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    Country Dark
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    Country Dark
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    Country Dark
    Ebook245 pages2 hours

    Country Dark

    By Chris Offutt

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Chris Offutt is an outstanding literary talent, whose work has been called “lean and brilliant” (New York Times Book Review) and compared by reviewers to Tobias Wolff, Ernest Hemingway, and Raymond Carver. He’s been awarded the Whiting Writers Award for Fiction/Nonfiction and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Fiction Award, among numerous other honors. His first work of fiction in nearly two decades, Country Dark is a taut, compelling novel set in rural Kentucky from the Korean War to 1970.

    Tucker, a young veteran, returns from war to work for a bootlegger. He falls in love and starts a family, and while the Tuckers don’t have much, they have the love of their home and each other. But when his family is threatened, Tucker is pushed into violence, which changes everything. The story of people living off the land and by their wits in a backwoods Kentucky world of shine-runners and laborers whose social codes are every bit as nuanced as the British aristocracy, Country Dark is a novel that blends the best of Larry Brown and James M. Cain, with a noose tightening evermore around a man who just wants to protect those he loves. It reintroduces the vital and absolutely distinct voice of Chris Offutt, a voice we’ve been missing for years.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGrove Press
    Release dateApr 10, 2018
    ISBN9780802146168
    Unavailable
    Country Dark
    Author

    Chris Offutt

    Chris Offutt is an award-winning author and screenwriter. He worked on the HBO drama True Blood and the Showtime series Weeds. His books include Kentucky Straight, The Same River Twice, The Good Brother, Out of the Woods, and No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home. His work has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Short Stories, and many other anthologies. He lives near Oxford, Mississippi.

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    Reviews for Country Dark

