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A Miracle of Catfish
Larry Brown has been a force in American literature since taking critics by storm with his debut collection, Facing the Music , in 1988. His subsequent work—five novels, another story collection, and two books of nonfiction—continued to bring extraordinary praise and national attention to the writer New York Newsday called a "master."
In November 2004, Brown sent the nearly completed manuscript of his sixth novel to his literary agent. A week later, he died of a massive heart attack. He was fifty-three years old.
A Miracle of Catfish is that novel. Brown's trademarks—his raw detail, pared-down prose, and characters under siege—are all here.
This beautiful, heartbreaking anthem to the writer's own North Mississippi land and the hard-working, hard-loving, hard-losing men it spawns is the story of one year in the lives of five characters—an old farmer with a new pond he wants stocked with baby catfish; a bankrupt fish pond stocker who secretly releases his forty-pound brood catfish into the farmer's pond; a little boy from the trailer home across the road who inadvertently hooks the behemoth catfish; the boy's inept father; and a former convict down the road who kills a second time to save his daughter.
That Larry Brown died so young, and before he could see A Miracle of Catfish published, is a tragedy. That he had time to enrich the legacy of his work with this remarkable book is a blessing.
In November 2004, Brown sent the nearly completed manuscript of his sixth novel to his literary agent. A week later, he died of a massive heart attack. He was fifty-three years old.
A Miracle of Catfish is that novel. Brown's trademarks—his raw detail, pared-down prose, and characters under siege—are all here.
This beautiful, heartbreaking anthem to the writer's own North Mississippi land and the hard-working, hard-loving, hard-losing men it spawns is the story of one year in the lives of five characters—an old farmer with a new pond he wants stocked with baby catfish; a bankrupt fish pond stocker who secretly releases his forty-pound brood catfish into the farmer's pond; a little boy from the trailer home across the road who inadvertently hooks the behemoth catfish; the boy's inept father; and a former convict down the road who kills a second time to save his daughter.
That Larry Brown died so young, and before he could see A Miracle of Catfish published, is a tragedy. That he had time to enrich the legacy of his work with this remarkable book is a blessing.
456 pages, Hardcover
First published March 20, 2007
40 people are currently reading
885 people want to read
About the author
Larry Brown
73 books654 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 92 reviews
December 28, 2024
I had heard Larry Brown interviewed on NPR a couple of times and thought he sounded interesting, but for some reason I had never followed-up and read any of his work. Then a couple of years ago, a friend recommended him to me. She suggested that I begin with his novel, “Dirty Work.” I did – and I was hooked. I quickly read three more of his novels and a short story collection. And I have now read “A Miracle of Catfish.”
Larry Brown wrote about his northern Mississippi home land, which is the same geographic area that William Faulkner wrote about. Not only was Brown’s literary territory Faulknerian, so were his characters – mostly hard-living, hard-drinking, hard-loving, hard-luck losers, whose hard-luck is mostly the result of bad choices and bad decisions.
But Brown was his own man. His voice was not that of the great man. I always had the feeling that Faulkner was a detached observer who viewed his characters and their foibles from afar. He seemed to look down his aristocratic nose at them and there was no possibility that he would ever associate with them on a social level.
Brown, on the other hand, was anything but detached. He was riding down the back roads in the pick-up with his characters, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and cursing the circumstances that had made them the losers they were, while not recognizing the role they themselves played in creating the situations they found themselves in. Brown knew these people intimately, I believe, because he was once one of them.
The two writers differ in another way. Faulkner was overly generous with his words (but not with his periods). Brown was an economical writer who was stingy with his words (but not with his periods). So while they wrote about the same region and the same people, they did so in a different fashion.
“A Miracle of Catfish” left me with an empty feeling. Despite its 454 pages, it is an unfinished novel – which is why I gave it four stars instead of five. We are left hanging, not knowing what eventually happened to the story’s five main characters and large supporting cast. And we will never know.
“A Miracle of Catfish” is not Brown’s latest book; it is his last book. Before he could finish it, he died of a massive heart attack on November 24, 2004. He was fifty-three years old.
Larry Brown wrote about his northern Mississippi home land, which is the same geographic area that William Faulkner wrote about. Not only was Brown’s literary territory Faulknerian, so were his characters – mostly hard-living, hard-drinking, hard-loving, hard-luck losers, whose hard-luck is mostly the result of bad choices and bad decisions.
But Brown was his own man. His voice was not that of the great man. I always had the feeling that Faulkner was a detached observer who viewed his characters and their foibles from afar. He seemed to look down his aristocratic nose at them and there was no possibility that he would ever associate with them on a social level.
Brown, on the other hand, was anything but detached. He was riding down the back roads in the pick-up with his characters, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and cursing the circumstances that had made them the losers they were, while not recognizing the role they themselves played in creating the situations they found themselves in. Brown knew these people intimately, I believe, because he was once one of them.
The two writers differ in another way. Faulkner was overly generous with his words (but not with his periods). Brown was an economical writer who was stingy with his words (but not with his periods). So while they wrote about the same region and the same people, they did so in a different fashion.
