any larry brown readers out there?

[country doctor]

i picked up 'father and son' and about 100 pages to go, so i went and checked out 'dirty work' to follow that up.
gritty, warrior class folk from mississippi in the first book. scrappy menfolk, who enjoy their whiskey, beer and cigs. and the women who love them.
all wrapped around a pretty interesting story.

'dirty work' is an 'anti-war' novel. don't know if this is focused on mississippi folk, but i think that the other novels are. at least the ones that i saw at the library.

well, anyways, any fans out there?

[country doctor]

wow. surprised that no one has read mr. brown. or commented on him, at least. a strong, 'southern' writer, brown is said to be the 'inspiration' for the cover work on bob dylan's latest album. here's a blog where it states that mr. dylan has read 'every word' of brown's work. if bob's reading him, maybe some of you other 'readers' might want to give him a look. that's what i did. i wouldn't have went down this path (hadn't heard of larry brown), if i didn't know bob had already been down it himself.

Following Bob Dylan, Remembering Larry Brown
I was looking at information on Bob Dylan's forthcoming studio album (Together Through Life, due out in late April) and noticed that Dylan's latest album art is the same as that for the paperback of Larry Brown's Big Bad Love. This led to the discovery that Dylan has stated he has "read every word" of Brown.

This, of course, only reinforced something I already knew: Dylan has great taste (he's been known to crib lines from Ovid and Virgil and melodies from Bing Crosby's songbook). It also surprised me a bit. Brown is one of my formative literary heroes--I've read nearly every word he wrote--and to find out Dylan shares my obsession is kind of cool. After all, despite having Oxford in common, Brown was no John Grisham when it comes to fame.


In retrospect, knowing that Dylan has read Brown extensively, I believe Dylan's 2001 masterpiece "Love and Theft" shows Brown's influence: plenty of raw tales of southern romance gone sour and nasty. If the new album art is indeed a nod to Brown, as I think it is, then it stands to reason that the new album may tackle similar subjects.

In the first interview about the album, Dylan himself alludes to a more straightforward style; I think he might even have Brown in mind as a model. We'll see.


In any case, I've decided to reproduce a review of Brown's first story collection Facing the Music, which I wrote for The Truth Magazine shortly after Brown's death in 2004. I hope it convinces someone to take another look at this phenomenal writer.

http://whatdo-iknow.blogspot.com/2009/03/remembering-larry-brown.html

[country doctor]

*bump*

i'm gonna keep bumping this thread to the first page until a reader here takes up the larry brown challenge. whoever does won't be disappointed.

as an aside, is anybody else bothered by all the sticky's on page one? clutters up the board terribly. can't they just let the threads sink or swim on their own?

okay, now carry on...

[country doctor]

*bump*

together through life...

[country doctor]

*bump*

together through life...

the doc is gonna bring this back to the fore as maybe there are some folks looking for a good read and haven't heard of the author...it's still faulkner's mississippi, but from a late 20th century perspective...