Real people don’t run away from. . .But real people can run away to. . .
In 1936, a child is born in the mountains of West Virginia. In 2005, he scatters his past into a deep canyon of rock.The Pale Light of Sunset: Scattershots and Hallucinations in an Imagined Lifeilluminates the journey of this boy, a constant tourist and visitor, who travels everywhere, yet belongs nowhere. Through tales of swarming hornets and swinging bullies, love affairs with the land and its people, and near death by frostbite and heat stroke, the absurd hilarity and clear, tender voice found within this story navigates a surreal road paved by the experiences of one man.
Author of nationally acclaimed and locally banned novelsCrumandScreaming with the Cannibals, Lee Maynard details an imaginative account of his journey through seventy years of hard living—from West Virginia, to Mexico, the Arctic Circle, and beyond. Scattered and hallucinated,The Pale Light of Sunsetgrants a long-awaited glimpse into the bent condition of the Maynard brain.
"The Pale Light of Sunsetfeatures Maynard’s most lyric and elegant prose and his most complex vision. Miniature masterpieces like “Arrow in the Light” and “A Death in the Mountains” chilled my skin in awe. Throughout the novel, Maynard’s trademark outrageousness is deepened by a tender vulnerability. I was moved by the poignancy and gentleness of the childhood chapters; I was breathless during the suspense and hard violence of those recounting the protagonist’s prime. But the novel is at its most rare and its most profound when it climaxes in the perspective of maturity and its celebration of the beauty and fragility of life."
Ann Pancake, authorStrange as this Weather Has Been
"That old outlaw author Lee Maynard has really gol³#