Boy with Loaded Gun

January 3, 2000
Nordan, a novelist (Wolf Whistle; Lightning Song) who savors the darkly comic possibilities of human folly, chronicles his own bad behavior in this rueful, notably candid memoir of an "odd child" who grows into a wayward adult. Grief, loss and dislocation are his earliest memories: when Nordan is 18 months old, his father dies and his mother moves them to tiny Itta Bena, Miss. After she remarries, Nordan longs for his lost father while gradually accepting his new one, a distant but loving alcoholic housepainter. Television introduces a wider world beyond the delta, which young "Buddy" begins contacting via mail-order. He buys a pistol through a magazine ad and tries to shoot his stepfather. Fortunately, the gun misfires, but the pattern is set: throughout life, Nordan will yearn for what's lost, reject what love he has and generally act like a destructive, self-centered jerk. His misadventures stem from bad judgment (to impress a woman, he puts his infant son on a neighbor's horse; the boy survives the incident, but the horse doesn't) and genuine tragedy (his second son dies hours after birth; his first son commits suicide while in college). Alcoholism, infidelity and an implausible knack for attracting weirdos are described with a bracing mix of forthrightness and novelistic exaggeration. Nordan's characteristic wit crops up, though the effect is more stinging (and the prose more subdued) than the redemptive humor of his acrobatically lyrical fiction. "The self-blame book is not the book I want to write, and not the one I suspect anyone wants to read," he contends. Not to worry: Nordan avoids self-flagellation and solipsism, fashioning instead a memoir that achieves hard-won introspection and strikes a tone of weary sadness and wonderment that Buddy turned out okay after all.

Starred review from December 1, 1999
Reminiscent of Bobbie Ann Mason's Clear Springs, Rick Bragg's All Over but the Shoutin', and all of Willie Morris, Nordan's memoir is the must-read Southern memoir of the season. Best known for his novels (Wolf Whistle; The Sharpshooter Blues; and Lightning Song) Nordan grew up in Itta Bena, MS. His father died while "Buddy" was quite young; his mother thought that he was an "odd child" because he was dreamy and loved television (particularly Superman) and comic books. Nordan's attraction to things outside of Itta Bena would eventually lead him to the world of mail order catalogs, Beale Street in Memphis, and smoke-filled rooms in New York City (where he heard the Beat poets and met the women of his fantasies). This is a memoir filled with loss--of a father, a beloved nurse, a stepfather, a son, and a marriage--as well as redemption in the form of a successful writing career and a second marriage. Nordan has wrestled with the demons of grief, infidelity, and alcoholism and tells his story with dignity, humor, and grace.--Pam Kingsbury, Florence, AL

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 1999
In reading Nordan's delightfully yarny but very moving memoir, one certainly recognizes the provenance of his delightfully yarny but very moving novels, including "Wolf Whistle" (1993), "The Sharpshooter Blues" (1995), and "Lightning Song" (1997). The author piles warm, humorous, and often poignant episode upon episode as he recalls his life. Nordan never knew his father, who died suddenly, and his father's absence in Nordan's life "has always been a significant blank spot in [his] imagination." Nordan grew up in Itta Bena, Mississippi, and it is within that evocative Delta setting that his early remembrances are set, including the first time he ever saw a television set. Nordan's mother remarried, and his stepfather occupies many pages of these recollections. When he was 15, he left home for the first time, taking a bus trip to Memphis; after that, Itta Bena couldn't hold him. He left home for New York, did a stint in the navy, attended college, and got married. As he came into writing as his life's purpose, darkness followed: a horrible car accident in which someone was killed, the suicide of a son, too much drinking, and divorce; remarriage and giving up alcohol have supplied the necessary light at the end of the tunnel. Nordan is a natural, honest, and widely appealing storyteller. ((Reviewed November 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)