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Desperation Road
Now a major motion picture starring Mel a Mississippi-set southern noir where drugs, whiskey, guns, and the desire for revenge violently intersect.
For eleven years the clock has been ticking for Russell Gaines as he sits in Parchman Penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta. His sentence is now up, and he believes his debt has been paid. But when he returns home, he soon discovers that revenge lives and breathes all around him. On the same day that Russell is released from prison, a woman named Maben and her young daughter trudge along the side of the interstate under the punishing summer sun.
Desperate and exhausted, the pair spend their last dollar on a room for the night, a night that ends with Maben running through the darkness holding a pistol, and a dead deputy sprawled in the middle of the road in the glow of his own headlights. With the dawn, destinies collide, and Russell is forced to decide whose life he will save -- his own or those of the woman and child. Delivered in powerful and lyrical prose, Desperation Road is a story of troubled souls twisted with regret and bound by secrets that stretch over the years and across the land.
For eleven years the clock has been ticking for Russell Gaines as he sits in Parchman Penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta. His sentence is now up, and he believes his debt has been paid. But when he returns home, he soon discovers that revenge lives and breathes all around him. On the same day that Russell is released from prison, a woman named Maben and her young daughter trudge along the side of the interstate under the punishing summer sun.
Desperate and exhausted, the pair spend their last dollar on a room for the night, a night that ends with Maben running through the darkness holding a pistol, and a dead deputy sprawled in the middle of the road in the glow of his own headlights. With the dawn, destinies collide, and Russell is forced to decide whose life he will save -- his own or those of the woman and child. Delivered in powerful and lyrical prose, Desperation Road is a story of troubled souls twisted with regret and bound by secrets that stretch over the years and across the land.
319 pages, Paperback
First published February 7, 2017
248 people are currently reading
5699 people want to read
About the author
Michael Farris Smith
24 books888 followersMichael Farris Smith is an award-winning writer whose novels have appeared on Best of the Year lists with Esquire, NPR, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Oprah Magazine, Book Riot, and numerous other outlets, and have been named Indie Next, Barnes & Noble Discover, and Amazon Best of the Month selections. He has also written the feature-film adaptations of his novels Desperation Road and The Fighter, titled for the screen as Rumble Through the Dark. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 630 reviews
February 6, 2017
Michael Farris Smith has written an effortlessly erudite, complex and lucid novel of consequence set in the ravaged town of McComb, Mississippi. It tells of the travails of lives brimful of pain unravelling under the relentless and searing southern heat. It displays a bone deep understanding of Southern traditions and people, and in the narrative I could hear the timeless musical laments of jazz and blues singers such as Robert Johnson, Leadbelly and Bessie Smith. It is the story of Russell, released after 11 years of imprisonment and Maben, and her daughter, Annalee, fleeing a unspeakable scenario that results in a fatal shooting. Their paths cross, and certain actions and possibilities come into play. The focus is on the themes of alcohol and drug addiction, love, loss, regrets, redemption and dreams that slip away beyond reach.
The tone is set when upon reaching McComb, Russell is welcomed by a vicious beating by Larry and Walt, the brothers of the man he killed. Russell sees that in the eyes of some people, no amount of atonement will suffice, not even the loss of his precious relationship with Sarah. Larry is exploding with visceral rage and hate ignited by the self hatred within him, driven to destroy all that he touches. Russell finds some solace in his father, who has begun a relationship with an ex-slave, Consuela, after his wife dies whilst Russell was still in prison. Maben struggles to find a place of rest and work and escape the consequences of her actions. She is slowly and inexorably sliding to a place where she is hanging by a thread and seeing nothing that can alleviate a desperate ending. Then she meets Russell, who upon hearing her tale, hopes to find redemption. Connections between the two of them become clearer later on.
The expressive prose has a finesse and vitality that seamlessly ensnares the reader. The sharply drawn characters weave their way into your consciousness as real and authentic people. I imagine that as the author has a preacher for a father, that the themes of judgement, forgiveness and justice were points for constant discussion which then went on to inform this novel. There is certainly great symbolism in the concrete statue of the Virgin Mary in the book. I felt faint echoes of the biblical story of Job's suffering whilst I was reading. It is the author's ability to bring humanity to every character, irrespective of what they may have done, that marks this as an outstanding and superb read. Highly recommended. Thanks to Oldcastle Books for an ARC.
The tone is set when upon reaching McComb, Russell is welcomed by a vicious beating by Larry and Walt, the brothers of the man he killed. Russell sees that in the eyes of some people, no amount of atonement will suffice, not even the loss of his precious relationship with Sarah. Larry is exploding with visceral rage and hate ignited by the self hatred within him, driven to destroy all that he touches. Russell finds some solace in his father, who has begun a relationship with an ex-slave, Consuela, after his wife dies whilst Russell was still in prison. Maben struggles to find a place of rest and work and escape the consequences of her actions. She is slowly and inexorably sliding to a place where she is hanging by a thread and seeing nothing that can alleviate a desperate ending. Then she meets Russell, who upon hearing her tale, hopes to find redemption. Connections between the two of them become clearer later on.
The expressive prose has a finesse and vitality that seamlessly ensnares the reader. The sharply drawn characters weave their way into your consciousness as real and authentic people. I imagine that as the author has a preacher for a father, that the themes of judgement, forgiveness and justice were points for constant discussion which then went on to inform this novel. There is certainly great symbolism in the concrete statue of the Virgin Mary in the book. I felt faint echoes of the biblical story of Job's suffering whilst I was reading. It is the author's ability to bring humanity to every character, irrespective of what they may have done, that marks this as an outstanding and superb read. Highly recommended. Thanks to Oldcastle Books for an ARC.
April 29, 2017
I picked up 'Desperation Road' after I kept seeing it pop up on my feed with several 5-star ratings. I didn't read any of the reviews before I went into this book, which was probably a good thing because I was able to experience everything fresh, without any idea of what was going to transpire. It ended up being quite a big surprise for me, but not in the way that you'd probably expect.
You see, McComb, Mississippi is my hometown...and it is the setting of this story. My family has a very long history in this small southern town. In fact, my grandmother's uncle - my great, great uncle - was McComb's Chief of Police in the 1920's. He is one of 3 officers that have been killed in the line of duty in the history of McComb's police force. He was gunned down when serving a warrant for forged checks. His murderer escaped and an international manhunt ensued, with the murderer being caught in Canada and eventually hung in Magnolia.
Going into this story, I had absolutely no idea of where the story was set and it caught me off guard. While other readers were engrossed in the story, I found myself lost to a strong case of nostalgia. I haven't been back in years, since I was a young teen, but as the author described Delaware Avenue and the angular arches of Centenary United Methodist Church, it felt like I was right back there again. I could so easily picture the surrounding towns, like Magnolia, and the businesses like the Fernwood Truck Stop that the author described. He really did a fantastic job of accurately portraying the geography and physical lay of the land.
That being said, because I spent so much time reminiscing, I did find myself missing details of the story more than a few times. I was listening to the Audible version and had to "rewind" this story several times to reorient myself. For most listeners, this probably won't be a problem. It is always a little trickier to stay abreast of what's going on when listening to a story that bounces between multiple characters, but this one was more difficult for me because I kept getting lost in my own memories.
The story itself was suspenseful and utterly captivating. Alongside the vivid descriptions of the town and surrounding areas, a full cast of characters makes this story stand out. Everyone in this book has a story to tell. The secrets, betrayals and motivations are many.
The two characters that are the central focus of this story are on separate paths, not intersecting until you are well into the story. As the story unfolds, past and present collide. Will they be offered the chance to redeem themselves?
Russell Gaines has just been released from prison, after serving time for killing a young man. He returns to his hometown, where the brothers of his victim have been awaiting his release - and their revenge - for the duration of his imprisonment. As with other characters, the details of his past are revealed little by little.
Maben is wandering alongside the Interstate when we first meet her. Every possession she owns is carried in the trash bag thrown over her shoulder. Along with her young daughter, Annalee, she trudges on toward the town she hasn't been to in years. She is a much-changed version of the girl she was when she left her hometown. Addiction and loss have left their mark on her. In an act of desperation, she jeopardizes the only good thing that she has left in her life.
Overall, I thought that this was a fantastic and engaging read. I will probably go back to it at some point to catch the details that I suspect that I've missed while I was reminiscing. Even so, it was a great story that kept me guessing right to the very end. This author sucked me right in to the plight of these characters. It is my first book by Michael Farris Smith, but will not be my last.
You see, McComb, Mississippi is my hometown...and it is the setting of this story. My family has a very long history in this small southern town. In fact, my grandmother's uncle - my great, great uncle - was McComb's Chief of Police in the 1920's. He is one of 3 officers that have been killed in the line of duty in the history of McComb's police force. He was gunned down when serving a warrant for forged checks. His murderer escaped and an international manhunt ensued, with the murderer being caught in Canada and eventually hung in Magnolia.
Going into this story, I had absolutely no idea of where the story was set and it caught me off guard. While other readers were engrossed in the story, I found myself lost to a strong case of nostalgia. I haven't been back in years, since I was a young teen, but as the author described Delaware Avenue and the angular arches of Centenary United Methodist Church, it felt like I was right back there again. I could so easily picture the surrounding towns, like Magnolia, and the businesses like the Fernwood Truck Stop that the author described. He really did a fantastic job of accurately portraying the geography and physical lay of the land.
That being said, because I spent so much time reminiscing, I did find myself missing details of the story more than a few times. I was listening to the Audible version and had to "rewind" this story several times to reorient myself. For most listeners, this probably won't be a problem. It is always a little trickier to stay abreast of what's going on when listening to a story that bounces between multiple characters, but this one was more difficult for me because I kept getting lost in my own memories.
The story itself was suspenseful and utterly captivating. Alongside the vivid descriptions of the town and surrounding areas, a full cast of characters makes this story stand out. Everyone in this book has a story to tell. The secrets, betrayals and motivations are many.
The two characters that are the central focus of this story are on separate paths, not intersecting until you are well into the story. As the story unfolds, past and present collide. Will they be offered the chance to redeem themselves?
Russell Gaines has just been released from prison, after serving time for killing a young man. He returns to his hometown, where the brothers of his victim have been awaiting his release - and their revenge - for the duration of his imprisonment. As with other characters, the details of his past are revealed little by little.
Maben is wandering alongside the Interstate when we first meet her. Every possession she owns is carried in the trash bag thrown over her shoulder. Along with her young daughter, Annalee, she trudges on toward the town she hasn't been to in years. She is a much-changed version of the girl she was when she left her hometown. Addiction and loss have left their mark on her. In an act of desperation, she jeopardizes the only good thing that she has left in her life.
Overall, I thought that this was a fantastic and engaging read. I will probably go back to it at some point to catch the details that I suspect that I've missed while I was reminiscing. Even so, it was a great story that kept me guessing right to the very end. This author sucked me right in to the plight of these characters. It is my first book by Michael Farris Smith, but will not be my last.
February 24, 2017
You are never stronger...than when you land on the other side of despair.”
― Zadie Smith, White Teeth.
Russell Gaines is back home after spending 11 years in Parchman Penitentiary, and he believes he's paid his debt to society - he just wants to get on with his life. Others don't agree with him. Revenge has a long memory, and for those who live with it, it's an all consuming beast that has to be acknowledged. The small Southern town of McComb, Mississippi, with its explosive mix of bourbon, guns and drugs, mean it's a particularly dangerous place for revenge to make it's home.
Meanwhile, Maben and her young daughter Annalee are walking the interstate, they're desperate and tired like only the homeless can experience. Maben decides to give her daughter a break and spends her last few dollars on a motel room. This night though will end in disaster, with Maben in possession of a pistol, and a deputy dead at her feet.
In the funny way that fate works, Russell and Maben's paths cross in a most spectacular fashion. Both of them have a past they're desperate to leave behind, but with the odds stacked against them, the future's not looking too good.
Where do I begin with this one. It's not really a thriller, and neither is there a mystery to be solved. Apart from the first few chapters, it's not a fast paced, action packed storyline either, so why then did it grab me and not let go till the very end? Well for one thing the narrative was quite simply beautiful. The author writes with a clarity that damn near touched my soul, recognising (as he does so eloquently) human frailty and emotion in its many forms. It was very much character led, and the characters, though flawed/ damaged were superbly portrayed. Michael Farris Smith is a master wordsmith, and had me hanging on to every one of those words. I didn't want it to end, but I couldn't read it fast enough! Don't miss out on this one, it's a wonderful read!
*Thank you to Netgalley and Oldcastle Books for my ARC in exchange for an honest review*
― Zadie Smith, White Teeth.
Russell Gaines is back home after spending 11 years in Parchman Penitentiary, and he believes he's paid his debt to society - he just wants to get on with his life. Others don't agree with him. Revenge has a long memory, and for those who live with it, it's an all consuming beast that has to be acknowledged. The small Southern town of McComb, Mississippi, with its explosive mix of bourbon, guns and drugs, mean it's a particularly dangerous place for revenge to make it's home.
Meanwhile, Maben and her young daughter Annalee are walking the interstate, they're desperate and tired like only the homeless can experience. Maben decides to give her daughter a break and spends her last few dollars on a motel room. This night though will end in disaster, with Maben in possession of a pistol, and a deputy dead at her feet.
In the funny way that fate works, Russell and Maben's paths cross in a most spectacular fashion. Both of them have a past they're desperate to leave behind, but with the odds stacked against them, the future's not looking too good.
Where do I begin with this one. It's not really a thriller, and neither is there a mystery to be solved. Apart from the first few chapters, it's not a fast paced, action packed storyline either, so why then did it grab me and not let go till the very end? Well for one thing the narrative was quite simply beautiful. The author writes with a clarity that damn near touched my soul, recognising (as he does so eloquently) human frailty and emotion in its many forms. It was very much character led, and the characters, though flawed/ damaged were superbly portrayed. Michael Farris Smith is a master wordsmith, and had me hanging on to every one of those words. I didn't want it to end, but I couldn't read it fast enough! Don't miss out on this one, it's a wonderful read!
