The Oxygen Man

by Steve Yarbrough

In this powerful and gritty first novel, Steve Yarbrough takes us into the deep-South world of Ned Rose, who works nights checking the oxygen levels in fish-farm ponds and does all the dirty work his wealthy boss requires. He silently shares the family home with his sister Daze, who is nearly blinded by bitterness, obsessed with her mother's reputation as a loose, lustful woman. Since his angry teenage years as a scholarship student at a posh, segregated school, Ned's life has been marred by a violence that erupts loudly and quickly disappears, leaving him filled with secrets and regret. When one last hope for deliverance emerges, however, both brother and sister are forced to come to terms with their heritage.

Genres: Fiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Born in Indianola, Mississippi, he received his B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of Mississippi and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas. Writing largely within the Southern tradition, he draws his themes and characters from Southern history and mores in ways that have been compared to Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, and Willie Morris.

Yarbrough's major works include the novels The End of California (2006), Prisoners of War (2004), Visible Spirits (2001) and The Oxygen Man (1999), as well as short story collections such as Family Men (1990), Mississippi History (1994) and Veneer (1998). His latest novel, Safe from the Neighbors, was published by Knopf in 2010.

His honors include the Mississippi Authors Award, the California Book Award, and an award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. His novel, Prisoners of War, was a finalist for the 2005 PEN/Faulkner award. His work has been translated into Dutch, Japanese and Polish and published in the United Kingdom.

A professor of creative writing for many years at California State University, Fresno, Yarbrough recently joined the faculty in the Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College in Boston.

He is married to the Polish literary translator Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough and they have two daughters, Tosha and Lena. He lives in Stoneham, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Just take 'Dixie" for instance," he said and set his glass down.

"Take it where?"

"What I'm saying is just look at what that song represents to us as opposed to them. I'm a Mississippi State man, same as you are, Fordy, and let's face it, "Dixie" is an Ole Miss song. But to me it's more than that. Man, I can't hardly hear it without getting a big old lump in my throat.

So, after reading that you're sitting there thinking this is just another grit lit drive through the Delta in a rusty old truck drinking whisky on the way to see some sordid girlfriend who can't quite lift herself out of the rut in life she was born into. Well, yes, and no.

Steve Yarbrough, a Mississippi educated writer who after leaving the south went to Cali only to later turn coat and move to Yankee land (humor intended folks.....not meant to express rejection- only using it here to point out this guy isn't your typical firmly planted in my roots kind of author) has combined all the elements present in the works of other southern authors in this genre (Larry Brown, William Gay, Tom Franklin, etc.) and still find the deep reaching themes I'd surmise he had in mind before he wrote the first word.

How fitting to finish this book on MLK day; Yarbrough points out that Southern tiered society still has some growing to do towards the equality of "I have a dream". Slavery is a pre-modern notion, but the hierarchy related to that way of thinking is still alive and well. Not completely revolving around race, there are tones of societal pressures that one group can put on another. The landowners on the poor (of all races), male upon female, brother upon sister, parent upon child, and banker upon all. Well done, and loose enough at the end to keep me thinking.

[Trey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit I would never have picked this book up if it had not been a requirement for a Delta culture class I'm taking. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. For a first novel,Yarbrough hits a home run. I was dragged into it from the start and was left bleeding by the roadside when it was over. Set in Mississippi in the nineties with flashbacks to the seventies it deals with class struggles and touches on racial issues, but class and guilt are the major themes. The ending is perfect....satisfying, but not too tidy....I would highly recommend this book. It's 200+ pages but if I had set my mind to it, I could have read it in one setting...for those that know me...they know that's saying something...yeah me...poster child for ADD..Enjoy

[Irma · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Whitney Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“He wasn’t what he was supposed to be. He was an imposter: a boy who’d chosen this place, and at that moment, to impersonate a man.”

“You could do something a thousand times, a million times, and then you could do the same thing again, in a new frame of mind, and the act itself changed.

It stopped being what it had been and became something else. Knowing this, she wondered as she often had whether the little day-to-day endeavors that everybody lived by meant anything in themselves.”


Yarbrough is a fantastic writer. His prose was beautifully written and really sucked me into the story. However, I’m not exactly sure what the conclusion of the book was supposed to be. There was some well thought out concepts about race, lower class America, manhood, and more, but I’m left pondering all of its significance. Still a great book!

[Wendell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hearty suspicion should accompany the reading of any novel described as “gritty.” As a description of work, which, as Lauter and other scholars of working-class literature point out, is often the unifying theme in working-class fiction, the first half of the book is truly engrossing. But Yarbrough truly cannot hold the plot together and the large chunk that follows is almost entirely incomprehensible. He tries hard to pick up the pieces in the final chapters, but momentum is shot by that point. He doesn't seem to understand much about why his characters do what they do, and a number of them simply wander off the page (leaving the reader to wonder why he spent so much time on them at the start). There’s such a thing as being too understated, too hyper-real, and too “gritty” for your plot's good, and this is an example. The dark secret (because isn't there always a dark secret at the heart of the working-class novel?) seems, in the end, so entirely contrived that it fails to produce connection, empathy, or even much interest (though one may be mildy relieved to understand at last why the protagonist’s sister is such a freak). When all is said and done, however, not much that happens in this book seems to matter all that much to anyone.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember who recommended this book to me on Goodreads, but thanks. Although written in third person omniscient, the narrative floats in and out of Ned's and Daze's memories like rumors from the past and present. It is sort of a coming of age novel for a man who is around forty-five and the conclusion is a violent rite of passage. It is populated with sad, desperate folks, both black and white trying to eke out a life and a living without a future anywhere in sight.

[Elizabeth Suggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Oxygen Man started slow and got intense. I liked certain aspects, especially the critiques on society and the south, but I didn't care for any of the characters. Everyone was kind of mean or unlikable. I can see why others like it, but it wasn't my favorite.

[Kelly Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I pulled this book at random at the library, and was pleasantly surprised. It started out slow but the mysteries of Ned and Daisy's lives quickly kept me interested. The author did a good job weaving together several themes...family relationships, violence, racial tensions, self discovery, etc. I thought the ending was very fitting!

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Down and out in the South. Comparing the cotton picking time of the 70s with the catfish land of the 90s, the Mississippi Delta hasn't changed much. There is a story here - but it gets all jumbled and tangled and it doesn't quite work. It's a story of economic divide, revenge, lost love, bad bullies, deep racism and it kind of falls apart.

[JK · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Glenn Kissack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Oxygen Man is an emotionally gripping novel set in Mississippi in the 1990's, with flashbacks to the 1970's. It centers around Ned Rose, whose job is checking the oxygen levels in fish-farm ponds. Ned, who's from a poor white background but attended a segregated high school along with the town's elite, begins to question whom he owes his allegiance to -- his white boss, who was his classmate, or his black co-workers. The novel raises powerful questions about class shame and the value of "whiteness."

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

about 2/3 of the way through this book, i thought "this is like toni morrison, but written by poor white southern trash." it didn't quite end out that way - the magical realism never kicked in all the way like with morrison, but there was a hint early on and the resolution was . . . nearly as magical. yarbrough is a gem.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though all of these characters are trapped in rather depressing and sordid situations, this writer is so good, that you develop sympathy even for the worst of them. Everything becomes understandable as the plot unfolds. The writer is terrific, the world he describes is both familiar and strange, and--much as I hate that word--it is an uplifting tale.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great writing however I was not fully invested in the story. The story was hard to follow with jumps in time. The 70's were just as racist as the 90's and maybe that was the point. The antagonist was much too one dimensional. The protagonist irritated me. Daisy Rose was the only character that kept me reading.

[Jolie G.]

Apr 30, 2007

[Mary Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't love it; didn't hate it; glad I read it.

The deep South, in many instances, remains a throwback to earlier times in our country.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life in the deep south -- segregation and race relations.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!!! The ending was unexpected! Enjoyed reading about the Mississippi Delta, sad that it tells it exactly how it is!