In The Hollow of His Hand by James Purdy

(Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986)

 

I think I might have liked this best of all the Purdy novels I've read -- it's less gory and violent, and the book deals with archetypes in a very tender and original way.

Chad Coultas was born to a wealthy and distinguished family in Yellow Brook, a small Midwestern city, but his real father is a beautiful and imposing Indian name Decautur, who fathered Chad when he was only 14.  Fourteen years later Decautur returns to Yellow Brook from "across" -- serving heroically in WWI, and sets about reclaiming his son.  Chad is kidnapped twice -- once by Decautur and once by Lewis Coultas, his "legal" father.  Both of these kidnappings are wild and dangerous adventures involving jewel thieves, crazed Pentacostalists, deaf and dumb and sexually voracious twin Indian girls, and a 90-year-old private investigator who sets out to find Chad and return him to Yellow Brook.

This is all related in Purdy's inimitable style, and is set, like all his books, just a bit on the far side of reality, verging on the dream world.  It isn't necessarily homoerotic, but the male body is as much an object of lust and desire -- and beauty -- as the female, and that gives the book an unusual and delicious flavor. 

Decautur and Chad, as they take off across the distinctively American countryside, bring to mind  Huck and Jim lighting out for the territory: a dark man and a pale(r) boy finding comfort and joy -- love -- in one another's company.