2012 Puddly Awards
 
 
Follow us on TwitterFollow us on FacebookFollow us on TumblrSubscribe to RSS


Recently Viewed clear list


Guests | February 8, 2012

Nathan Englander: IMG Big Think



Tonight is the first event for the new book, and I've spent most of the afternoon at home with curlers in my hair and cucumber circles on the eyes... Continue »
  1. $17.47 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

spacer
Free Shipping!

This item may be
out of stock.

Click on the button below to search for this title in other formats.
Check for Availability
Add to Wishlist

This title in other editions

eBook editions

The End of California

The End of California Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A PEN/Faulkner finalist for Prisoners of War, Steve Yarbrough  returns to the Mississippi Deltaseen through the historical lens of World War II in that novel, and of Jim Crow in his previous, Visible Spiritsbut now in the blinding light of contemporary life.

Loring is the sort of town children dream of leaving and most adults return to only in the absence of better options. But after twenty-five years Pete Barringtonhaving escaped to California on a football scholarship and then established himself as a doctor, only to be brought low by scandalhas come home. Here he finds solace with his closest old friend, opens a new practice, and daily runs into memories hed rather forget, even as his aggravated wife and unsettled daughter contend with this wholly alien society.

Meanwhile, Alan DePoyster has come to revel in his family life and his position in the church and communitythe sort of idyll snatched away from him in childhood and won back only with patience and faith. Yet he now feels old grudges against the prodigal Barrington eroding his sense of accomplishment; and as their lives inevitably become intertwined, his rage against the forces chiseling away at his values and beliefs soon threatens to destroy everything he cherishes.

            The End of California is a vivid, even shocking, portrait of small-town life, where people turn to booze, gossip, and feckless sex in their struggles with provincial claustrophobia, where fates often hang in the balance of personal history, and where the sins of the fathers and mothers are visited most acutely on their sons and daughters. This is the most expansive, generous, and moving novel thus far from “a confident and elegant prose stylist,” as David Guterson has described him, “a storyteller who knows how empty spaces can resonate with power and meaning.”

Review:

"I once had an English professor who argued that Mississippi had produced more great literature than the other 49 states put together. That seemed excessive — the man clearly had a thing about William Faulkner — but it is true that in the middle of the past century Southern literature was ascendant. It boasted not only Faulkner but also Welty, O'Connor, Percy, Warren, Agee, Styron, Capote — make... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review)

About the Author

Steve Yarbrough was born in the Delta town of Indianola, Mississippi, and now lives with his wife and their two daughters in Fresno, California, where he teaches at the university. The author of three previous novels and three collections of stories, he has won the Mississippi Authors Award, the California Book Award, and a third from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. His recent fiction has also been published in England, Holland, Japan, and Poland.

Product Details

ISBN:
9781400044382
Publisher:
Knopf
Subject:
Literary
Author:
Yarbrough, Steve
Subject:
City and town life
Subject:
Mississippi
Subject:
Mississipi
Publication Date:
20060606
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
320
Dimensions:
8.42x6.02x1.17 in. 1.14 lbs.
The End of California
0 stars - 0 reviews
$ In Stock
Product details 320 pages Alfred A. Knopf - English 9781400044382 Reviews:
spacer
spacer
  • back to top
Follow us on...


Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.