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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Bad things happen to good people.
I can't remember the last time I finished a book in two sittings, but, damn, this was a good novel.
Set in a small town in Mississippi, Desperation Road is about second chances and starting over.
A young, destitute, single mother is on her way to her home town, on foot. She's got her young daughter in tow. They're dirty, starving, sunburnt. They can't walk any more, so they take a cheap motel room for the night. Another bad decision, complemented by bad luck, drives Maben to commit a crime. So she's on the run again.
Not far, Russel Gains is a free man, after spending eleven years in jail for killing somebody while driving drunk. It's strange being free and back in your home town. His stress is increased by a a couple of men set on making his life hell.
Michael Farris Smith has written a masterful little novel, with complex, realistic characters, who are lost, angry, occasionally, desperate. The plot is well developed and the writing is simple and lyrical at times while the tension throughout keeps you hooked.
A perfect novel, in under three hundred pages.
I'll have to go thank the library people again for purchasing this and The Fighter on my request.
I can't remember the last time I finished a book in two sittings, but, damn, this was a good novel.
Set in a small town in Mississippi, Desperation Road is about second chances and starting over.
A young, destitute, single mother is on her way to her home town, on foot. She's got her young daughter in tow. They're dirty, starving, sunburnt. They can't walk any more, so they take a cheap motel room for the night. Another bad decision, complemented by bad luck, drives Maben to commit a crime. So she's on the run again.
Not far, Russel Gains is a free man, after spending eleven years in jail for killing somebody while driving drunk. It's strange being free and back in your home town. His stress is increased by a a couple of men set on making his life hell.
Michael Farris Smith has written a masterful little novel, with complex, realistic characters, who are lost, angry, occasionally, desperate. The plot is well developed and the writing is simple and lyrical at times while the tension throughout keeps you hooked.
A perfect novel, in under three hundred pages.
I'll have to go thank the library people again for purchasing this and The Fighter on my request.
Desperation Road is everything I like to read in a thriller:
Evocative setting, in this case, the muggy, mosquito infested south
Terrific cast - a recently released prisoner and a desperately poor young woman with her daughter flawed, but relate-able-likable characters and some despicable.
A taut, tension driven story line.
I had to stop reading my other books and concentrate on this one. It's that good.
Evocative setting, in this case, the muggy, mosquito infested south
Terrific cast - a recently released prisoner and a desperately poor young woman with her daughter flawed, but relate-able-likable characters and some despicable.
A taut, tension driven story line.
I had to stop reading my other books and concentrate on this one. It's that good.
4.5 stars. Favorite book I have read so far this year. I just flew through this one. The short chapters really made me want to read "just one more chapter".
Desperation Road is a Southern novel about a man just released from prison returning to his hometown and trying to pick up where he left off.
The main character, Russell Gaines, makes it clear what he did to land in prison was his own doing and makes no excuses for what it was that he did do.
Along the way, Michael Farris Smith tosses in a handful of characters to move the plot along and each of these characters are well developed and lack being two dimensions.
While reading the novel, it's clear there are not going to be happy endings, though the reader so badly hopes there are - at one point, I felt a prediction of a plot point would be reasonable, however, I'm glad Smith did not go where I thought the story was going to go, because to do so would have only allowed the story to become contrived, causing the novel to lose it's emotional impact.
If you like novels by Larry Brown, Daniel Woodrell, William Gay or Pete Dexter, then this novel will be welcomed.
Farris brings forth what it's like to drive down darkened, gravel roads in the country late at night while searching for cause or meaning in life.
Highly recommended.......
The main character, Russell Gaines, makes it clear what he did to land in prison was his own doing and makes no excuses for what it was that he did do.
Along the way, Michael Farris Smith tosses in a handful of characters to move the plot along and each of these characters are well developed and lack being two dimensions.
While reading the novel, it's clear there are not going to be happy endings, though the reader so badly hopes there are - at one point, I felt a prediction of a plot point would be reasonable, however, I'm glad Smith did not go where I thought the story was going to go, because to do so would have only allowed the story to become contrived, causing the novel to lose it's emotional impact.
If you like novels by Larry Brown, Daniel Woodrell, William Gay or Pete Dexter, then this novel will be welcomed.
Farris brings forth what it's like to drive down darkened, gravel roads in the country late at night while searching for cause or meaning in life.
Highly recommended.......