“A Miracle of Catfish” left me with an empty feeling. Despite its 454 pages, it is an unfinished novel – which is why I gave it four stars instead of five. We are left hanging, not knowing what eventually happened to the story’s five main characters and large supporting cast. And we will never know.
“A Miracle of Catfish” is not Brown’s latest book; it is his last book. Before he could finish it, he died of a massive heart attack on November 24, 2004. He was fifty-three years old.
July 20, 2010
This morning, while peeling a grapefruit, I found myself thinking about Cortez and Carol and wondering how their date might be going. Then I remembered that Cortez isn't real, and for a second there I was sad about it.
Really, guys. I genuinely caught myself in the kitchen thinking about the characters in this book as if they are real people. It's not because it's summer and my brain is mush (though it is, a little). It's because this book is about real people who only happen to not actually exist. It's the real thing, and it's genius.
Really, guys. I genuinely caught myself in the kitchen thinking about the characters in this book as if they are real people. It's not because it's summer and my brain is mush (though it is, a little). It's because this book is about real people who only happen to not actually exist. It's the real thing, and it's genius.
May 1, 2013
I can't stand reviews that basically regurgitate the entire plot, setting, and tone of a book. Because of that objection, I will avoid that approach even though that's what I am tempted to do despite my distain to that approach. Here goes. If you are looking for an "all's well that ends well" book, this isn't it. To start with, it doesn't end. The author dies about five chapters short of the ending. You are granted the insight to his editorial notes of his plans, but it's not typical closure (which strangely avoided the dragging on that can let me down in the last chapters of some book that would have gotten five stars except for the drag out).
Somehow, Brown combines the most unbelievable characters in a very believable way. There are deadbeats, uncaught murderers, adulterous factory romances, towmotors, gambling addicted loss of family and business, go cart wrecks, go cart repairs that lead to go cart heartaches, dog breeding (not in the traditional fashion, but not in the non-typical fashion you would think of when you think it’s not typical), condom accidents that happen on purpose, dogs killed by hogs, dogs killed by deadbeats, dogs that run off, "McCarthy like" hawk sightings, Tourette’s syndrome episodes induced by rabbits, rednecks that get rich, rednecks that go broke, money hidden in barns, houses hidden in fields, flea market pony rides that are emotionally reckless, swimming lessons that should work but don't, thousands of small catfish known by only the select, a named mostly unknown behemoth catfish that becomes a legend to a few......and that's just a taste. All told in a way that reminds me of my mostly normal childhood.
Sounds crazy, reads easily, and pulls you in from the very first line. I can't recommend to all my friends, but to those I would recommend it I could do so whole heartedly. RIP Larry Brown, your last was a great work!
Somehow, Brown combines the most unbelievable characters in a very believable way. There are deadbeats, uncaught murderers, adulterous factory romances, towmotors, gambling addicted loss of family and business, go cart wrecks, go cart repairs that lead to go cart heartaches, dog breeding (not in the traditional fashion, but not in the non-typical fashion you would think of when you think it’s not typical), condom accidents that happen on purpose, dogs killed by hogs, dogs killed by deadbeats, dogs that run off, "McCarthy like" hawk sightings, Tourette’s syndrome episodes induced by rabbits, rednecks that get rich, rednecks that go broke, money hidden in barns, houses hidden in fields, flea market pony rides that are emotionally reckless, swimming lessons that should work but don't, thousands of small catfish known by only the select, a named mostly unknown behemoth catfish that becomes a legend to a few......and that's just a taste. All told in a way that reminds me of my mostly normal childhood.
Sounds crazy, reads easily, and pulls you in from the very first line. I can't recommend to all my friends, but to those I would recommend it I could do so whole heartedly. RIP Larry Brown, your last was a great work!
