The Gorge

by David Armand

In his latest literary thriller, David Armand weaves together the stories of an eccentric cast of dark, frighteningly realist characters, each under suspicion of murdering a young girl, Amber Varnado, whose body is found hidden in a deep gorge at the opening of the novel.

Set in southeast Louisiana in the small town of Franklinton, The Gorge follows the colliding lives of Tuller, the murdered girl’s boyfriend, whose suspicious past and his discovery of Amber’s body make him the prime suspect; John Varnado, Amber’s father, a Vietnam war veteran whose violent flashbacks cause brutal outbursts of rage and paranoia; Grady, a young man dwarfed by rickets who prowls the night to feed his strange desires; and Euwell, a man who lives in an old shack near the gorge and hunts for young girls to satisfy his lusts and quell his inner-demons.

Armand’s spellbinding story explores the universal themes of desperate love and the pitfalls of false assumptions woven into the tenuous threads of coincidence that connect people in a small town. Masterful, profound, and full of spirit, The Gorge is literary entertainment of the highest order.

Genres: Fiction

148 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2015

About the author

David Armand was born and raised in Louisiana. He has worked as a drywall hanger, a draftsman, and as a press operator in a flag printing factory. From 2017-2019, he served as Writer-in-Residence at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he currently holds the Leola R. Purcell Endowed Professorship in English. In 2010, he won the George Garrett Fiction Prize for his first novel, The Pugilist's Wife, which was published by Texas Review Press. He has since published three more novels, four collections of poetry, and three memoirs. Armand is also the 2022 recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, which is presented annually by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana, which recognizes outstanding contributions to Louisiana’s literary and intellectual life exemplified by a contemporary Louisiana writer’s body of work. Armand's next novel, Walk the Night, is forthcoming from Texas Review Press.

Reviews

[Victor Hess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every character in The Gorge has a purpose and the reader will cling to them as the story of multiple murders unfolds with twists and turns that keep you glued. I couldn't put the book down. David eloquently uses picturesque language to portray the Southern characters and settings. The reader is immersed with the sights and smells and touch of the settings and the extraordinary people who come together in this tale. The reader is left with a surprise ending.

[Jennifer Geist · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written entry into the relatively new genre of Rough South, The Gorge is a frighteningly beautiful portrait of a Southern Louisiana town full of interconnected individuals. The story follows multiple characters: Tuller, the prime suspect in his girlfriend's murder; Grady, a strange man plagued by rickets and desires; Euwell, a man whose past compels him to hurt as he was hurt.

Not only a thriller, but also a literary novel, its prose will simultaneously compel you to read as quickly as possible to discover the conclusion, but also force you to linger on and appreciate well-crafted lines.

Unlike some stories, which have good and evil clearly defined, The Gorge forces you to pity and empathize with even the most twisted of individuals.

David Armand is surely an author to watch, if his past novels and this one are any indication.

[Dixon Hearne · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Armand's third novel, The Gorge, draws the reader into a world of dark intrigues, a world populated by desperate and grotesque figures—juxtaposed to youth and beauty and eternal hope. The story hinges on the death of a young girl and a cast of suspects whose shady backgrounds weave a web of suspicion. Set in the flat Louisiana delta, the gorge itself is an anomaly in the local geography, a metaphor—the ideal locale for a good mystery. The Gorge may fall into the contemporary “grit lit” genre, but the voice and style bear the unique and indelible signature of its author. A great read!

[Brian Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Armand writes what can only be described as superb fiction. I read it and thought of Larry Brown's Joe. Then, I read some more and kept thinking of Ron Rash, and then I thought it was even better. (And I love Ron Rash.) Like Alex Taylor, David Armand is a great breath of fresh air in contemporary Southern fiction and ALL of storytelling.