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      COUNTRY DARK "The novel is set in rural Kentucky from the Korean War to 1970." (summary)Tucker is a young veteran returning to the Kentucky hills from the Korean war.He marries, starts a family and works for a bootlegger.There are touching, protective scenes as he cares for his disabled son, daughters and wife.When his family is threatened, we see more than one situation where love and dignity become entangled with violence.I was excited to do this book in audio and I must say that hearing the dialogue spoken by the characters added so much dimension to my experience of Tucker's story.4.5 definitely recommended
    • 4/5
      A decorated war hero, Tucker is returning home to Kentucky. He doesn't think much of the medals he was awarded in the Korean War, he was only using the skills honed as a youth in the mountains. Living off the land during his journey home, catching rides when he could, he stumbles upon Rhoda, a 15-year-old mountain girl being molested by her uncle. After saving Rhoda, he purchases the uncle's car, and the two get married at the courthouse. The two want children but a family needs a working father. Luckily the car that he purchased, has been refitted for running moonshine. Thus begins his lucrative career working for Beanpole.The novel's title is appropriate since this novel is an excellent example of Southern gothic and noir-fiction. The taciturn protagonist reminds me of several of the characters played by a younger Clint Eastwood in that he is an amalgam of good and evil. He is very protective of his family taking only the minimal means necessary to ensure their safety. His actions are motivated by a personal sense of justice; not revenge. The author was very effective in bringing alive mountain life in 1950-60s Kentucky.
    • 3/5
      So the premise of Country Dark, Chris Offutt's Appalachian Noir, is promising. A young man, newly returned from military service in Korea, is walking home when he encounters a man attacking a young woman. Intervening, he ends up taking her and the man's car with him when he continues on his path home. As a married man, soon with children, in the hills of rural Kentucky in the middle of the last century, he finds the only work he can, running illicit alcohol and other goods across state lines. When his life and his family are threatened, what will he do to protect them? Country Dark was pretty good. The setting and plot certainly fit right into the genre. But Tucker, the central character doesn't fit into the role; he's flawless. Taciturn, with enviable skills in everything from nature lore to street fighting, he's an Appalachian Jack Reacher. He also loves his family with a perfect and gentle love, able to generate remarkable violence one moment, and be a loving family man directly afterwards. He was too perfect and it lessened the tension of the exciting plot once it became clear that Tucker would always figure out the best way out of a jam, would never lose a fight and would always be a great husband and father. But the setting and plot, as well as a few interesting secondary characters did redeem this novel somewhat. I look forward to Offutt's future novels, and seeing how his work develops. He's no Donald Ray Pollock or Daniel Woodrell, but there's certainly room for more authors writing about the darkest corners and deeds of rural Appalachia.
    • 4/5
      3.5 Set in the hollers of Kentucky, this is Southern Gothic, Southern grit done lean and spare. Tucker,not yet eighteen is returning to his Kentucky home after serving in the Korean War, where he was awarded eight medals for bavery. He meets Rhonda after saving her from a bad situation, he takes her home, they marry and start a family. He starts running shine for the bootlegger boss, a job that takes cunning and skill. When he is offered an opportunity it to improve his family's lot in life he takes it, much to the dismay of his wife.The language is spare, though the descriptions give one a more than adequate look at life in the hills. A life full of hardship for many, and the Tucker family has had more than their fair share of troubles. For Tucker family is everything, and he will do all in his power to keep them safe and together. Tuckeri s a very interesting character, he committed many acts of violence but he is a man whose moral ambiguities are hard to pin down. He is beyond tender with his family but more than hard if anyone crosses him, or poses a threat to his family. He is a character whose actions are hard to approve of, but maybe admirable if seen in a different light.A short book that says much, is very centered on one character which provides for a huge impact. Anovel of family, revenge, hardship and love. The epilogue let's us know how everyone fares after books end,and I'm not sure how I felt about that. Almost think it would have been better, more powerful,if it had just ended at the last chapter. Anyway if you read this, you can judge that for yourself.ARC from Edelweiss.
    • 4/5
      "I got one last little bit of trouble to take care of." Set in rural Kentucky, this is a spare, character-driven novel about a young man. Tucker is a gentle, loving and protective family man. He and his wife Rhonda marry as teenagers in 1954, immediately after meeting. They rapidly have 6 children, four of whom have severe physical or mental developmental problems. Mostly things just happen to Tucker. The only acts he seems capable of planning are violent ones. He's a sympathetic character, but you can certainly have conflicted feelings about him. He just falls into his job as driver for a bootlegger because he happens to have bought the right kind of car. He marries Rhonda because he happens to rescue her from an assault as he is passing by on his way home from the Korean War. Killing people just seems like a reasonable solution to his difficulties. Rhonda starts out as a shrewd 14 year old but appears to regress over the years and become more childlike as guilt and depression over her children wear her down. The epilogue is simplistic and unnecessary and I recommend not reading it. It's also unbelievable. Have they not heard of fingerprint evidence in Kentucky in the 1970s? Tucker was a believable character, the book was well written and isn't afflicted by the testosterone fueled posturing that annoys me in a lot of rural noir novels. I would read more by this author.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 5/5
      Set in the home state of my parents and other ancestors, this book held a special appeal for me. Kentucky culture is quite starkly divided between the eastern and western parts of the state, and Country Dark is set firmly in eastern Kentucky. People are fiercely independent and loyal to their own. When life deals them hardship, they are likely to deal with it on their own, and definitely don't trust "the state" to help them. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it a quick and satisfying read.
    • 4/5
      Country Dark is the story of Tucker, a young man from the hollers of Kentucky. It opens as he’s returning from the Korean Wa. He rescues Rhonda from a rape-intent uncle. They marry right away. He’s seventeen and she’s fourteen. He works as a bootlegger. They love each other but their marriage is challenged by all but one of their children suffering from developmental disabilities. This is a sorrow, but they still love their children. There is so much tenderness when Tucker comes home, sits down next to his hydrocephalic son, holds his hand and tells him about his day, talking to him about life, as he lies there unresponsive.There are complications from rivals, corrupt law enforcement, and children’s services, but Tucker does whatever is necessary to protect his family. The story is at once heartbreaking and affirming.I loved Country Dark for many reasons. The writing is beautiful. The wealth of country knowledge and the sense of place are extraordinary. The prose is entrancing, but the characters are bit inexplicable. For example, Tucker forces Rhonda’s awful uncle to sell him his car, one that was retrofitted for bootlegging, which seems to be reason enough for him to become a bootlegger. I get that it never occurs to him to use the GI Bill to get an education, but he couldn’t consider some honest local occupation? Have car, will bootleg?He knows it’s an occupation that risks his family, so he doesn’t do everything he could to protect his family. Then the curse of the developmentally disabled children. Thanks to medical tests, we know there’s no medical reason. Are we supposed to reason this is some curse? I wondered about environmental contamination, but that’s not part of the story.But even though it makes no sense on many levels, I liked Tucker, I liked his daughter. I liked Rhonda. I wanted the best for them and cared about what happened and that’s the point. And as I said, the prose is nearly magical. It entranced me enough to overlook the lack of character development.I also loved the final chapter wrapping up what happened to people in the book, even the minor characters. That was such great fun.I received a copy of Country Dark from the publisher through Edelweiss. Country Dark at Grove AtlanticChris Offutt author site
    • 4/5
      Excellent gritty, lyrical story of the hills.
    • 4/5
      In the hills of Kentucky after the Korean War, Tucker, a bootleg runner is trying to do right by his family, even if he has to break the law. I felt compassion for him and his wife, Rhonda, and their children. Offutt’s ability to balance intense and lyrical descriptions of rural life kept me turning the pages, and hoping that things would somehow work out for Tucker’s family.

      Thanks to Grove Press for an ARC.