October 19, 2013
This is my last novel to read of my cousin Larry whom was 12 or 13 years older than me. I didn't know him really well because I was so young but my Aunt Jane and his wife Mary Annie were best friends in high school ! They were alway funny and full of stories. I would ease drop and get an ear full. Tula Is such a magical mythical place that I wish all could visit. I know that is why so many Southern writers try to capture the allure of the South. I often write short stories myself about my memories as a child and a young girl . Sometimes I swap these stories with my Uncle Bobby who is now in his 70's but I still remember the land and many of the old folks and kin. You know, it seems , by the names we called each other , we were all kin in a vein of blood somewhere back in time! That respect and love for your elderly was always there. The young we're so few we were all considered cousins and looked forward to visits to roam and fish , play pranks and get into all kinds of mischief. My uncle once wrote me about the first black man he had ever seen. Cleve was his name and he had a stubborn old mule. My Uncle Bobby was a young boy and very curious. Cleve would come in the spring to help plant the garden with his mule . Cleve said that mule always ran off because he was lazy and stubborn ! Uncle Bobby enjoyed old Cleve. They had lunch together that day and worked longer. My Great grandmother Alice paid Cleve and thanked him. Strange, but My great Uncle Bobby never saw Cleve again. I guess he was older than he thought or that stubborn old mule took off. So in this story we have a Cleve too! I really love the way Larry uses names and descriptions of familiar settings and names. It makes me want to share these special memories in time and place with everyone. Larry makes it seem those nostalgic feelings are so easy to express in the Southern way we experienced . It is a love and hate feeling but to us it is still home , comfort, security, no fear of change because some folks really fear change and some of us think there is no land more beautiful on Earth; God's Country! Dawn Copley
February 13, 2015
the super-detailed, and sadly posthumous, saga of larry brown's world. have you shade treed and like normal, nothing goes right? have you been a kid and while your world is ok, when the 'adult' world comes crashing down around you, left your perplexed, scared, and depressed? have you looked and looked and looked at the same piece of land for decades and know if better than you know even yourself, and still chosen to destroy part of it in order to 'make it better'? have you been trapped in love and lust and duty till you embody the shit-throwing chimp and the maddened panther pacing in the zoo? do you neighbors bug you, is money a problem, do you dream of the perfect place with the perfect things and the perfect love, all the time, till it drives you into a half world of dream v not-dream?
no?
want to?
no?
want to?
May 27, 2014
A book that hits the table at 455 pages ought to be finished. I counted seven plot lines dangling. I read somewhere Brown expected to wrap it up in three more chapters. How is that possible?
I know nothing of Brown's process. Maybe in second or third draft some of these threads would have got tied off.
Anyway, I enjoyed this very much It was the story of my family, neighbors and friends. I was born and raised in central California. How can these characters from Miss. Be anything alike. I don't think self deception is geographic. I don't think you have to be a caricature of a regional stereotype to be a looser, live on hope deferred, dream beyond your means.
I will read more of Mr. Brown.
I know nothing of Brown's process. Maybe in second or third draft some of these threads would have got tied off.
Anyway, I enjoyed this very much It was the story of my family, neighbors and friends. I was born and raised in central California. How can these characters from Miss. Be anything alike. I don't think self deception is geographic. I don't think you have to be a caricature of a regional stereotype to be a looser, live on hope deferred, dream beyond your means.
I will read more of Mr. Brown.
October 19, 2022
Odd I guess, to read a book that’s unfinished and be fond of it but still, in the end, OK to put it aside and not experience angst and frustration at what’s left undone. It’s just how well Larry Brown builds this world: it’s whole and real and you can go on living in it long as you like, nailing up walls and dusting out cobwebs.
Plus I like it, just how it is. One of those halved skeletons with all the cool muscles and bones underneath. You never get to see that, do you: the writer’s gaps and editor’s fingerprints.
Also, lest I forget, there’s such a leisurely joy here, taken not on writing-writing and high-wire style but just on writing for the pure solid storytelling world-building pleasure of it, that on the personal writing front it turned a bunch of the “can’t can’t can’t can’t” in my brain over to “hey, probably can,” which is pretty much invaluable I think.
Plus I like it, just how it is. One of those halved skeletons with all the cool muscles and bones underneath. You never get to see that, do you: the writer’s gaps and editor’s fingerprints.
Also, lest I forget, there’s such a leisurely joy here, taken not on writing-writing and high-wire style but just on writing for the pure solid storytelling world-building pleasure of it, that on the personal writing front it turned a bunch of the “can’t can’t can’t can’t” in my brain over to “hey, probably can,” which is pretty much invaluable I think.
August 12, 2015
What a perfect ending/no ending. Larry Brown has a heart attack; dies, his final notes remain, all these unresolved threads stay unresolved, no final story line fit get-together s, just another day.
Jimmy's daddy done Jimmy wrong again.
Evelyn is playing with fire and she doesn't realize how dangerous it can be.
Cortez has started to resolve himself to a relationship with Albert
The inclusion of Mr Brown's final notes let us imagine an ending calling upon our own imaginations. How perfect is that. This is reminiscent of Big Bad Love and how the ending of each short story is where the action really begins.
Just another day.
Jimmy's daddy done Jimmy wrong again.
Evelyn is playing with fire and she doesn't realize how dangerous it can be.
Cortez has started to resolve himself to a relationship with Albert
The inclusion of Mr Brown's final notes let us imagine an ending calling upon our own imaginations. How perfect is that. This is reminiscent of Big Bad Love and how the ending of each short story is where the action really begins.
Just another day.
December 23, 2010
I read this book twice earlier this year. I love Larry Brown's later books and admire his honesty and his will to be a good man so much that it's heartwarming. Getting to his last, slightly unfinished book was put off for a couple of years because I knew there'd be nothing left to read in the future.
Clearly his best and most skilled work, Catfish uses the themes of his short works about Mississippi folk but follows a more complex plot and is written in a more fluid literary style (longer, more poetic prose). Jimmy's daddy is such a fuckup of the sort that I know well and so many of the characters tear your heart apart with their struggles to be goodhearted amidst all the shit around them.
