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56th out of 81 books
—
125 voters
Ray
by
Barry Hannah
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, s...more
Paperback, 128 pages
Published
March 6th 1994
by Grove Press
(first published October 12th 1980)
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this is the 4th from hannah for me and i think it is by far his best.
i read a review or two three that mention...that word, it means "hatred of women" i don't even know how to spell the fucking word, much less pronounce it, but it's been a part of my world since i went to college. like the word "pink". i could say ray is "pink" and it would mean exactly the same fucking thing. nothing. wait now, "pink" says more because it denotes a color, whereas "misogyny" as it is used means nothing until the...more
i read a review or two three that mention...that word, it means "hatred of women" i don't even know how to spell the fucking word, much less pronounce it, but it's been a part of my world since i went to college. like the word "pink". i could say ray is "pink" and it would mean exactly the same fucking thing. nothing. wait now, "pink" says more because it denotes a color, whereas "misogyny" as it is used means nothing until the...more
I don't know man, it's like if you took out only the comedy from a Thomas Pynchon novel you would more less end up with "Ray", that's not to say it's not dense, for it is. There is a scene with a Woodpecker and an arrow that was moving and brilliant and lasting.
2 likes · like · see review
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Mar 20, 2012
Melody
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Melody by:
Craig Izard
Barry Hannah's nephew told my husband that he had tried briefly living with Uncle Barry. He said he never used a cliché, always had something interesting to say, but his rants started to scare him. That's just how I felt about the book. My, my, he can turn a phrase - but what the hell is he talking about?
Barry Hannah was the uncle of my husband's college roommate. That fact, the poetic phrases, and the familiar landmarks mentioned in the "story" (the term I shall use lightly) made the book a lik...more
Barry Hannah was the uncle of my husband's college roommate. That fact, the poetic phrases, and the familiar landmarks mentioned in the "story" (the term I shall use lightly) made the book a lik...more
Like listening to a drunk in an airport bar... reminded me weirdly of Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman.
"Maybe there are worse guys than me, he said to himself. For example, the guy from Minnesota who hummed all the time. He seemed to be furnishing the score for every puny adventure of his life. Always the hum, tunes various, dense, thin, largo, allegro. A trip to the cafe would take him through a sonata. There was a tune for feeding his cat, another for his goldfish, another for watering...more
"Maybe there are worse guys than me, he said to himself. For example, the guy from Minnesota who hummed all the time. He seemed to be furnishing the score for every puny adventure of his life. Always the hum, tunes various, dense, thin, largo, allegro. A trip to the cafe would take him through a sonata. There was a tune for feeding his cat, another for his goldfish, another for watering...more
If you would rather not read about a misogynistic, alcoholic, drug addled racist who abuses others and talks about sex all the time, then move on; this book is not for you. If you are willing to say, hey, it's fiction and people can be like this, then consider reading it. And if you seek vivid, idiosyncratic writing from a highly praised but under-recognized southern writer, then definitely read this one; it's a compelling book.
Ray is short, a novella lacking the narrative arc of a full novel. T...more
Ray is short, a novella lacking the narrative arc of a full novel. T...more
This is the first novel I've read in months and the first time I've read anything by famed Southern writer, Barry Hannah.
I'm impressed by his menagerie of characters and his unique prose stylings, which leans heavily on another literary art, poetry. Ray's story is told by a first person omniscient narrator, but the thing is the narrator refers to himself in third person throughout, which is slightly disconcerting and highly adventurous. Here, check out this page one action:
I'm impressed by his menagerie of characters and his unique prose stylings, which leans heavily on another literary art, poetry. Ray's story is told by a first person omniscient narrator, but the thing is the narrator refers to himself in third person throughout, which is slightly disconcerting and highly adventurous. Here, check out this page one action:
Ray, you are a doctor...more
Here is a scene from Ray:
Westy comes in. She's disturbed.
"Are you drinking, Ray?"
"No. Get me a drink."
Here's another scene:
She hits me over the head with a pillow.
Violence.
Some days even a cup of coffee is violence.
When I can find my peace, I take a ladder to the hot attic and get out the whole plays of Shakespeare.
Okay, old boy. Let's hear it again. Between the lines I'm looking for the cure for cancer.
and the kicker:
Ken, my nephew, once asked me as we were going to sleep after some snapper fi...more
Westy comes in. She's disturbed.
"Are you drinking, Ray?"
"No. Get me a drink."
Here's another scene:
She hits me over the head with a pillow.
Violence.
Some days even a cup of coffee is violence.
When I can find my peace, I take a ladder to the hot attic and get out the whole plays of Shakespeare.
Okay, old boy. Let's hear it again. Between the lines I'm looking for the cure for cancer.
and the kicker:
Ken, my nephew, once asked me as we were going to sleep after some snapper fi...more
This book is pretty much a condensed and coherent version of his short story collection Airships. I'm not complaining. I would recommend Airships first, but only because it shows a slightly wider range of characters. I really enjoyed Ray. Ray, though usually a fighter pilot turned doctor, is not just one person but a character that resurfaces in Vietnam and the Civil War. He and his closest friends depict the violent and more desperate sides of humanity in both war and peace; violence in peace i...more
"Gah", "wow", and "what?". Those three words sum up my rotating reactions to this novel.