*Thank you to Netgalley and Oldcastle Books for my ARC in exchange for an honest review*
October 1, 2017
Having been an avid reader for my entire life, I can pretty much tell early on—sometimes even within the first few chapters—when a book is going to be something special. For me, Desperation Road turned out to be one of those sometimes. It was Michael Farris Smith’s distinct style—his lack of frilly overtures and sometimes sparse dialogue, all delivered in a compelling way—that struck a chord with me. There was a beauty to the simplicity of his writing, this cast of broken people, his ability to draw out my curiosity and the very question underlying it all—should our lives be defined by the mistakes we make?
The author holds his secrets close, revealing the big picture one sliver at a time; something I personally found utterly engaging. It's not a pretty story per se, but sort of humbling in all of it's desperation. Have I mentioned yet how aptly titled this book is?
It was a horrible decision, made late one night, eleven years earlier, that set this cast of characters on a collision course or the same Mississippi road paved with desperation, if you will. Having spent all those years since, behind bars, paying for that bourbon-induced mistake, Russell is out and ready to live some type of life. Unfortunately for him, there are those that think he hasn’t quite paid enough.
“My road is the road that brought us all here led by what hand I don’t know.”
Then there’s the mysterious woman, Maben, with barely enough money for food, roaming the side the of highway and sleeping in the woods with her young daughter. What could have landed her on this road of discontent?
Each complex and troubled in some way—torn by what they’ve been through or what’s been done to them—these characters don’t make excuses for who they are, but instead own their flaws in some way. Despite everything, the most common thread was an underlying resilience and a much-needed reprieve from the darkness; the yearning to leave the past behind and move forward.
While I wouldn't consider this particular story to be as gritty or dark as some of the other Grit-Lit or Southern-noir books I’ve dabbled in, Desperation Road is still a worthy opponent. One that showed me the power of Michael Farris Smith's style and convinced me I need to check out his backlist.
*Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
The author holds his secrets close, revealing the big picture one sliver at a time; something I personally found utterly engaging. It's not a pretty story per se, but sort of humbling in all of it's desperation. Have I mentioned yet how aptly titled this book is?
It was a horrible decision, made late one night, eleven years earlier, that set this cast of characters on a collision course or the same Mississippi road paved with desperation, if you will. Having spent all those years since, behind bars, paying for that bourbon-induced mistake, Russell is out and ready to live some type of life. Unfortunately for him, there are those that think he hasn’t quite paid enough.
“My road is the road that brought us all here led by what hand I don’t know.”
Then there’s the mysterious woman, Maben, with barely enough money for food, roaming the side the of highway and sleeping in the woods with her young daughter. What could have landed her on this road of discontent?
Each complex and troubled in some way—torn by what they’ve been through or what’s been done to them—these characters don’t make excuses for who they are, but instead own their flaws in some way. Despite everything, the most common thread was an underlying resilience and a much-needed reprieve from the darkness; the yearning to leave the past behind and move forward.
While I wouldn't consider this particular story to be as gritty or dark as some of the other Grit-Lit or Southern-noir books I’ve dabbled in, Desperation Road is still a worthy opponent. One that showed me the power of Michael Farris Smith's style and convinced me I need to check out his backlist.
*Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
March 4, 2017
5+++ stars..
What a fantastic book! What a great author!
In one review that I read, it said "you feel like your living it instead of reading it"...so true!
Oh, Russell.. what a great character, I worried about you through this entire book!!
I want to read all this author's works now, if there are any!
What a fantastic book! What a great author!
In one review that I read, it said "you feel like your living it instead of reading it"...so true!
Oh, Russell.. what a great character, I worried about you through this entire book!!
I want to read all this author's works now, if there are any!
March 4, 2017
Yes, yes, YES! This book was amazing!!
Does everyone deserve a second chance? Can we ever free ourselves from the yoke of the wrongs we've done, or are we destined to pay for them forever? Is hope something all should feel entitled to, or should we just accept that hope is a luxury not everyone can afford? These are just a few of the questions Michael Farris Smith addresses in his bleak, brilliant new novel, Desperation Road .
Russell Gaines has just gotten out of prison after 11 years. He has spent that time thinking about a lot of things—the mistake he made that landed him in jail, those who will continue to wish him harm even after his release, and the woman he loved, the woman he let go.
"...he was taken away from thoughts of his youth and forced into thoughts of the man he had been when he was taken away. He had told himself he wasn't going to do it. Wasn't going to stare out the window and lament what he had lost, like some hapless guy in some hapless moment but he wasn't able to resist."
He's ready to start his life anew, even if he knows it won't be easy. But it isn't long at all before those seeking revenge are ready to wreak havoc on the rest of his life, even if he's done his time. And Russell must decide how to respond, how far to let them push him before he must push back.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Maben is walking along the side of the highway with her young daughter, carrying all of their possessions in a garbage bag, hoping for a break. The sun is punishing, yet the pair soldiers on, and Maben hopes they can find someplace to wait out the heat, and then perhaps find temporary respite in a shelter until she figures out their next move. All her life, it seems, she has been running away from something, and she doesn't want to subject her daughter to these same mistakes.
"There were times when it was impossible to sleep as all the evil in the world seemed to gather in her thoughts and she couldn't figure out how to keep the child from it and there were other times when all the evil in the world gathered in her thoughts and exhausted her to the point where she couldn't fight it anymore."
That night Maben is forced into a corner the likes of which she doesn't expect and fears she might not escape, so she acts instinctively, which only causes more trouble. She and her daughter must flee, but no matter where they go, no matter how they try to get a foothold, the mistake she made follows her and threatens to swallow them whole.
One day, Russell and Maben cross paths in a moment of desperation. Neither wants anything to do with the other, but Russell feels like it is his responsibility to protect Maben and her daughter, even if he thinks she is hiding something major. When he finds out what she has done, he knows it's already too late to disentangle himself, and he has to decide whether to save himself or accept what will ultimately come his way. At the same time, Maben finds herself unwittingly involved in Russell's problems as well.
This is really a phenomenal book. I'd never read anything Smith had written before, but I was captivated almost instantaneously by his prose, by his characters and the bleak world they lived in. At times I worried the book would become almost too depressing to bear, but it didn't.
It is a testament to Smith's talent as a writer that you find yourself utterly immersed in this story of two people whom life really is battering about. He really paints a full picture for you—strong characters, evocative setting, tension that ratchets up increasingly as you feel the locomotive of their troubles heading toward them. But I loved every minute of it. I rooted for Russell and Maben and hoped Smith might take their story in a different direction than I thought.
Whenever I see so many people giving a book 5- and 4-star ratings I worry a lot that somehow its appeal might pass me by. Happily, that wasn't the case for me with Desperation Road . This might not be the most cheerful read, but it is truly evidence of an author's virtuoso performance, one which should absolutely be read.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
Does everyone deserve a second chance? Can we ever free ourselves from the yoke of the wrongs we've done, or are we destined to pay for them forever? Is hope something all should feel entitled to, or should we just accept that hope is a luxury not everyone can afford? These are just a few of the questions Michael Farris Smith addresses in his bleak, brilliant new novel, Desperation Road .
