Country Dark

February 1, 2018
The title hints at the tone, for this is indeed a Southern gothic story, set in Kentucky and focused on a man who would do anything to keep his family together.Offutt's (My Father, the Pornographer, 2015, etc.) first fiction in almost two decades opens in 1954, when Tucker is coming back from the Korean War with 11 medals--and he's not even 18. On the way home through rural Kentucky he stops a man from raping Rhonda, a 14-year-old girl, and he finds the potential rapist is not only the girl's uncle, but also the deputy sheriff. Rhonda and her rescuer rather casually decide to marry, and Tucker makes a living making moonshine runs for Beanpole, an unfathomably corrupt, 350-pound colossus. The narrative then shifts to 1964, when Tucker and Rhonda have five children the state is threatening to remove from their home. It turns out that of the five, only Jo is "right," the others having varying degrees of physical or emotional disability. But disabilities or not, Tucker and Rhonda love them all and don't want the family separated. Blind with rage, Tucker hunts down and kills the social worker who was most adamant about taking his children. Using his connections, Beanpole gets Tucker a reduced sentence, but prison ultimately becomes a place where "Tucker retreated further into himself while increasing his vigilance" against fellow prisoners out to get him. The final part of the novel takes place when Tucker is released in 1971. He feels Beanpole cheated him when he was incarcerated, and now he's looking for revenge. Offutt has a fine ear for Kentucky-speak and is able to make small shifts in vocabulary that capture the rhythms of rural conversation ("Hidy....Come on up and set a spell"). And Tucker is a knotty and complex character--warm and loving toward his family but cold and threatening toward almost everyone else.A compelling and brooding read.

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February 19, 2018
Offutt’s exceptional new novel (following his memoir My Father, the Pornographer) brings to light with gritty, heartfelt precision what one character, a social worker, calls the “two Kentuckys, east and west, dirt and blacktop.” The book follows Tucker, Kentucky-born and -raised, as he returns home in 1954, a teenager fresh out of the Korean War. On his way, Tucker saves a 14-year-old girl, Rhonda, from being raped by her uncle. Tucker and Rhonda soon marry and set up house in his family’s old cabin while Tucker finds work running moonshine across state lines. A decade later, Rhonda has had two miscarriages, as well as given birth to a hydrocephalic boy who wasn’t expected to survive infancy, two baby girls who lie listless in some mysterious sedation, and one healthy girl named Jo. While Rhonda and Tucker hope God has a plan, “Rhonda couldn’t see what this plan was other than a punishment. She loved the babies... but they were too bad off to love her back.” This hard living drives the narrative, each heartbreak matched only by Tucker’s steadfast determination to do right by his family. Offutt’s prose cuts deep and sharp, but Tucker and Rhonda remain somewhat mechanical, despite the nuance of the language used to describe them. The novel, however, is an undeniable testament to the importance and clarity of Offutt’s voice in contemporary American literature. Agent: Nicole Aragi, Aragi Inc.

February 15, 2018
It's been nearly 20 years since Offutt's Out of the Woods (1999), and his return to fiction will be celebrated by all readers of country noir. Tucker is a Korean War vet traveling home to rural Kentucky when he happens upon a young woman, Rhonda, being assaulted by an older man. He comes to her aid, and the two steal the man's car and embark on what will be a storm-tossed life ( Trouble came their way like sideways wind in winter ) punctuated by powerful love and bursts of violence, always necessitated by threats to the separate peace Tucker struggles to maintain for Rhonda and their growing family, which includes several severely disabled children. Tucker's options in remote Kentucky are limited, but he falls into work as a bootlegger, until he's forced to take the rap for a moonshiner. When he returns from jail, Tucker finds Rhonda and the children imperiled on multiple fronts and must again protect his loved ones with the only tools he knows. Tucker is a true existential hero, facing his circumscribed world directly and acting with unflinching determination. His story, like the work of Daniel Woodrell, is both heartrendingly painful and unsentimentally uplifting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from February 15, 2018

The talented Offutt here returns to rural Kentucky, the territory defining his fiction and memoirs. In 1954, 17-year-old Tucker arrives home from Korea with 11 medals, $400 in army pay, and 15-year-old Rhonda, who is about to become his wife. While other men head for Ohio factory jobs, Tucker stays in his beloved Kentucky hills and delivers moonshine for the local runner Beanpole. Over the next ten years, Tucker and Rhonda have six children, four severely disabled, and the devoted Tucker works the dangerous but well-paid job to provide for them. When an officious social worker threatens to institutionalize their children, Tucker metes out his own justice, an act of violence that Beanpole holds over him to force him to take the fall in a fake raid. If Tucker goes to prison for eight months, Beanpole will pay Rhonda's bills and give Tucker a big bonus. Once Tucker is imprisoned, however, a gang fight sends Tucker to maximum security for five more years. When released, he heads home to settle a few scores. VERDICT In Offutt's first work of fiction since 1997's The Good Brother, the award-winning author delivers a rich, compelling story of hardscrabble Kentucky mountain life while showing deep empathy for his careworn characters. [See Prepub Alert, 10/16/17.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2018

The talented Offutt here returns to rural Kentucky, the territory defining his fiction and memoirs. In 1954, 17-year-old Tucker arrives home from Korea with 11 medals, $400 in army pay, and 15-year-old Rhonda, who is about to become his wife. While other men head for Ohio factory jobs, Tucker stays in his beloved Kentucky hills and delivers moonshine for the local runner Beanpole. Over the next ten years, Tucker and Rhonda have six children, four severely disabled, and the devoted Tucker works the dangerous but well-paid job to provide for them. When an officious social worker threatens to institutionalize their children, Tucker metes out his own justice, an act of violence that Beanpole holds over him to force him to take the fall in a fake raid. If Tucker goes to prison for eight months, Beanpole will pay Rhonda's bills and give Tucker a big bonus. Once Tucker is imprisoned, however, a gang fight sends Tucker to maximum security for five more years. When released, he heads home to settle a few scores. VERDICT In Offutt's first work of fiction since 1997's The Good Brother, the award-winning author delivers a rich, compelling story of hardscrabble Kentucky mountain life while showing deep empathy for his careworn characters. [See Prepub Alert, 10/16/17.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.