Everyone should read this book and "Billy Ray's Farm."
Clearly his best and most skilled work, Catfish uses the themes of his short works about Mississippi folk but follows a more complex plot and is written in a more fluid literary style (longer, more poetic prose). Jimmy's daddy is such a fuckup of the sort that I know well and so many of the characters tear your heart apart with their struggles to be goodhearted amidst all the shit around them.
Everyone should read this book and "Billy Ray's Farm."
December 28, 2014
Some of Larry's most memorable characters, and a novel where we see him evolving even further as a stylist. Though the novel wasn't finished, Larry's notes left in by the editor make it clear where he was headed. I would've loved to have seen his ending, but I would've loved if he'd been around to write a dozen more. He is unquestionably the king of my South.
January 18, 2025
3.5 stars rounded up due to the character development. This is an unfinished story with the author suddenly dying after turning in the majority of the manuscript with an outline for the plans to finish the book. It’s been some time since I’ve read a book where you get deep into each character’s head and what they are feeling and thinking. There are some characters to root for here and more characters that are bad people, or people trying to redeem themselves after doing bad things. It leaves me hoping for Jimmy to have found a good path despite his inept and crappy father and home life, and wondering how Cortez reconciled his past actions. And what happened to Ursula! She would have been a fitting final chapter. Brought to life the poverty and dynamics that can be the rural South
December 24, 2012
I love Larry Brown. I wish he had the chance to be a more prolific writer than he was. But this book was quite possibly his best. I appreciate that it was published unfinished, and I believe it was put together as well as possible under the circumstances. So much so that when I finished it I was shocked that there was no ending. But that may actually be one of its greatest qualities: that it just stops being. I imagine Brown expiring at his typewriter, and I'll never stop wondering how he might have ended the book.
July 29, 2007
Brown writes like people breathe -- effortlessly and naturally. The book centers on a cast of characters (mostly male) in northern Mississippi and how they deal with their families, their jobs, and each other. He really gets inside of their heads in a way that few writers do, and exhibits a sense of time and place that's second to none. You can feel the humidity, smell the cigarette smoke, and taste the beer. An excellent read.
July 27, 2020
I had loved all of Larry Brown's books. This was one of my favorites. As always, pure descriptions, colorful characters, down home flavor. It is terrible that Mr. Brown is no longer with us and that he never got to finish this novel... however, where this novel ended was appropriate to me, lots of loose ends, the same as the tragic short life of this author, one of my favorites.
November 4, 2024
Because after the sun went down, it came back up on Monday morning. And you had to go to work five more days. And it sucked.
October 20, 2008
I am currently re-reading this book. I do this multiple times with all of my faves. This one is especially touching and sad to me because the author died during writing it, and it is almost completely unedited, but not finished obviously. I was turned on to Larry Brown a couple of years ago and have since devoured all of his books. This one I think is his best and it's obvious that his work was only getting better when his life was unexpectedly cut short by a heart attack at the age of 53. Just to forewarn: if you read this book, you will fall in love with it, and in the end you will be completely devastated because you won't get to find out how it ends. Which also adds to the charm of it.
May 22, 2009
Despite being unfinished, this novel is totally awesome and crept back into my psyche while reading a depressing article about the economy in the New Yorker. If you haven't ready Larry Brown you should, now. Yes, like right now. Don't let this get away from you... I had almost completely forgotten about it, then couldn't for the life of me think of what the hell it was called or who it was by. Google, surprisingly was no help. Searches such as "novel man with drinking problem living in trailer" and "fiction rich man alienated from family dig fish pond" yielded nothing. Luckily I couldn't shake the feeling that this just felt like LB. I suppose this is just a long way of saying, for your own good, read Larry Brown.
December 19, 2007
For me, the best book Brown wrote, but unfortunately his last. Brown is all about the South and how people try to make it day by day. This book is about relationships, it is about discovering who you are, it is about trying to find a better life. The book was not completed before Brown's death. He sent off the draft and then suddenly died of a heart attack a week later. His skilled editor helps guide the reader through the editing process and notes where changes have been made.
August 23, 2015
I'll read the reviews now. Seems like reviewers gave it a lot of stars. I guess that something interesting will happen with this catfish pond and the neighbors, but I'll find out about it from the reviews. The characters are too negative for my taste and, although I don't usually mind bad language in detective books, there is too much of it for me in this audio book . Sounded like Tom Stachshulte didn't really like having to say the words. Oh well, I'll move on to my next audio book.
January 31, 2008
Come back, Larry Brown! How did it really end??? How sad that this book was never finished.
January 8, 2016
Scrumptious .
June 9, 2021
Hard to review this one given it was Larry Brown's unfinished final novel... couple of snazzy quotes to follow here when I get around to it...