Russell Gaines has just gotten out of prison after 11 years. He has spent that time thinking about a lot of things—the mistake he made that landed him in jail, those who will continue to wish him harm even after his release, and the woman he loved, the woman he let go.
"...he was taken away from thoughts of his youth and forced into thoughts of the man he had been when he was taken away. He had told himself he wasn't going to do it. Wasn't going to stare out the window and lament what he had lost, like some hapless guy in some hapless moment but he wasn't able to resist."
He's ready to start his life anew, even if he knows it won't be easy. But it isn't long at all before those seeking revenge are ready to wreak havoc on the rest of his life, even if he's done his time. And Russell must decide how to respond, how far to let them push him before he must push back.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Maben is walking along the side of the highway with her young daughter, carrying all of their possessions in a garbage bag, hoping for a break. The sun is punishing, yet the pair soldiers on, and Maben hopes they can find someplace to wait out the heat, and then perhaps find temporary respite in a shelter until she figures out their next move. All her life, it seems, she has been running away from something, and she doesn't want to subject her daughter to these same mistakes.
"There were times when it was impossible to sleep as all the evil in the world seemed to gather in her thoughts and she couldn't figure out how to keep the child from it and there were other times when all the evil in the world gathered in her thoughts and exhausted her to the point where she couldn't fight it anymore."
That night Maben is forced into a corner the likes of which she doesn't expect and fears she might not escape, so she acts instinctively, which only causes more trouble. She and her daughter must flee, but no matter where they go, no matter how they try to get a foothold, the mistake she made follows her and threatens to swallow them whole.
One day, Russell and Maben cross paths in a moment of desperation. Neither wants anything to do with the other, but Russell feels like it is his responsibility to protect Maben and her daughter, even if he thinks she is hiding something major. When he finds out what she has done, he knows it's already too late to disentangle himself, and he has to decide whether to save himself or accept what will ultimately come his way. At the same time, Maben finds herself unwittingly involved in Russell's problems as well.
This is really a phenomenal book. I'd never read anything Smith had written before, but I was captivated almost instantaneously by his prose, by his characters and the bleak world they lived in. At times I worried the book would become almost too depressing to bear, but it didn't.
It is a testament to Smith's talent as a writer that you find yourself utterly immersed in this story of two people whom life really is battering about. He really paints a full picture for you—strong characters, evocative setting, tension that ratchets up increasingly as you feel the locomotive of their troubles heading toward them. But I loved every minute of it. I rooted for Russell and Maben and hoped Smith might take their story in a different direction than I thought.
Whenever I see so many people giving a book 5- and 4-star ratings I worry a lot that somehow its appeal might pass me by. Happily, that wasn't the case for me with Desperation Road . This might not be the most cheerful read, but it is truly evidence of an author's virtuoso performance, one which should absolutely be read.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
April 3, 2017
Best book I have read this year! An absolute must read!
Beautifully written, you can’t help but be drawn in by the vivid detail given to each character.
Russell is an ex-con, just released from a Mississippi penitentiary after 11 long years. Maben and her daughter Annalee are running from nowhere on their way to anywhere better than the past they left behind.
Multiple tragic events that initially appear to be independent of one another, all heading for the inevitable collision-course. No one is coming away from this unscathed!
The characters are real...their feelings are real. You feel the pain, the angst. Knowing this out-of-control freight train is going off the rails in the worst way, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
Becoming so emotionally involved with each character you want to stop it. Put up a road block, shout a warning, distract a character. But nothing you can do is going to change what awaits around the next bend. This incredible novel held me tight right to the very last word. Epic suspense. Time for a deep breath.
All I can say is...wow!
Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown and Company Publishing and Michael Farris Smith for a copy of this book to review in exchange for an honest review.
Beautifully written, you can’t help but be drawn in by the vivid detail given to each character.
Russell is an ex-con, just released from a Mississippi penitentiary after 11 long years. Maben and her daughter Annalee are running from nowhere on their way to anywhere better than the past they left behind.
Multiple tragic events that initially appear to be independent of one another, all heading for the inevitable collision-course. No one is coming away from this unscathed!
The characters are real...their feelings are real. You feel the pain, the angst. Knowing this out-of-control freight train is going off the rails in the worst way, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
Becoming so emotionally involved with each character you want to stop it. Put up a road block, shout a warning, distract a character. But nothing you can do is going to change what awaits around the next bend. This incredible novel held me tight right to the very last word. Epic suspense. Time for a deep breath.
All I can say is...wow!
Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown and Company Publishing and Michael Farris Smith for a copy of this book to review in exchange for an honest review.
October 20, 2016
Retribution, revenge, mistakes that lead to life changing results, all qualities that populate many books of southern fiction. But in this author hands it is so much more. Flawed characters, realistic characters, but all treated with dignity and grace despite their bad decisions, decisions that linger, causing hurt and anger. How to get past these and start again? A wonderful and tightly plotted book, the pace is so even the writing extremely smooth. Suspenseful but at the same time heartbreaking.
This is one of those books that begs to be read in one sitting, but I quite frankly didn't want to finish too quickly. Sure I wanted to see where it was going, what happens to these troubled characters but at the same time I didn't want it to be over. There is violence, a realistic small southern town setting, a father who will do anything for his son, a wonderful woman who though she spoke little English, was so incredibly helpful and understanding, and a police officer who has to make a decision that could affect his own future.
An entirely believable story, a brilliant character study and a truly impactful read. Readers of Ron Rash, Wiley Cash and Tom Franklin will find much to admire in this authors second outing.
ARC from publisher.
Release date Feb, 2017.
This is one of those books that begs to be read in one sitting, but I quite frankly didn't want to finish too quickly. Sure I wanted to see where it was going, what happens to these troubled characters but at the same time I didn't want it to be over. There is violence, a realistic small southern town setting, a father who will do anything for his son, a wonderful woman who though she spoke little English, was so incredibly helpful and understanding, and a police officer who has to make a decision that could affect his own future.
An entirely believable story, a brilliant character study and a truly impactful read. Readers of Ron Rash, Wiley Cash and Tom Franklin will find much to admire in this authors second outing.
ARC from publisher.
Release date Feb, 2017.
June 4, 2024
Not as dense as McMurtry or as sparse as McCarthy, but perfect for fans of either. Or both. Or neither.
March 1, 2017
OK......I have a new favorite author..........Michael Farris Smith.
Get ready for a blast-off beginning when you meet Maben and little Annabel struggling with heat and hunger as they walk the highway back to Mississippi, as they meet up with danger and as they live with disappointment after disappointment.
In DESPERATION ROAD, Bourbon, Coke and Guns are the norm and ex-con Russell Gaines takes no exception to the rule. After eleven long tortuous years in prison, Russell receives a shocking welcome home surprise, and before he can even take a breath finds he must live his life constantly looking over his shoulder for the nasty revengeful types on the prowl.
As the story evolves, Russell receives another shocker when faced with a female name from the past that forces him into making a decision about the rest of his life.....but does he dare tell the whole story.