Hannah writes extremely well. It really was a pleasure to read this novel, and I don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who enjoys well crafted lines. He makes emotion. His careful prose effects emotional states, but those states don't last much longer than it takes to reflect on the lines.
For all his skill, the book grows tedious. The well-crafted lines don't come together to mean anything in the long run....more
Hannah writes extremely well. It really was a pleasure to read this novel, and I don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who enjoys well crafted lines. He makes emotion. His careful prose effects emotional states, but those states don't last much longer than it takes to reflect on the lines.
For all his skill, the book grows tedious. The well-crafted lines don't come together to mean anything in the long run....more
wow, I'd never read Barry Hannah before and have just fallen in love with him. I think it's because almost every line is completely unexpected--i'm a sucker for that. But overall the writing is just incredibly sharp. However, I can't be responsible for reactions to the actual content of the book. the guy's clearly a racist and misogynist up the wazoo.
If you don't mind books narrated by(not necessarily written by) assholes, Ray is worth the evening or two it will take to get through it. Ray is a misanthropic, sexmad doctor, probably ruined by his Vietnam experience - although he clearly had personal issues before this event.
Picture a Southern Henry Chinaski, if he were a doctor rather than a postal worker; only more lost than angry - trying to make it through his days, & describing those days somewhat incoherently. I never understood why...more
Picture a Southern Henry Chinaski, if he were a doctor rather than a postal worker; only more lost than angry - trying to make it through his days, & describing those days somewhat incoherently. I never understood why...more
The writing, which is dazzling, gets five stars, maybe six. But... I'm loath to moralize about art, but Hannah's evident romance with his run-down, tough-guy, jet-pilot-Nam-vet, dreaming-of-JEB Stuart narrator and his despite-all-the-thanatism-alcoholism-casual-misongyny-and-racism-I'm-still-a-charming-fucker,-ain't-I? self-regard sticks in my craw, even as it goads me into about 36 hours of put-on swagger. This might have been easier to take when Burt Reynolds still smoldered and it will be eas...more
What to say...Ray is an amazing, crazy, out-of-the-box book that, at the same time, annoyed the heck out of me. Hannah's writing is so good, the phrases he uses, the energy of the whole thing, all leave me stunned in a good way. But the misogyny, the homophobia, the racism, the sheer bloody-mindedness all leave me stunned in a bad way. It's awful to have both things in one book...how do you rate something that just may be one of the best pieces of writing you've ever read when you LOATHE what it...more
In the spring of 1990, a friend suggested if I liked J.D. Salinger, I should read Raymond Carver. It would seem this recommendation and my subsequent falling in love with Carver’s style would come a bit too late. My “discovery” of him came two years after his death. I read everything by Carver I could find. I even turned down plans with friends to stay home and read his stories.
Years later, the controversy of Carver and his editor, Gordon Lish, became public and many voiced their thoughts on the...more
Years later, the controversy of Carver and his editor, Gordon Lish, became public and many voiced their thoughts on the...more
Jan 11, 2009
Steve
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who would like to be dope-slapped by a rotting brassiere filled with crumbling masonry.
"Ray," a slender early novel by the Mississippi writer Barry Hannah, is the first person account of an alcoholic/drug addicted/physician/former fighter pilot who, in his own words, "lives near the Black Warrior River and has an enormous sex engine." His love of the Hooches, particularly Sister Hooch, richly erotic singer and her morphine addicted poet father, Papa Hooch, runs like mainlined junk through the story of a man who's lived so many lives in so many different times.
This novel is unique...more
This novel is unique...more
An unforgettable performance of run-on storytelling. Ray the novel is about Ray the person: an overheated, drug-addled, war vet doctor who threatens to come apart at the seams as he plunges headlong into the heart of his small southern town. Named the heir apparent to such literary greats as Faulkner and O'Connor, Hannah's strength has always been in his ability to blend grotesque strangeness with flesh and blood writing (please see: Airships, his sprawling debut, Geronimo Rex, anything really w...more
'I was treating a large old woman who spat in my face. I fell backward into the heater, face-forward. This is to prove that I'm not always the hero.'
The protagonist is an oversexed philanderer, jet pilot, doctor, bad poet, alcoholic and it was published in 1980. A good critique of the next thirty years to come. Classic American novella that everyone you know should read. And, hey, at 110+ pages, maybe everyone you know is even capable of reading it (they probably will need to use their smartphon...more
The protagonist is an oversexed philanderer, jet pilot, doctor, bad poet, alcoholic and it was published in 1980. A good critique of the next thirty years to come. Classic American novella that everyone you know should read. And, hey, at 110+ pages, maybe everyone you know is even capable of reading it (they probably will need to use their smartphon...more
While it may err on the side of too often adopting the tone of smug crudeness that is typical of famously tedious modern fiction, 'Ray' is thankfully a swift read which, despite a few passages which are presumably intentionally unintelligible, is extremely enjoyable. The sheer originality of Hannah's style makes him worth reading, and what he lacks in clarity he makes up for with his sincere and confident delivery, making him more than something of a mere oddity in the world of modern fiction an...more
Sabers, gentlemen, sabers!