June 19, 2012
i think this is the 4th brown story i will read...apparently unfinished at his death...want to read, not read possibilities and thoughts...'sides, the other brown stories i've read have been a joy to read.
this one begins:
well...it has all these pages of praise for this that the other....then there's this page with just this on it:
larry brown: passion to brilliance by barry hannah
i dunno...there's not some sort of index or contents to figure this one...okay, so i scroll ahead, some sort of essay from hannah about brown...maybe i'll return to it...more possibilities, seems like.
oh, okay, then we got an editor's note
should we care what the editor has to tell us?
read a bit of it...brown had sent this story in manuscript to his agent...dies shortly afterward...there were notes for two or three chapters to end the novel. apparently he died first.
well that goes on for about 4-5 pages or so...movin' on.
then there's this map
not like ran mcnally drew it up...more like something you did over your summer vacation, marking trails and such, cotton fields, jimmy's daddy's trailer..things that like
okay...story begins!
the blessed shade lived on the ridge. the white oaks stood with their green tops hanging thick under the sun, and a big old man in faded blue overalls walked in the june heat beneath them. he crunched lightly, ankles deep in dry brown leaves, feet wary for copperheads the same color. he was mopping sweat on his brow with his forearm, and he was holding his hand out to bash at the webs of spiders that hung in his path.....
this is story #3 out of 4... and perhaps all 4 start out this way, but 3 out of 4 i know start out with a character(s) walking from one point to another. it works. oh shit, the mummie's following us, let's all walk a little faster. onward and upward.
update to the chapter 7-mark
chapter 7 changes narration from some sort of 3rd-person to 1st, chapter 7 starting out: my name is newell naramore and i live over close to schooner bottom.
but before this there's places like this: [...] those marks are an indication that the editor cut a piece out and the very 1st occurrence of that is mighty curious, way back at the beginning, shortly after a squirrel in a tree, his balls showing in his sack, exits stage right and just prior to a handful of crows who speak to one another.
yeah, the crows have a part in this story, a sort of cannibal crow as they got their eye on chicken bones some character threw on the ground.
the first [...] comes around the time of the squirrel, before the crows set up on the stage, looking at chicken bones and the dozing dozer man--cortez probably--no, it was newell naramore...cortez was having the pond built. i wonder if brown had the squirrel doing something obscene? ursula, the catfish has a part on stage, too.
time & place
oxford, mississippi, 2004
characters
cortez sharp, 72, born in 1932, building a pond for fish, catfish mostly seems like...lives in oxford, mississippi
cortez's wife, wheelchair, 76 years old...twenty-two when married...cortez was eighteen
jimmy's daddy
rusty, drinking buddy of jimmy's daddy
seaborn, another drinking buddy of jimmy's daddy
johnette is married to jimmy's daddy...they have three kids, two girls and jimmy...all...perhaps...w/different fathers.
the crows
some preacher
mail girl
tommy bright, 57...who has/operates a big red fish truck
tommy is married to audrey and he gambles his $ away
ursula...a catfish, the mother of all catfish, sounds like
toby tubby, cortez has known since 1st grade
lucinda, 43, who is screwing a damn retard in atlanta, an artist, the retard, not lucinda...lucinda is cortez sharp's & his wife's daughter.
the retard, albert, has tourette's syndrome
gunsmoke
jeff & jim
newell naramore, the dozer man, building pond for cortez sharp
halter wellums...some local rich guy
jimmy
jimmy's two half-sisters: evelyn, older, 13...velma, 11, year and half older than jimmy
john wayne payne, works w/jimmy's daddy at the stove plant
new girl w/the god-awful titties at the plant
collums, chief of maintenance
a black lady ghost at a cold spot on the road
cleve, black guy who worked for cortez
peter rabbit, a squirrel dog puppy of cleve's
herman horowitz, minor character, father of
herschel horowitz, kid in jimmy's class at school
the horowitz family dog: rex, a german shepherd
seretha, cleve's daughter
montrel, no-count black dude w/seretha
tyrone & woodrow, two sons of cleve's, gone
zula, black cashier, cortez has the hots for her, reminds him of queen, this black girl he was porking before she died...i think she is the "dead black lady" that jimmy sees
lurlene, wife of toby
coy patton, just another name in the story...like halter wellums, this one had some longleaf pine that cortez and toby cut in their youth
sam, sleepy black man that works for toby
aunt addie and uncle lavert...cortez's family
reba...lady at rebel gravel, where cortez looks for "pit run" though it isn't called that anymore
warren...there at rebel gravel...
clay, the man at rebel gravel...delivers a load or two of clay gravel for road to his pond
raymond...black man sells b-b-q...to lucinda and albert...placed called betty davis's
marvis...a punkass nigger that hangs w/another punkass nigger
hornwell...man...jones...woman, two married folk carrying on at the stove plant
lacey...a woman that jimmy's father carries on with, she works at the stove plant
has a sister name of loretta and sis was watermelon queen one year
garson, another man at the stove plant.
snuffy smith...man at the stove plant.
hootie pearson...man at the stove plant.