I love this author! I was immediately absorbed in the character's lives, Smith's addictive writing style and his ability to make DESPERATION ROAD an unputdownable read for me. (Am already hooked on RIVERS, Smith's sci-fi thriller and am only a few chapters in)
Many thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown and Company for the ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
October 24, 2016
NO SPOILERS .....NONE....
I won't even mention the characters or the story itself!!!
THIS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR!!!!!!
"Lions, and Tigers, and Bears......OH MY".....
You won't meet any wild animals. Nor will you need any help finding your way back home following the Yellow Brick Road....
"Desperation Road" takes place in a small town: McComb, (Pike County), in the state of Mississippi. McComb is about 80 miles south of Jackson and was founded in 1872 after Henry Simpson McComb of the New Orleans, Jackson and the Great Northern Railroad, a predecessor of the Illinois Central Railroad (now part of the Canadian National Railway), decided to move the railroads maintenance shops away from New Orleans, Louisiana, outside of the attractions of that city's saloons.
During the 1960's, McComb and nearby areas was a site of extreme violence by KKK and other opponents to the Civil Rights Movement.
Looking up some background information of the area of where this story takes place added to my 'already admiration' for the phenomenal author Michael Farris Smith.
The passion a writer must 'feel' emotionally to write a book like this is so frickin real...with dignity, integrity, and purpose....I can't imagine how this didn't take on a life of its own - so much so - that Michael Farris Smith must have been breathing, eating, living, this novel 24 hours a day - as to have 'become it'.?/! This book is THAT FANTASTIC!!!!!
I would be easy to write a separate review about 'every' character in this book, as they each have a very clear personality profile --each with their own troubled story. In other words - every character is well developed.
Having read "The Rivers", and "The Hands of A Stranger", I had full confidence in choosing this book with no other needed information other than the name: "MICHAEL FARRIS SMITH! He's literally a brilliant writer!!!
This book should win awards of the HIGHEST MARKS!!!! It's SOOOOOO GOOOOO you almost can't contain it alone. When you finish -- you'll want to EXPLODE and tell the world to read it. Novels don't come more deeply felt than "Desperation Road" .....with a knot in your gut from the first page to the last, to boot! ( in a good way)
A novel for *ALL* TYPES OF READERS!!!! If you are a 'reader'....then you'll like this book no matter what your favorite genre is. It won't matter. There is something in here for everyone.
I'll end with one except --a thought-provoking teaser:
"He was often filled with a serenity as he drove alone on backcountry roads in the late
recesses of the night, the empty roads and the feeling of being separated from the things that lived where the streetlights lived. But that serenity was just as often shattered and shattered into the darkest corners of the countryside as he was overpowered by the thoughts of the things that he hated--The wife that had been and the boy he couldn't see and the wife he had now and then men who tasted her and the dead who were gone and the living who would return."
Thank You HACHETTE Book Group, and Michael Farris Smith. [Absolutely fantastic]!!!!!
I won't even mention the characters or the story itself!!!
THIS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR!!!!!!
"Lions, and Tigers, and Bears......OH MY".....
You won't meet any wild animals. Nor will you need any help finding your way back home following the Yellow Brick Road....
"Desperation Road" takes place in a small town: McComb, (Pike County), in the state of Mississippi. McComb is about 80 miles south of Jackson and was founded in 1872 after Henry Simpson McComb of the New Orleans, Jackson and the Great Northern Railroad, a predecessor of the Illinois Central Railroad (now part of the Canadian National Railway), decided to move the railroads maintenance shops away from New Orleans, Louisiana, outside of the attractions of that city's saloons.
During the 1960's, McComb and nearby areas was a site of extreme violence by KKK and other opponents to the Civil Rights Movement.
Looking up some background information of the area of where this story takes place added to my 'already admiration' for the phenomenal author Michael Farris Smith.
The passion a writer must 'feel' emotionally to write a book like this is so frickin real...with dignity, integrity, and purpose....I can't imagine how this didn't take on a life of its own - so much so - that Michael Farris Smith must have been breathing, eating, living, this novel 24 hours a day - as to have 'become it'.?/! This book is THAT FANTASTIC!!!!!
I would be easy to write a separate review about 'every' character in this book, as they each have a very clear personality profile --each with their own troubled story. In other words - every character is well developed.
Having read "The Rivers", and "The Hands of A Stranger", I had full confidence in choosing this book with no other needed information other than the name: "MICHAEL FARRIS SMITH! He's literally a brilliant writer!!!
This book should win awards of the HIGHEST MARKS!!!! It's SOOOOOO GOOOOO you almost can't contain it alone. When you finish -- you'll want to EXPLODE and tell the world to read it. Novels don't come more deeply felt than "Desperation Road" .....with a knot in your gut from the first page to the last, to boot! ( in a good way)
A novel for *ALL* TYPES OF READERS!!!! If you are a 'reader'....then you'll like this book no matter what your favorite genre is. It won't matter. There is something in here for everyone.
I'll end with one except --a thought-provoking teaser:
"He was often filled with a serenity as he drove alone on backcountry roads in the late
recesses of the night, the empty roads and the feeling of being separated from the things that lived where the streetlights lived. But that serenity was just as often shattered and shattered into the darkest corners of the countryside as he was overpowered by the thoughts of the things that he hated--The wife that had been and the boy he couldn't see and the wife he had now and then men who tasted her and the dead who were gone and the living who would return."
Thank You HACHETTE Book Group, and Michael Farris Smith. [Absolutely fantastic]!!!!!
November 19, 2016
I received a copy of Desperation Road through NetGalley. My thanks to Little Brown and Company and to Michael Farris Smith for the opportunity.
"How can you imagine the complexities of what might come?"
Russell Gaines knows only too well of the deep, festering, jaggedness that calls itself life. It enters at dawn and snakes its way in and out until the moon finally snuffs it out in one ragged breath.
Russell has spent the last eleven years in the Mississippi State Penitentiary for silencing the life of a young man. A horrendous accident with a bottle of bourbon at the wheel. And no one has ever let the grip of it go.....never Russell....and most certainly never the boy's brothers who shadow Russell like the moon at his backside when he is released. The candle of retribution still burns bright.
Russell contacts his father, Mitchell, and makes attempts to tread down that road to home once again. The winds of remorse blow heavy with the dust of compunction. No step taken, no word spoken seems to fill in the wide gap in this bottomless abyss.
And then Russell is forced into his truck late one night at gunpoint by a scrawny young woman and a slip of a young girl. His empty life will now travel on the craggy edge of someone else's mountain. I must use this author's words to describe this encounter: "She had been backed into some dark and desperate corner by the rabid dogs of life."
Have mercy, readers. This one left me in such a state. I finally realized that I had barely breathed through the last few chapters. I wanted to know with every inch of my being, and yet, I never wanted it to end. I don't know if I will ever be able to put this book down. It has continuously stayed with me.
Michael Farris Smith has left his mark. His characters are honed from every flicker of every flame. They burn deeply into you and their ashes continue to swirl thereafter. You sit in their midst and are in awe. It's that good and it's that memorable. Let it be known, this one, Desperation Road, sits at the very top of my reading for this year. Reach for it. Please, please do.