Someday Barry Hannah will get his due as one of the greatest American writers. Sure, all his books have been critically acclaimed and he enjoys a healthy cult following, but this man deserves to be a household name. His books should be taught in schools, his name should be whispered in tones of mythic reverence. "Ray" is a concentrated blast of what makes Barry Hannah unique and wonderful, 113 slim pages of distilled genius. You will not forget it. And if you happen to...more
Someday Barry Hannah will get his due as one of the greatest American writers. Sure, all his books have been critically acclaimed and he enjoys a healthy cult following, but this man deserves to be a household name. His books should be taught in schools, his name should be whispered in tones of mythic reverence. "Ray" is a concentrated blast of what makes Barry Hannah unique and wonderful, 113 slim pages of distilled genius. You will not forget it. And if you happen to...more
Doctor ray is a womanizer, a small town drunk, vigilante, poet and adoring husband.
The author presents this very hyper character who goes after anything he likes in a dress, while being married, he does it all in theses pages so expect some talk of the sexual nature coupled with his bizarre outlook and humor to life. Ray lives life wildly and to the edge and he's having swell of a time doing it. The story was written some nice little sentences with some great dialogue. I found this to be good ol...more
The author presents this very hyper character who goes after anything he likes in a dress, while being married, he does it all in theses pages so expect some talk of the sexual nature coupled with his bizarre outlook and humor to life. Ray lives life wildly and to the edge and he's having swell of a time doing it. The story was written some nice little sentences with some great dialogue. I found this to be good ol...more
2 likes · like · see review
Reveling in the bizarre and the ribald, Ray blasts through the pages and straight to your amygdala in his F4 Phantom. But don't worry, ladies: he's a doctor. Both cool and pathetic, Ray is one man's life on the brink of collapse. Between adultery, murder, revenge, and alcoholism, Ray somehow manages to cling his own unique sanity in possibly the most fundamentally human book I've ever read.
I feel like my rating might have been bumped up to five stars if I had been able to absorb Ray in one sitting. The fragmentary stream-of-consciousness style of prose would have been more powerful if I hadn't had to stop reading for such trivial things as work. This is the first book that I have read by Hannah. I've always been interested in his work, being a fan of Southern Literature, but his death earlier this year prompted me to finally get to it.
Ray is a mad, crazy ex-fighter pilot, who als...more
Ray is a mad, crazy ex-fighter pilot, who als...more
This is my second time reading this book. I love the voice of Ray, and the wonderful characters throughout. Though I wouldn't morally condone much of what is going on here, it makes for an entertaining and somehow authentic read.
In the end, it's Barry Hannah's wonderful sarcasm, wit, and words that make this book so enjoyable.
In the end, it's Barry Hannah's wonderful sarcasm, wit, and words that make this book so enjoyable.
it's five stars but the last ten-fifteen pages or so are only 3 or 4 stars it gets a little strange but what he does with time and voice for nearly all of this amazing book is just goddam amazing
Howl! This transcends the term "a novel" or merely brilliant writing. Ray is pure art . . . a mosaic, a collage. Never experienced a comparable book. For me, it is bitter, sharp edged, moving, vulgar, painful, heroic, loyal, red, visceral, southern, soft, grey, delicate . . . . It is all that art could ever hope to convey and each "reader" will come away with a different experience. For example, I didn't see the humor tucked into this work. Others have. My perspective is impacted, I'm certain,...more
This book has some of the most amazing and funny and surprising sentences you'll find. You can read it through, or just pick it up anywhere, and enjoy.
Do you like imaginary lives? Lascivious drunks? Women-hating? Then this book is for you. It's foul, morally reprehensible, and utterly wonderful.
Ray. Ray. Ray. High intensity, great voice. Low-down, dirty-south, menthol cigarette-laced poetry. It's a great piece of Hannah, no doubt. Dig in.
If you want a short, voice-driven vietnam get turned doctor novel, this is about as good as I've ever read.
This guy writes some amazing stuff:
"Too many pilots around today, especially in the rich class. Some little eleven-year-old will crawl up in the cockpit with you and describe not only the whole panel but continue about your life and your girlfriends, know your astrology sign like the bac of his hand, and scold you for lighting up a Kool at the point you'd like to light him up, open his door, and let him deal with the suck at twenty thousand feet."
"I am very proud of the things I did for my count...more
"Too many pilots around today, especially in the rich class. Some little eleven-year-old will crawl up in the cockpit with you and describe not only the whole panel but continue about your life and your girlfriends, know your astrology sign like the bac of his hand, and scold you for lighting up a Kool at the point you'd like to light him up, open his door, and let him deal with the suck at twenty thousand feet."
"I am very proud of the things I did for my count...more
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Barry Hannah was an American novelist and short story writer from Mississippi. He was the author of eight novels and five short story collections. He worked with notable American editors and publishers such as Gordon Lish, Seymour Lawrence, and Morgan Entrekin. His work was published in Esquire, The New Yorker, The Oxford American, The Southern Review, and a host of American magazines and quarterl...more
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