carol...nurse at hospital
tony, doctor tony, dentist who works on jimmy's teeth
margie, dentist's assistant
mister carpenter, johnette's bank boss
daniels, the hog guy
herbert...some punk kid that beds jimmy's older sister evelyn
update at the 27% complete mark
i like brown's use of stream-of-consciousness. he moves in and out of each character on stage, as well as the crows, ursula the mother of all catfish...and i suspect that squirrel w/the nuts. there are extended passages of stream-of-consciousness writing.
it is somewhat interesting reading the [...] that appear throughout, various places, indication that here [...] the editor had cut a piece out...provides a bit of insight into the editing process...yes, one must "guess" at what had been cut, how much, etc...but how likely is one to read something like this and get this kind of look at the editing process? not going to happen, i don't think...not for the common reader.
curious things
like this cold spot where the dead black lady is seen...probably queen...this black girl that cortez fucked a number of times...till she died...how that happened isn't explained, as yet.....the curious thing, the cold spot...cause the idea of a cold spot and haunts happens in several of stephen king's stories.
....and...there's this time that jimmy's daddy's daddy asked him to "jump to me, son." his arms held out...when jimmy's daddy jumped, jimmy's daddy's daddy stepped aside and jimmy's daddy landed ouch on the floor. there's this scene in lisey's story from stephen king where scott's old man has scott and his brother jump from a bench. curious...the two stories having the same sort of incident...maybe things like that have been common?
update, finished, monday evening, 8:47 p.m. e.s.t. still full light out...will be for another hour or more...18 jun 12...almost the longest day of the year.
good story...reading along...and i forgot that this story, the man's manuscript was not complete, that there were some notes...reading along...picking up a little speed....picking up a little speed...and there's the notes....short, sweet, uncertain, the end.
there's more than a few cliffhangers there at the end...at least one not addressed at all in the notes. there is a continuity error late in the story...one of them, jimmy's father i think it was, in his stream, he's thinking about carol...who was a nurse, an older nurse who tended to cortez when he was in the hospital...yet jimmy's father is thinking about her in a sexual sense...he had another he was tending, though.
anyway...good story...lots of stream-of-consciousness, through a multitude of characters, though i'd hazard that...the largest percentage of the story is told through cortez...by a narrow margin.
i'll repeat again that it was nice...that editor detail presented as this: [...] to indicate things had been cut...nice to get a window into that process. they did not impede the flow of the story, either, i don't think.
this one begins:
well...it has all these pages of praise for this that the other....then there's this page with just this on it:
larry brown: passion to brilliance by barry hannah
i dunno...there's not some sort of index or contents to figure this one...okay, so i scroll ahead, some sort of essay from hannah about brown...maybe i'll return to it...more possibilities, seems like.
oh, okay, then we got an editor's note
should we care what the editor has to tell us?
read a bit of it...brown had sent this story in manuscript to his agent...dies shortly afterward...there were notes for two or three chapters to end the novel. apparently he died first.
well that goes on for about 4-5 pages or so...movin' on.
then there's this map
not like ran mcnally drew it up...more like something you did over your summer vacation, marking trails and such, cotton fields, jimmy's daddy's trailer..things that like
okay...story begins!
the blessed shade lived on the ridge. the white oaks stood with their green tops hanging thick under the sun, and a big old man in faded blue overalls walked in the june heat beneath them. he crunched lightly, ankles deep in dry brown leaves, feet wary for copperheads the same color. he was mopping sweat on his brow with his forearm, and he was holding his hand out to bash at the webs of spiders that hung in his path.....
this is story #3 out of 4... and perhaps all 4 start out this way, but 3 out of 4 i know start out with a character(s) walking from one point to another. it works. oh shit, the mummie's following us, let's all walk a little faster. onward and upward.
update to the chapter 7-mark
chapter 7 changes narration from some sort of 3rd-person to 1st, chapter 7 starting out: my name is newell naramore and i live over close to schooner bottom.
but before this there's places like this: [...] those marks are an indication that the editor cut a piece out and the very 1st occurrence of that is mighty curious, way back at the beginning, shortly after a squirrel in a tree, his balls showing in his sack, exits stage right and just prior to a handful of crows who speak to one another.
yeah, the crows have a part in this story, a sort of cannibal crow as they got their eye on chicken bones some character threw on the ground.
the first [...] comes around the time of the squirrel, before the crows set up on the stage, looking at chicken bones and the dozing dozer man--cortez probably--no, it was newell naramore...cortez was having the pond built. i wonder if brown had the squirrel doing something obscene? ursula, the catfish has a part on stage, too.
time & place
oxford, mississippi, 2004
characters
cortez sharp, 72, born in 1932, building a pond for fish, catfish mostly seems like...lives in oxford, mississippi
cortez's wife, wheelchair, 76 years old...twenty-two when married...cortez was eighteen
jimmy's daddy
rusty, drinking buddy of jimmy's daddy
seaborn, another drinking buddy of jimmy's daddy
johnette is married to jimmy's daddy...they have three kids, two girls and jimmy...all...perhaps...w/different fathers.
