Ray

Book excerpt: “A shorthand epic of extraordinary power . . . A novel of brilliant particulars and dizzying juxtapositions” from the acclaimed southern author of Geronimo Rex (Newsweek). Nominated for the American Book Award, Ray is the bizarre, hilarious, and consistently adventurous story of a life on the edge. Dr. Ray—a womanizer, small-town drunk, vigilante, poet, adoring husband—is a man trying to make sense of life in the twentieth century. In flight from the death he dealt flying over Vietnam, Dr. Ray struggles with those bound to him by need, sickness, lunacy, by blood and by love. “This novel hangs in the memory like a fishhook. It will haunt you long after you have finally put it down. Barry Hannah is a talent to reckon with, and I can only hope that Ray finds an audience it deserves.” —Harry Crews, The Washington Post Book World