"How can you imagine the complexities of what might come?"
Russell Gaines knows only too well of the deep, festering, jaggedness that calls itself life. It enters at dawn and snakes its way in and out until the moon finally snuffs it out in one ragged breath.
Russell has spent the last eleven years in the Mississippi State Penitentiary for silencing the life of a young man. A horrendous accident with a bottle of bourbon at the wheel. And no one has ever let the grip of it go.....never Russell....and most certainly never the boy's brothers who shadow Russell like the moon at his backside when he is released. The candle of retribution still burns bright.
Russell contacts his father, Mitchell, and makes attempts to tread down that road to home once again. The winds of remorse blow heavy with the dust of compunction. No step taken, no word spoken seems to fill in the wide gap in this bottomless abyss.
And then Russell is forced into his truck late one night at gunpoint by a scrawny young woman and a slip of a young girl. His empty life will now travel on the craggy edge of someone else's mountain. I must use this author's words to describe this encounter: "She had been backed into some dark and desperate corner by the rabid dogs of life."
Have mercy, readers. This one left me in such a state. I finally realized that I had barely breathed through the last few chapters. I wanted to know with every inch of my being, and yet, I never wanted it to end. I don't know if I will ever be able to put this book down. It has continuously stayed with me.
Michael Farris Smith has left his mark. His characters are honed from every flicker of every flame. They burn deeply into you and their ashes continue to swirl thereafter. You sit in their midst and are in awe. It's that good and it's that memorable. Let it be known, this one, Desperation Road, sits at the very top of my reading for this year. Reach for it. Please, please do.
February 9, 2017
!! NOW AVAILABLE !!
“Trouble been doggin' my soul since the day I was born”
- Ray LeMontagne
With the perfect ebb and flow of tension throughout this perfectly paced novel, Michael Farris Smith has drawn an incredible cast of characters who come together to create the perfect storm – a disturbance of the atmosphere between these characters and these pages.
McComb, Mississippi is the setting for this story, which opens with the return of one of McComb’s native sons returning home. McComb is one of the towns on the Mississippi Blues Trail with markers for some of the great Blues musicians. The marker for Bo Diddley can be found there, as can one for Summit Street. A “thriving African American business district during the era of segregation as well as a hotbed of musical activity. Blues, Jazz and rhythm and blues bands entertained at various nightclubs, cafes, and hotels, and many musicians lived nearby. After the coming of Integration in the 1960s, commerce in Summit Street and similar areas in other cities began to decline when much of the African American trade dispersed to other parts of town.”
Picture this town in your mind, the old downtown area of Summit Street having likely fallen into some disrepair after the decline in commerce, maybe in the process of renovation, and the part of town where most of the town stores are looking like every old small town in America founded in the earlier years. Brick buildings side by side down a simple but wide road, likely street parking in front of the drugstore. A flagpole prominently displayed. A small Train Station. A family named / owned hotel. It still retains some of that look from the early years, in your mind’s eye you can see the changes come as the automobiles changed from the era of the Model Ts to a Town Car, the Coupes, T-Birds, Mustangs… the clothing changing along with the cars. Small town America, southern style, but you might only notice the differences by staying for a bit. Everybody knows your name, everybody knows everybody else’s business and claims to stay out of it, but you know how those tongues wag. It hasn’t changed all that much in the years Russell’s been gone. He could walk down the street and it’s as if he steps right back into the heartbeat of the town.
This is what Russell returns to when he heads home. But there’s more. There’s much more waiting for him than just his father. There’s a welcoming committee, of sorts, to greet him as he gets off the bus. It’s not exactly a warm, friendly welcome, more like a warning-welcome. Stay and expect more. Worse.
Smith’s prose has a powerful, yet elegant ease to it, keeping the tension subtle yet present throughout, pacing the unveiling to perfection. What comes to light when the past and future collide at the intersection of two lives destined to meet is a heartbreaking story of revenge, regrets, and redemption.
Pub Date: 07 Feb 2017
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Little, Brown and Company, NetGalley, and author Michael Farris Smith
“Trouble been doggin' my soul since the day I was born”
- Ray LeMontagne
With the perfect ebb and flow of tension throughout this perfectly paced novel, Michael Farris Smith has drawn an incredible cast of characters who come together to create the perfect storm – a disturbance of the atmosphere between these characters and these pages.
McComb, Mississippi is the setting for this story, which opens with the return of one of McComb’s native sons returning home. McComb is one of the towns on the Mississippi Blues Trail with markers for some of the great Blues musicians. The marker for Bo Diddley can be found there, as can one for Summit Street. A “thriving African American business district during the era of segregation as well as a hotbed of musical activity. Blues, Jazz and rhythm and blues bands entertained at various nightclubs, cafes, and hotels, and many musicians lived nearby. After the coming of Integration in the 1960s, commerce in Summit Street and similar areas in other cities began to decline when much of the African American trade dispersed to other parts of town.”
Picture this town in your mind, the old downtown area of Summit Street having likely fallen into some disrepair after the decline in commerce, maybe in the process of renovation, and the part of town where most of the town stores are looking like every old small town in America founded in the earlier years. Brick buildings side by side down a simple but wide road, likely street parking in front of the drugstore. A flagpole prominently displayed. A small Train Station. A family named / owned hotel. It still retains some of that look from the early years, in your mind’s eye you can see the changes come as the automobiles changed from the era of the Model Ts to a Town Car, the Coupes, T-Birds, Mustangs… the clothing changing along with the cars. Small town America, southern style, but you might only notice the differences by staying for a bit. Everybody knows your name, everybody knows everybody else’s business and claims to stay out of it, but you know how those tongues wag. It hasn’t changed all that much in the years Russell’s been gone. He could walk down the street and it’s as if he steps right back into the heartbeat of the town.
This is what Russell returns to when he heads home. But there’s more. There’s much more waiting for him than just his father. There’s a welcoming committee, of sorts, to greet him as he gets off the bus. It’s not exactly a warm, friendly welcome, more like a warning-welcome. Stay and expect more. Worse.
Smith’s prose has a powerful, yet elegant ease to it, keeping the tension subtle yet present throughout, pacing the unveiling to perfection. What comes to light when the past and future collide at the intersection of two lives destined to meet is a heartbreaking story of revenge, regrets, and redemption.
Pub Date: 07 Feb 2017
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Little, Brown and Company, NetGalley, and author Michael Farris Smith
June 9, 2018
Hot damn. He did it again - and it is fantastic.
UPDATE...June, 2018...Looks like movie rights have been picked up.
--------
Original review: These characters are shades of people you and I know - those who have made awful mistakes in their past but are trying now to pull themselves out of the sucking mud of failure. As in Michael Farris Smith's outstanding debut Rivers set on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the moist, jungly atmosphere of the deep south again wraps around the reader like vines of kudzu, but it is the conjuring of characters that is his gift.
In the little town of McComb, halfway between New Orleans and Jackson, two locals have come home. They do not know one another, although their paths have crossed before, and each has been gone a long time. Maben is a young mother fallen on hard times. She has some ugly memories and plenty of regret, but getting herself and her little girl to a women's shelter seems like the first step in the right direction. In desperation, however, that step falters, and she ends up holding the service revolver of a dead sheriff's deputy.
