurin's Keeper of the Moon, I guess because I felt it fed my soul and I got more inside the man. I just didn't get a sense as strongly that I knew Brown; he didn't get to dangerous places in his self mining.
But I did finish, because the book was short enough and Brown, a most interesting man. I will give his fiction a try.
December 7, 2012
This was a nice quick read. I've had heard about his troubles, his sensitivity to place, the comparisons to Faulkner and I am aware he died young. It turns out much of his work is currently out of print. I have an interest in things agrarian. A collection of essays seemed to be a fine place to get a feel for Larry Brown's writing. It was exactly that. Several of the essays discuss his initiation into the literary world. He discusses with honesty his struggle to find his voice in letters and where he sought mentorship. He also discusses his relationship to the his place which was centered around Oxford Mississippi. I found the essays focussed on his son's farm and his journey building a cabin, by a pond, by hand during stretches of sobriety to be worth the effort to track the book down alone.
This is good writing. His style is direct and conversational. He seems to have an interesting well thought out perspective on his world and life. It left me interested in ordering a novel or two.
This is good writing. His style is direct and conversational. He seems to have an interesting well thought out perspective on his world and life. It left me interested in ordering a novel or two.
August 17, 2011
The only criticism I have of Larry Brown's "Billy Ray's Farm" is that I wish it was longer. Larry Brown died some years ago at quite a young age and I had to find second hand copies through Amazon--I never intend to sell them. Billy Ray's Farm is a selection of fictional essays although Larry Brown's did have a son named Billy Ray. As all his books, it is set in rural Mississippi with very true to life people riding around with coolers of beer in the back seat of their cars, going about everyday life but the author has such a unique and tremendous gift of writing just like he was sitting down in your living room telling you this story. You are there with him--part of his story--inexplicable really and I have read and reread his books and each and every time I mourn his untimely death but yet have to say a huge thank you for the legacy he left behind for us to read.
July 9, 2014
I don't read much nonfiction, not because I don't care for it but because I spend my time reading and writing fiction, learning the craft in part from those who've done it better than I might ever hope to. But this collection of essays--with its talk of book tours and relationships with other writers, specifically Harry Crews, that dirty old bastard who comes off more sweet than anything else here--can teach you a thing or two about community and following your instincts, your internal voice. I wish I had stumbled onto Larry Brown before he died. In some ways it seems too late now and in others, it feels like he isn't going anywhere, ever.
March 25, 2008
Collection of essays by the late Larry Brown - probably some of the most beautiful writings about the redneck life ever crafted. I don't think I've ever been as sad as when Brown, writing about his son's inability to make his farm profitable, wrote, 'I can't understand why everything my son touches turns to shit," after Billy Ray (he of the farm in the title) has a cow die on him while it's trying to give birth. Could one sentence ever capture the modern American south so fully? I think I cried a little after I read it and had to put the book down for a while.
February 17, 2016
I find it almost therapeutic to return to a Larry Brown book. His writing is so simple, but elegant and much deeper than a surface reading would reveal. This book is a collection of short stories, whose common link is place, specifically his son's farm and Larry's fishing pond and cabin in Tula, MS. He is writing about what he knows and makes it interesting and engaging. It is a snapshot of his and his family's life, a reflection on the process of writing, and above all a celebration of a place and its people, past and present.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews