Forty-nine-year-old Toots Henslee's near-idyllic solitude - he lives in a tree house overlooking a river near Nashville - is invaded by Sally Ann Shaw, a wannabe country-western singer on the lam from her hoodlum boyfriend, from whom she's stolen a quarter of a million dollars. Yount's fourth novel is a wry fable about identity and commitment, responsibility and the vagaries of love.
This has long been one of my very favorite novels. I reread it not too long ago. It holds up beautifully. It is a meditation on solitude that is extremely exciting, often funny and very satisfying.
I didn’t plan on liking this book, but as I continued reading I began to imagine it as a movie. In my film Sally Ann is played by Reese Witherspoon and Toots by Tommy Lee Jones. Matthew McConaughey has to play Jerry and I keep envisioning Woody Harrelson as the gangster Sally Ann escapes from. It’s going to win an Oscar 😁