Russell steps off the bus that has delivered him from an 11 year stint in prison. Driving drunk, he once killed a young man and although his debt to society is paid, the brothers of the dead boy want more. They are intent on a collision course with Russell, but his road swerves, and it is Maben's life that he intersects.
While any author strives to paint the primary residents of his novel with depth and nuance, Smith leaves no character single-sided. Whether it is frighteningly effeminate thugs in an overnight jail cell, a sour old couple too stingy to sell a few slices of loaf bread from their campsite, or Consuela who speaks barely a word of English, the reader is able to see and hear and smell these characters. It is as if you are dozing alongside Maben when the stout lady-trucker in a Waylon Jennings t-shirt offers help. She appears for maybe two sentences, but she is totally real. Every peripheral player in the story is that way and more. Russell's father and best friend from high school are good men you want to wrap your arms around with love, and yet, the way that Smith portrays the prime antagonist is gorgeously brutal. And touching.
I'm not sure what it says about me that the single time I got choked up reading this story is when the bad guy Larry, the taller and more unstable of the two angry brothers, has a break-down. As he begins to cry, then sobs, I knew he was intent on probably beating Russell to death, and yet I became emotional. I shed tears for this broken, desperate, and horrible man. That is what Smith does. He opens up the humanity of every person to walk through his stories.
His writing style occasionally reminds me a little bit of Faulkner with spatterings of long and lyrical sentences - but he is as plain spoken as Hemingway, too. Smith does not tell you what is deep down below the surface inside his characters. He shows you simply and plainly a memory or thought, and it is up to the reader to consider who the character is at heart. While it might seem impossible for these two styles to inhabit the same book, consider the following scenario.
A terrified and distraught Maben reminisces about the single solid patch in her life where she and the baby were safe. She remembers... "walking with Annalee, back and forth to work or to the Dollar General or to the grocery store or wherever they needed to go, the spring turning into summer and their walks together maybe out of necessity but always welcome to Maben as she wanted to wrap up the sun and the warmth and the child and the days together and put them somewhere safe so that one day she could get them back out and look at them and remember."
While I have no personal connection to the author other than book club author events, I can attest to the honesty and accuracy of his settings. We have extended family members not just on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where Rivers takes place, but also in McComb where Russell and Maben's lives collide. The phrasing and pace of the language, his description and feel for the out-of-doors here are spot on. There is nothing worse than a southern novel written by an outsider who tries too hard - Smith is the real deal.
You know that really old song by Dusty Springfield called "Son of a Preacher Man?" If you've ever read any interviews with Smith, you'll know his daddy was a Baptist preacher. The thing about Mississippi and church is that it doesn't always necessarily add up to faith, per se. I live here in the Bible Belt - about 5o miles from where Desperation Road is set - and can tell you that the old morality stories and teachings about judgement go past dogma. Smith inserts into his books some of the philosophical meanderings that often come when a good preacher takes the pulpit.
If we are all forgiven, then what separates us from the worst offenders ever to have lived? If we are washed equally clean upon penitent request, then what Russell - just out of prison - witnessed there means nothing. Is a now-penitent child rapist equally as clean in the eyes of God as a man who got drunk and accidentally killed someone? Maybe faith saves our souls, but how about our sanity?
Smith writes: "..thought about what the preacher said. 'It's there if you want it. Don't matter what you've done.' There was something odd about that. Seems like there had to be a point of no return. Things you couldn't take back. He had seen the worst of men and he wanted there to be punishment for that so that he could feel like he was different from them."
Come to McComb to visit my family, and like Russell's dad, we'll fry you up a golden stack of catfish and crack open a cold beer. Russell and Maben truly lived this story, and if you'll open its pages, so will you. Dark and utterly beautiful. Five stars and on my Favorites shelf.
NOTE: I was provided an uncorrected Advance Reading Copy of this book in exchange for an objective review. Any errors in the quote above are my own.
The book tour schedule is out - go meet this smart guy & get your copy signed!
https://michaelfarrissmith.com/events/
EDITED TO UPDATE....JULY 2017. Michael Farris Smith has graciously participated in two month-long author chats with the GR group On the Southern Literary Trail over the past two years. If you're curious about tidbits on Rivers or for Desperation Road, the group discussion pages will lead you to them.
Secondly, we just got word that his upcoming release for The Fighterwill be in March. NetGalley and/or Edelweiss will have ARCs available for reviews sometime this fall.
Finally, if you're anywhere near Jackson, MS (or have a craving for great southern food), their annual book fest will be held the weeked of the big solar eclipse. Saturday will feature Michael Farris Smith, Ron Rash, Tim Gautreaux, Tom Franklin[author:Richard Ford|7849, and more. Jaw-dropping line up! No wonder there is a major celestial event happening! Here's the link for the author panels.. http://msbookfestival.com/schedule
UPDATE...June, 2018...Looks like movie rights have been picked up.
--------
Original review: These characters are shades of people you and I know - those who have made awful mistakes in their past but are trying now to pull themselves out of the sucking mud of failure. As in Michael Farris Smith's outstanding debut Rivers set on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the moist, jungly atmosphere of the deep south again wraps around the reader like vines of kudzu, but it is the conjuring of characters that is his gift.
In the little town of McComb, halfway between New Orleans and Jackson, two locals have come home. They do not know one another, although their paths have crossed before, and each has been gone a long time. Maben is a young mother fallen on hard times. She has some ugly memories and plenty of regret, but getting herself and her little girl to a women's shelter seems like the first step in the right direction. In desperation, however, that step falters, and she ends up holding the service revolver of a dead sheriff's deputy.
Russell steps off the bus that has delivered him from an 11 year stint in prison. Driving drunk, he once killed a young man and although his debt to society is paid, the brothers of the dead boy want more. They are intent on a collision course with Russell, but his road swerves, and it is Maben's life that he intersects.
While any author strives to paint the primary residents of his novel with depth and nuance, Smith leaves no character single-sided. Whether it is frighteningly effeminate thugs in an overnight jail cell, a sour old couple too stingy to sell a few slices of loaf bread from their campsite, or Consuela who speaks barely a word of English, the reader is able to see and hear and smell these characters. It is as if you are dozing alongside Maben when the stout lady-trucker in a Waylon Jennings t-shirt offers help. She appears for maybe two sentences, but she is totally real. Every peripheral player in the story is that way and more. Russell's father and best friend from high school are good men you want to wrap your arms around with love, and yet, the way that Smith portrays the prime antagonist is gorgeously brutal. And touching.
I'm not sure what it says about me that the single time I got choked up reading this story is when the bad guy Larry, the taller and more unstable of the two angry brothers, has a break-down. As he begins to cry, then sobs, I knew he was intent on probably beating Russell to death, and yet I became emotional. I shed tears for this broken, desperate, and horrible man. That is what Smith does. He opens up the humanity of every person to walk through his stories.
