True Cross

by T.R. Pearson

Removed from the outside world, small-town accountant Paul Tatum forges a largely non-verbal friendship with fellow recluse and fix-it man Stoney, with whom he shares a fixation on a local damsel in distress before Paul goads Stoney into an inexorable course of action, with tragic consequences. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction, Humor

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Thomas Reid Pearson is an American novelist born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of seventeen novels and four works of non-fiction under his own name, including A Short History of a Small Place, Cry Me A River, Jerusalem Gap, and Seaworthy, and has written three additional novels -- Ranchero, Beluga, and Nowhere Nice -- under the pseudonym Rick Gavin. Pearson has also ghostwritten several other books, both fiction and nonfiction, and has written or co-written various feature film and TV scripts.

Reviews

[Jim Gilroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of days ago, after several months of rehabbing a running injury, I finally went out and managed to run most of three miles. When I got home my wife asked how it went. I told her "I'm getting there." She asked where I was trying to get to. I didn't really have an answer.

So... I love reading T.R. Pearson. I tend to have a perpetual smile on my face and often break into audible chuckles. This book was no different in that regard. And I'm used to, and expect, the tangents, but phew... where were we going? Late in the book Pearson says of a police detective, "In asking a question of me, Skip would usually be reminded of something else, pricked to recall a thing he'd seen somewhere, an episode from his past which he would inform me of at length, indulging every trifling tangent..." Kind of the book in a nutshell.

And when we got to the end, I had to go back to the start to try to remember just where we were heading.

Still like the book.

[Peter Boysen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love good comedy...and the one-liners in this novel had me putting down the book and laughing out loud. But at some point I wanted things to coalesce into a plot, rather than a series of one-liners. I think I get it -- the point was that the narrator had no point to his existence, and so there would be no point in the story, except a random trip to Venice and an unfortunate shotgun blast, but I got to the end feeling like I'd read my way through Jimmy Fallon Goes to Appalachia, not a book. I get why the people who like this do, but it left me wanting more. Of course, the narrator feels the same way, in some very real situations.

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious, as almost everything of T. R. Pearson's is. Bittersweet, ditto--but this book leans more towards the bitter end of the spectrum.


The ending is a surprise, and not a pleasant one. I have it on pretty good authority that the book originally had a different ending--maybe someday the original ending will see the light of day.

[Malinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was set in southwestern Virginia, right around where I lived for several years. TR Pearson really captured the kinds of characters who live around the Blue Ridge mountain region. While this was entertaining, it didn't initially draw me in.

[Judi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure Southern Gothic, a good read. Let us see what Judi shall read next. We think A God Shaped Hole would be a good choice. We shall wait with bated breath to follow her progress and see how many stars she gives it.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Return to form for Pearson, after some disappointing works.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pearson. Something like my 8th Pearson. I like to read Pearson. A lot.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second time through...
This Pearson has the rolling, rambling sentences of his early novels, the style I love best. It is sadness and humor with a larger portion of the former.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

First read - April 2013 (4 stars)
Re-read Aug 2019 (3 stars) (33 of 2019)

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pace of this book is incredibly slow, but if you're a fan of dry humor as I am, you'll enjoy it.

[Jessica Muncey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was almost torture to get through.