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Pure Spirits
We're all good at something.
Even if we don't want to be.
Vance and Bessie run moonshine. A young couple trying to stay on the right side of the Depression by being on the wrong side of the law.
Harlan is a federal revenuer. A rigid man with a special passion for enforcing the laws of Prohibition.
As Vance, Bessie, and Harlan’s professional choices close in around them, their worlds begin to overlap. The spirit of survival forces long-hidden parts of themselves to surface. And they each find a way to cope with their troubles—or not.
Pure Spirits is about what we do for a living and how we justify it. About how we can all see the same things very differently—to the point of wondering what makes a thing true. It’s a love story, a good, old-fashioned yarn, and a look at the human capacity for both discipline and denial.
Even if we don't want to be.
Vance and Bessie run moonshine. A young couple trying to stay on the right side of the Depression by being on the wrong side of the law.
Harlan is a federal revenuer. A rigid man with a special passion for enforcing the laws of Prohibition.
As Vance, Bessie, and Harlan’s professional choices close in around them, their worlds begin to overlap. The spirit of survival forces long-hidden parts of themselves to surface. And they each find a way to cope with their troubles—or not.
Pure Spirits is about what we do for a living and how we justify it. About how we can all see the same things very differently—to the point of wondering what makes a thing true. It’s a love story, a good, old-fashioned yarn, and a look at the human capacity for both discipline and denial.
176 pages, pdf download
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 31, 2013
This is an absolutely terrific novel. Set in a small West Virginia town during the years of Prohibition, it's about a married couple who are bootleggers, bringing in moonshine or "likker" as they call it from Kentucky when the Great Depression left them with few other choices for how to make a living. The story is told with chapters alternating between the perspective of Bessie, the wife, and Harlan, the government official or "revenuer" who is charged with breaking up sills and bringing bootleggers to justice.
While told from their perspectives, Bessie's husband Vance is really the star of the show. He is a terrific character. A taciturn man with a dark past he doesn't like to talk about, he is devoted to Bessie and thriving because after failing at every other job he tried -- including farming and auto mechanics -- transporting likker escaping the pursuit of revenuers is the only thing he's ever been good at. As laconic at Vance he is, he can turn on the charm and charisma whenever he needs to in order to transact a business deal and he has a funny and cutting with, so he has a lot of great lines when he is up against the characters who share the small town where he and Bessie lives, including the dog catcher who snatches their dog every time they're on a liquor run and the speakeasy drunk who hits on his wife every time Vance steps away from her to transact business with his supplier partners. Harlan plays the great Ahab role -- as the man determined to land a big-time bootlegger to make his career with the government.
Bessie is a terrific character as well. She's not as perfect as well -- she regularly gets drunk on the moonshine, even though Lance never touches it. While she would like Vance to talk more and open up about his feelings, she's wise enough to understand his love through the small ways he always show his devotion to.
They're always on the edge of getting caught by Harlan, and that cat and mouse game adds a fun level of suspense to a novel that offers a great character story and an intriguing look at a time when people had to struggle to get enough food on their plates to avoid malnutrition.
With this and Small Town Odds, Headley had written two novels that rank among my all-time favorites.
By the way as of May 2013, this novel hadn't been published. The author previously made it available on his web site. While it wasn't posted there when I went looking for it, he kindly shared it with me and I was extremely grateful he did.
While told from their perspectives, Bessie's husband Vance is really the star of the show. He is a terrific character. A taciturn man with a dark past he doesn't like to talk about, he is devoted to Bessie and thriving because after failing at every other job he tried -- including farming and auto mechanics -- transporting likker escaping the pursuit of revenuers is the only thing he's ever been good at. As laconic at Vance he is, he can turn on the charm and charisma whenever he needs to in order to transact a business deal and he has a funny and cutting with, so he has a lot of great lines when he is up against the characters who share the small town where he and Bessie lives, including the dog catcher who snatches their dog every time they're on a liquor run and the speakeasy drunk who hits on his wife every time Vance steps away from her to transact business with his supplier partners. Harlan plays the great Ahab role -- as the man determined to land a big-time bootlegger to make his career with the government.
Bessie is a terrific character as well. She's not as perfect as well -- she regularly gets drunk on the moonshine, even though Lance never touches it. While she would like Vance to talk more and open up about his feelings, she's wise enough to understand his love through the small ways he always show his devotion to.
They're always on the edge of getting caught by Harlan, and that cat and mouse game adds a fun level of suspense to a novel that offers a great character story and an intriguing look at a time when people had to struggle to get enough food on their plates to avoid malnutrition.
With this and Small Town Odds, Headley had written two novels that rank among my all-time favorites.
By the way as of May 2013, this novel hadn't been published. The author previously made it available on his web site. While it wasn't posted there when I went looking for it, he kindly shared it with me and I was extremely grateful he did.
April 7, 2013
Quite good - entertaining, funny and sad.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews