Still’s Reviews > Stories from the Attic > Status Update

So, what? Goodreads down this afternoon? I’ve written 2 goddamned updates & nothing appears! Wait a second. Cops are outside…

The last two chapters have come from the “Fragments” section. One seems to be a section dropped from PROVINCES OF NIGHT with an into about a brother who joined the Confederacy late then turned outlaw. The 2nd chapter was again involved with mysticisms & chicanery. Outstanding stuff!

The story I just finished, “My Brother’s Keeper” from The Fragments portion, has left me confused. Appears to be two fragments, completely separated by a great passage of time.
In the first segment a younger brother who left to fight in the Civil War only to arrive too late and witness the battle of Appomattox then turned outlaw. The second appears to’ve been intended for PROVINCES OF NIGHT. Powerful stuff.

I read his review of Faulkner’s oeuvre and was just … laid out.
Knocked Out Loaded.
Then came the sketches he intended to work up into a novel about the bloody Natchez Trace.
Check it out. Winds from Tennessee or farther north down through Alabama into Mississippi high-ground to Natchez, Mississippi.
You pay the ticket you takes the ride.
Stunningly brilliant writing!

My god, I’m in the “Memoirs” section of this. A chapter on books that influenced him as a child & as a teenager. He goes on about a personal favorite They Don’t Dance Much by James Ross… one of the finest, darkest Noirs ever published.

This is a wonderful collection and all fans of William Gay should own a copy.

There’s this here story - a fictionalised version of a devastating event in Gay’s life “ Homecoming “ - that will peel the skin off your skull if you’re familiar width the life story of the author.

Mournful.
Lordy, how mournful.

I don’t believe William Faulkner His Honor ever wrote as mournful a line as to be found in the second story: “Nighttime Awakening:.

Son Of A Bitch’ll rip your heart out.

J. M. White’s introduction to this final collection of William Gay’s writings …some recovered by White after Gay’s death. These stories (quite a few) were stolen from Gay’s home shortly before Gay’s death.

Just read the first short story.”The Ascension Of Pepper Yates”. Damn. It ends just when you’re longing for more.

Oh well… I’ve only just started.