Thunderclouds in the Forecast

by Clarence Major

Thunderclouds in the Forecast traverses the linked histories of two friends—one Black, the other white—who grew up wards of the state in New York. It’s April 1976 and Ray is taking Amtrak to San Francisco to reconnect with Scotty, his oldest friend, whom he met in a shelter for abandoned children. While Ray has embraced the stable tedium of steady employment, Scotty’s life has been erratic, a trail of short-lived affairs and dead-end jobs. Maybe Ray, who’s just won the lottery, is finally in a position to help him.

When Ray’s train is delayed in Lorena, a Gold Rush outpost turned college town, he meets Alice. Together they embark on a romance that tempts him to stay. By the time Ray arrives in San Francisco, Scotty has abandoned his bartending job, his rented room, and his scant belongings and skipped town with a married woman from Lorena. Now Ray has more than one reason to return.

A preeminent American writer who thrives on reinvention, Major returns with an unforgettable exploration of life on the brink of sweeping change. With spare prose and subtle poignancy, Thunderclouds in the Forecast probes love, loyalty, and belonging. As Toni Morrison wrote, “Clarence Major has a remarkable mind and the talent to match.”

Genres: Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2021

About the author

Currently a professor of twentieth century American literature at the University of California at Davis, Clarence Major is a poet, painter and novelist who was born in Atlanta and grew up in Chicago.
Clarence Major was a finalist for the National Book Awards (1999). He is recipient of many awards, among them, a National Council on The Arts Award (1970), a Fulbright (1981-1983), a Western States Book Award (1986) and two Pushcart prizes--one for poetry, one for fiction. Major is a contributor to many periodicals and anthologies in the USA, Europe, South America and Africa. He has served as judge for The National Book Awards, the PEN-Faulkner Award and twice for the National Endowment for The Arts. Major has traveled extensively and lived in various parts of the United States and for extended periods in France and Italy. He has lectured and read his work in dozens of U. S. universities as well as in England, France, Liberia, West Germany, Ghana, and Italy.

Reviews

[books4chess · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unconventional game of cat and mouse between Ray and his childhood companion Scottie leads Ray to settle down in small town Lorena and give a new style of life a chance. Both orphans failed by the system, they attempt to regain contact, with Ray following Scottie's trail and meeting his past acquaintances on the way.

The story explores how race is navigated in America, with constant references, both subtle and blatant, thrown out in the many, many dialogues. The message is clear throughout the book - no one, not even Ray (who is black) and Scottie (who is white) can quite believe that Ray ended up the one with good fortune. It's a great insight into race relations in the US and highlights the varying opinions between political parties.

I was intrigued by the use of the Great Gatsby. After repeated comparison by the author, I was able to recognise similarities but I'm not sure it would have been the point of comparison I'd have made. I understand the use of calm, slow development reflected Gatsby's own life, but I wanted to know more by the end and finished underwhelmed.

Ray's character development was the winner for me, with his self-awareness, modesty and well thought out actions. His persistence in what came across as a one-way friendship was admirable and his ability to stay calm and collected when provoked was powerful to read from a third person narrative. I wanted more for his love life, truly.

The book is a good read, it just needs a little more oomph.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

[Carol Stephan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This tells the story of two men, one black (Ray), one white (Scotty), who were both abandoned as infants and grew up in the same shelter in New York. The story is told through Ray's eyes. Scotty is now living in California and Ray is travelling there to connect with his friend.

This is one of the oddest books I have ever read. It is less than 200 pages and books of that length usually have no wasted words and little repetition but this one did repeat a lot and spent a lot of time describing the most mundane things, such as items on a menu, every piece of furniture purchased, and also a description of every person Ray encounters, even those he never sees again. Ray has some difficulty finding Scotty once in California and I was interested to see how it played out. Besides finding Scotty, the book deals with luck, race relations, and finding one's purpose in life but many of the back stories were so comical to me and I don't think that was the author's intent. Most of the one-time encounters tell him their entire life story and most stories are real doozies. He also compares Ray to the story of "The Great Gatsby" and I did not see that connection.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was an excellent setting for a novel and I was primed to really enjoy this book, however the author didn't quite seem to have the hang of realistic sounding dialogue. It often seemed as if he was just using dialogue for explication purposes which causes the text to sound rather stilted at times.

[Ellen F · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unusual style of writing - lots of explanatory text to describe the backstory or move the plot along - and lots of unnecessary details (although those did add to the ambiance). A pleasant-enough read.

[Sarah Schulman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this inventive, quirky, highly original jewel of a novel, filled with storytelling treasure and entirely unpredictable.