the crows
some preacher
mail girl
tommy bright, 57...who has/operates a big red fish truck
tommy is married to audrey and he gambles his $ away
ursula...a catfish, the mother of all catfish, sounds like
toby tubby, cortez has known since 1st grade
lucinda, 43, who is screwing a damn retard in atlanta, an artist, the retard, not lucinda...lucinda is cortez sharp's & his wife's daughter.
the retard, albert, has tourette's syndrome
gunsmoke
jeff & jim
newell naramore, the dozer man, building pond for cortez sharp
halter wellums...some local rich guy
jimmy
jimmy's two half-sisters: evelyn, older, 13...velma, 11, year and half older than jimmy
john wayne payne, works w/jimmy's daddy at the stove plant
new girl w/the god-awful titties at the plant
collums, chief of maintenance
a black lady ghost at a cold spot on the road
cleve, black guy who worked for cortez
peter rabbit, a squirrel dog puppy of cleve's
herman horowitz, minor character, father of
herschel horowitz, kid in jimmy's class at school
the horowitz family dog: rex, a german shepherd
seretha, cleve's daughter
montrel, no-count black dude w/seretha
tyrone & woodrow, two sons of cleve's, gone
zula, black cashier, cortez has the hots for her, reminds him of queen, this black girl he was porking before she died...i think she is the "dead black lady" that jimmy sees
lurlene, wife of toby
coy patton, just another name in the story...like halter wellums, this one had some longleaf pine that cortez and toby cut in their youth
sam, sleepy black man that works for toby
aunt addie and uncle lavert...cortez's family
reba...lady at rebel gravel, where cortez looks for "pit run" though it isn't called that anymore
warren...there at rebel gravel...
clay, the man at rebel gravel...delivers a load or two of clay gravel for road to his pond
raymond...black man sells b-b-q...to lucinda and albert...placed called betty davis's
marvis...a punkass nigger that hangs w/another punkass nigger
hornwell...man...jones...woman, two married folk carrying on at the stove plant
lacey...a woman that jimmy's father carries on with, she works at the stove plant
has a sister name of loretta and sis was watermelon queen one year
garson, another man at the stove plant.
snuffy smith...man at the stove plant.
hootie pearson...man at the stove plant.
carol...nurse at hospital
tony, doctor tony, dentist who works on jimmy's teeth
margie, dentist's assistant
mister carpenter, johnette's bank boss
daniels, the hog guy
herbert...some punk kid that beds jimmy's older sister evelyn
update at the 27% complete mark
i like brown's use of stream-of-consciousness. he moves in and out of each character on stage, as well as the crows, ursula the mother of all catfish...and i suspect that squirrel w/the nuts. there are extended passages of stream-of-consciousness writing.
it is somewhat interesting reading the [...] that appear throughout, various places, indication that here [...] the editor had cut a piece out...provides a bit of insight into the editing process...yes, one must "guess" at what had been cut, how much, etc...but how likely is one to read something like this and get this kind of look at the editing process? not going to happen, i don't think...not for the common reader.
curious things
like this cold spot where the dead black lady is seen...probably queen...this black girl that cortez fucked a number of times...till she died...how that happened isn't explained, as yet.....the curious thing, the cold spot...cause the idea of a cold spot and haunts happens in several of stephen king's stories.
....and...there's this time that jimmy's daddy's daddy asked him to "jump to me, son." his arms held out...when jimmy's daddy jumped, jimmy's daddy's daddy stepped aside and jimmy's daddy landed ouch on the floor. there's this scene in lisey's story from stephen king where scott's old man has scott and his brother jump from a bench. curious...the two stories having the same sort of incident...maybe things like that have been common?
update, finished, monday evening, 8:47 p.m. e.s.t. still full light out...will be for another hour or more...18 jun 12...almost the longest day of the year.
good story...reading along...and i forgot that this story, the man's manuscript was not complete, that there were some notes...reading along...picking up a little speed....picking up a little speed...and there's the notes....short, sweet, uncertain, the end.
there's more than a few cliffhangers there at the end...at least one not addressed at all in the notes. there is a continuity error late in the story...one of them, jimmy's father i think it was, in his stream, he's thinking about carol...who was a nurse, an older nurse who tended to cortez when he was in the hospital...yet jimmy's father is thinking about her in a sexual sense...he had another he was tending, though.
anyway...good story...lots of stream-of-consciousness, through a multitude of characters, though i'd hazard that...the largest percentage of the story is told through cortez...by a narrow margin.
i'll repeat again that it was nice...that editor detail presented as this: [...] to indicate things had been cut...nice to get a window into that process. they did not impede the flow of the story, either, i don't think.
July 21, 2022
I am seldom as transported as I am when I read Larry Brown. His characters are so fleshed out and feel real. I’m more of a movie guy than I am well read so in my mind Brown is John Cassavetes meets Mike Leigh. Cassavetes with the fumbling realness of human emotion/love and Mike Leigh with everyday drama elevated to make relatable art. I read “Tiny Love” last year and some of those stories struck such a chord with me, I watched the film adaptation of “Joe” and had a new favorite Nic Cage movie, “Fay” wasn’t an enjoyable read but it stuck with me.
