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    The Hereafter Gang
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    The Hereafter Gang
    Unavailable
    The Hereafter Gang
    Ebook431 pages7 hours

    The Hereafter Gang

    By Neal Barrett Jr.

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    On a hot summer Texas afternoon, Cindy Nance introduces young Doug Hoover to the two great secrets of life. Doug likes the first secret a lot. The second, that guys grow up and go to work, doesn't appeal to him at all. A series of meaningless marriages and do-nothing jobs prove Cindy was right. Turned off by the present, Doug tries to recapture the joys of his past Captain Marvel and cinnamon squares, Dr. Pepper and window-peeking fun.

    Nothing goes right until Doug meets Sue Jean, the culmination of a lifetime enchantment with mean-eyed Southern girls, his all-time carhop queen. Reality takes a hard right and never slows down. Doug, Sue Jean, and readers who can hang on tight are swept through an indescribable romp that gives new meaning to life, death, and roadside romance.

    "There are enough bizarre characters here to fill several institutions: Crime czars,proctologists, Western outlaws, dog-fighting aviators and trout-fishing Huns. The Hereafter Gang is a literary accomplishment of rare insight and pure pleasure. Barrett's sense of humor is unexcelled. His ability to stir fantasy and reality into a delightful souffle redefines the term "magic realism."

    PRAISE FOR THE HEREAFTER GANG

    "... The Hereafter Gang is almost as hilarious as Larry McMurtry's Texasville, and less earthbound; nearly as haunted as Thomas Pynchon's Vineland, and less suffocating. Like both those books, it attempts to hold on to America as the century blows us away; like neither of them, it bites the bullet, in language of tensile brilliance...
    .... The Hereafter Gang is a posthumous fantasy. Like similar work by a wide variety of writers, from Vladimir Nabokov to Flann O'Brien, from John Crowley to Gene Wolfe, it tells of a hero who, after the death of the body, must sift through the materials of the life he has left in order to make sense of his naked soul ... It is one of the great American novels." -THE WASHINGTON POST

    "...A remarkable piece of work ... that keeps the glamour of the novel screaming ahead at a high quantum level all the way through. The Hereafter Gang is the charm of the author's voice. Barrett knows how to write economically and evocatively. ..His characters are earthy, bawdy, sensual and dimensional. In other words, they live..." -LOCUS

    "...Barrett has an ear for the bedlam din of urban Texas, and a story-telling voice which deposes matters of great subtlety with great shouts, and an exuberance which glows in the dark, and he's hilarious." -John Clute. LOOKAT THE EVIDENCE

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrossroad Press
    Release dateMay 25, 2012
    ISBN9781476016221
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for The Hereafter Gang

    4/5

    8 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I was given a review copy of this book. Joe Lansdale gave it a plug on Facebook, asking people to drop the publisher a line to help get this book the attention it deserved. So I dropped them a line and got my copy. This is the first book by Neal Barrett, Jr. that I've read.So the book starts out a little like 50 Shades of Grey for Men. I say this having not read* 50 Shades of Grey.But it's what I _imagine_ 50 Shades of Grey would be like, were it told from the point of view of a man.But (like that's off-putting, for some reason, and for some people it may be), Doug Hoover, the protagonist, has got a great voice. A great, authentic Texan/Oklahoman voice. Now, I've got to warn you, I've only accidentally been to Texas before, and that only on the inside of an airport, a hermetically sealed airport.** So I have no idea if this is a true authentic Texan/Oklahoman voice. But it was to _me_. Doug's having trouble with his wife, Erlene and her unfortunate lineage (though that may only be a part of the problem), and that part of the story, the unraveling marriage, is interesting enough, and understandable enough, given Doug's proclivities, but the journey just sizzles, along the way. In particular I enjoyed the part in chapter 6 in the bar where they start discussing Cherokee Indians and new black Stetson hat. In Kindle terms, and I have no idea what this really means***, it's at location 522 or so.I loved the little anecdotes like that one, and when a particular habit of Doug's involving the rich Texas soil is revealed as the secret to his youthful glow the story gets even more interesting.It soars, however, when Doug meets Royce, the young boy at the Hanging Judge Barbecue #7 and stumbles upon James McArthur Dean Hill, the possible cautionary tale, and finally Sue Jean, his perfect little packageI like the history of the Old West and feel like a complete ignoramus compared to the vast knowledge that Neal Barrett, Jr. slops out there without a second thought, along with a good heaping of World War fighter plane battle history, but I enjoyed the quick lessons through osmosis.I suppose I won't go into the second half of the book for fear of ruining it for you, but it was my favorite part, by far. Barrett captures Doug's disorientation as his life falls just a little bit apart and I love the humor and imagination and tenderness with which he handles the aftermath. The basketball-playing (or obsession with it) and tennis games in the latter half of the book had me laughing out loud.I hadn't expected much from this book, to be honest, even though the recommendation came from Mr. Lansdale. But, in the end, this was a great read, and I'm glad it's getting new life as an ebook. This is the second zombie ebook I've read this year where an older, out of print book that simply faded away, the first time around gets a second chance (the first being Michael Joyce's amazing "Going the Distance"), and I'm very glad I got the chance.* I swear.** I also swear.*** I really do swear, and I swear that this is the first time I've ever had a book crash on me, when I was reading this on a borrowed Kindle Paperwhite. The future!
    • 4/5
      I was prompted to read this book by news of the author's death a few days ago. I have probably read a few of Barrett's short stories in anthologies, but this was my first novel. I was warned that his fiction defies categorization, and reading this book confirms that. I guess you could call it fantasy, but that would be shortchanging what Barrett has done. Some might call it meandering and tedious as well, as the book glides to a revelation about halfway through then coasts the rest of the way--but that would also be to shortchange the author. What makes THE HEREAFTER GANG memorable is Barrett's complete grasp of nostalgia and the innermost feelings--at least those of the American male. The first half of the book seems, appropriately, to be more about sex than anything else, but after arrival in an Oklahoma that isn't Oklahoma, the tone shifts and the book becomes a bit of a mystery as the protagonist, Doug, has to figure out who he really is. My description can hardly do justice to Barrett's story without plot spoilers, which I always avoid. But what makes this book highly readable and enjoyable is Barrett's almost stream-of-consciousness paragraphs that reel off lists of discoveries Doug makes or things he dreams about. There is enough wisdom here for ten novels. The cast list for the book includes most of your well-known western outlaws, some German World War I flying aces, and Jesus.You really just need to check this one out for yourself. At my time of purchase, it was only 99 cents for the Kindle, and despite some scanning-induced typos, it has the narrative flow that makes it perfect for an e-reader. I will definitely be checking out some of Barrett's other work. If I live long enough--I need to go bury myself in some good soil for a little while....Read the book. It will all make sense.