“A Miracle of Catfish” reminds me of growing up in Ohio where my grandparents lived in the country. It unearthed memories of days wandering outside and what life was like before it became this same-y day to day trudge in adulthood. I long for that.
I love that Brown makes simple people very complex and full of emotions that have levels and tiers. They feel real and life comes at them as unexpectedly as it does in the real world. There’s no buildup and climax there are dull uneventful days and the odd brush with death.
I really really liked this.
“A Miracle of Catfish” reminds me of growing up in Ohio where my grandparents lived in the country. It unearthed memories of days wandering outside and what life was like before it became this same-y day to day trudge in adulthood. I long for that.
I love that Brown makes simple people very complex and full of emotions that have levels and tiers. They feel real and life comes at them as unexpectedly as it does in the real world. There’s no buildup and climax there are dull uneventful days and the odd brush with death.
I really really liked this.
May 15, 2020
This is an unfinished novel...hence the 4 stars instead of 5. Unfortunately, Larry Brown died before it was finished and all we have are his notes about what he intended to write next. Given the length of this novel, and the scenarios he wrote about in his notes, it seems that this could have been two novels. This genre has been described as rural noir or back-country noir. Brown's characters live hard-scrabble lives at the "barely above poverty" level. They drink too much, have ill-advised affairs, get arrested for various crimes and birth too many needy children. Somehow Brown is able to make the characters somewhat sympathetic. I had a hard time stomaching some of the hunting scenes and the scenes where children were mistreated. But man! Brown could write! It was easy to slide into the rural Mississippi environment and language and feel the humidity and the condensation on that cold bottle of beer. I would recommend other books by Brown above this one, but it was still a great read.
October 16, 2020
The rural South. The lives lived one day after another, shaped by chance, bad choices, upbringing, and the history of a place. The unconditional love for family tainted by abuse, neglect, extramarital affairs, and murder. I thoroughly enjoyed mucking along through the common lives of the characters in this book, grudgingly warming up to their real-people personas while groaning and cringing at their foibles and atrocities. This book is a ramble down a dirt road that peeks into the wayside trailers, shanties, and farmsteads. The story illuminates the redemption and the shit of the characters' flawed lives. The conclusion is, expectedly, an abrupt stop with many threads hanging and many unwritten chapters to go before anything might be acceptably pulled together. But well worth the read if you want to spend a little time with an old man watching his new catfish pond fill up with water and share in the parallel swirl of his neighbors' lives.
December 12, 2024
Others have said it better. So very much seated in his place, time, and people.
As much as the story and characters come fully alive, vibrant- AND you also understand most of the underpinning of interrelationship, well, there are still times that it reminds me of a very well done comic sit com. Not the current groups but ones of the 1970's-1990's especially.
Which is not a bad thing at all. Don't misunderstand. But that slant makes me leave and come back to it more than more norm, less frivolous folk life or period pieces that are similar in working or underclass ordinary people.
It is super sad that he didn't finish and died so young. It made me remember the similar guys in my own life who left just that way too. You don't get to say any goodbyes and know they wanted to stay longer.
As much as the story and characters come fully alive, vibrant- AND you also understand most of the underpinning of interrelationship, well, there are still times that it reminds me of a very well done comic sit com. Not the current groups but ones of the 1970's-1990's especially.
Which is not a bad thing at all. Don't misunderstand. But that slant makes me leave and come back to it more than more norm, less frivolous folk life or period pieces that are similar in working or underclass ordinary people.
It is super sad that he didn't finish and died so young. It made me remember the similar guys in my own life who left just that way too. You don't get to say any goodbyes and know they wanted to stay longer.
January 19, 2018
This book was recommended to me. I haven’t read anything else of Brown’s books. I loved this book as much as one can love a book that was not finished and has no actual ending due to author dying. I knew this going in , but was still stunned at the abruptness and how much was still left hanging. Nonetheless, he wrote an amazing book. Great, realistic characters. One of few books that I laughed out loud (for a while actually). He also does things with writing that I’ve not encountered before. Though short, the blurbs by the birds and catfish are brilliant. I’m glad I read this , but feel it’s left a pretty big unfilled space in me.
May 14, 2018
Brown's unfinished work beats the heck out of anyone else's completed, edited work. Enough completed before his death to predict the story arc, though I sure would have like to read his take on it. There is a whopper of a catfish, and a little fellow that sure deserves to catch it. Along the way you would like for a few of these Southern characters to get a little justice or find some redemption with some great act of kindness. But they carry on drinking away their lives and missing the opportunities that circumstances present.
February 10, 2019
Brown has been one of those authors I've told myself I need to read for a while now, given his friendship with William Gay, who is a favorite of mine. It's a shame Brown passed prematurely. You go into this story knowing it is incomplete, however the bones of a great tale are certainly present. Tragedy looms at the edges of each character—who are all multidimensional and feel truly human. Can't wait to explore the rest of his catalogue.
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