His writing style occasionally reminds me a little bit of Faulkner with spatterings of long and lyrical sentences - but he is as plain spoken as Hemingway, too. Smith does not tell you what is deep down below the surface inside his characters. He shows you simply and plainly a memory or thought, and it is up to the reader to consider who the character is at heart. While it might seem impossible for these two styles to inhabit the same book, consider the following scenario.
A terrified and distraught Maben reminisces about the single solid patch in her life where she and the baby were safe. She remembers... "walking with Annalee, back and forth to work or to the Dollar General or to the grocery store or wherever they needed to go, the spring turning into summer and their walks together maybe out of necessity but always welcome to Maben as she wanted to wrap up the sun and the warmth and the child and the days together and put them somewhere safe so that one day she could get them back out and look at them and remember."
While I have no personal connection to the author other than book club author events, I can attest to the honesty and accuracy of his settings. We have extended family members not just on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where Rivers takes place, but also in McComb where Russell and Maben's lives collide. The phrasing and pace of the language, his description and feel for the out-of-doors here are spot on. There is nothing worse than a southern novel written by an outsider who tries too hard - Smith is the real deal.
You know that really old song by Dusty Springfield called "Son of a Preacher Man?" If you've ever read any interviews with Smith, you'll know his daddy was a Baptist preacher. The thing about Mississippi and church is that it doesn't always necessarily add up to faith, per se. I live here in the Bible Belt - about 5o miles from where Desperation Road is set - and can tell you that the old morality stories and teachings about judgement go past dogma. Smith inserts into his books some of the philosophical meanderings that often come when a good preacher takes the pulpit.
If we are all forgiven, then what separates us from the worst offenders ever to have lived? If we are washed equally clean upon penitent request, then what Russell - just out of prison - witnessed there means nothing. Is a now-penitent child rapist equally as clean in the eyes of God as a man who got drunk and accidentally killed someone? Maybe faith saves our souls, but how about our sanity?
Smith writes: "..thought about what the preacher said. 'It's there if you want it. Don't matter what you've done.' There was something odd about that. Seems like there had to be a point of no return. Things you couldn't take back. He had seen the worst of men and he wanted there to be punishment for that so that he could feel like he was different from them."
Come to McComb to visit my family, and like Russell's dad, we'll fry you up a golden stack of catfish and crack open a cold beer. Russell and Maben truly lived this story, and if you'll open its pages, so will you. Dark and utterly beautiful. Five stars and on my Favorites shelf.
NOTE: I was provided an uncorrected Advance Reading Copy of this book in exchange for an objective review. Any errors in the quote above are my own.
The book tour schedule is out - go meet this smart guy & get your copy signed!
https://michaelfarrissmith.com/events/
EDITED TO UPDATE....JULY 2017. Michael Farris Smith has graciously participated in two month-long author chats with the GR group On the Southern Literary Trail over the past two years. If you're curious about tidbits on Rivers or for Desperation Road, the group discussion pages will lead you to them.
Secondly, we just got word that his upcoming release for The Fighterwill be in March. NetGalley and/or Edelweiss will have ARCs available for reviews sometime this fall.
Finally, if you're anywhere near Jackson, MS (or have a craving for great southern food), their annual book fest will be held the weeked of the big solar eclipse. Saturday will feature Michael Farris Smith, Ron Rash, Tim Gautreaux, Tom Franklin[author:Richard Ford|7849, and more. Jaw-dropping line up! No wonder there is a major celestial event happening! Here's the link for the author panels.. http://msbookfestival.com/schedule
February 19, 2017
When Russell Gaines returns home to McComb, Mississippi after an eleven-year stretch in Parchman Penitentiary, he believes that he's paid his debt to society. Unfortunately for Russell, not everyone else agrees, and even before he can step off the bus, he sees two brothers waiting for him. The two attack him viciously before being interrupted by a citizen who threatens to call the police. The brothers leave Russell injured on the ground, promising that this won't be the last he'll see of them.
At virtually the same time, a woman named Maben, who has been used very hard by life, is trudging down the highway toward McComb, encouraging her young daughter to keep up, and struggling to carry the heavy garbage bag that contains all their worldly possessions. At this point, the reader has no idea why Russell was in prison, why the two brothers are so intent on doing him harm, or why Maben and her child are out on the road. But it's clear that they are both damaged souls and that their long-term survival is very much in doubt.
Maben's circumstances are about to get much worse in a very big hurry. She settles her daughter into a shabby truck stop motel and then, down to her last few dollars, she attempts to make a few more by resorting to a practice that many desperate women before her have adopted. The attempt has catastrophic results both for Maben and for her daughter.
Meanwhile, Russell has settled into a small house and reconnected with his father and his father's new female companion. He will attempt to make a living as a handyman, but is constantly looking over his shoulder for the trouble that is never very far behind. Inevitably, of course, his own life will intersect with Maben's and the combined weight of their problems may well sink them both.
This is a beautifully written book that captures the setting and these characters as sharply as a finely honed blade. It's impossible not to sympathize with Russell and with Maben as they struggle to achieve some level of peace at a time when the odds are so heavily stacked against them, and even the minor characters are very vividly drawn. This is not a book that's going to make you smile very often (it is, after all, titled Desperation Road), but these are characters and this is a setting that will remain with the reader for a very long time.
At virtually the same time, a woman named Maben, who has been used very hard by life, is trudging down the highway toward McComb, encouraging her young daughter to keep up, and struggling to carry the heavy garbage bag that contains all their worldly possessions. At this point, the reader has no idea why Russell was in prison, why the two brothers are so intent on doing him harm, or why Maben and her child are out on the road. But it's clear that they are both damaged souls and that their long-term survival is very much in doubt.
Maben's circumstances are about to get much worse in a very big hurry. She settles her daughter into a shabby truck stop motel and then, down to her last few dollars, she attempts to make a few more by resorting to a practice that many desperate women before her have adopted. The attempt has catastrophic results both for Maben and for her daughter.
Meanwhile, Russell has settled into a small house and reconnected with his father and his father's new female companion. He will attempt to make a living as a handyman, but is constantly looking over his shoulder for the trouble that is never very far behind. Inevitably, of course, his own life will intersect with Maben's and the combined weight of their problems may well sink them both.
This is a beautifully written book that captures the setting and these characters as sharply as a finely honed blade. It's impossible not to sympathize with Russell and with Maben as they struggle to achieve some level of peace at a time when the odds are so heavily stacked against them, and even the minor characters are very vividly drawn. This is not a book that's going to make you smile very often (it is, after all, titled Desperation Road), but these are characters and this is a setting that will remain with the reader for a very long time.
November 12, 2016
In the southern Mississippi swamp you can watch the world awaken as the pale yellow sun edges itself between the trees and moss and wide winged cranes. Dragonflies buzz and raccoons come out of their dens and crawl along fallen trees. Turtles situate themselves onto stumps that will later become sun-soaked and hidden things slide beneath black water with murderous patience and skill.
That passage sets the tone of this book. I knowone a few of my friends (Dan 2.0) would totally read this book wrong and swear it was full of purple prose. He reads everything wrong so.....
Russell Gaines is being released from prison after eleven years. He admits to and is carrying the guilt of his crime.
He had seen the worst of men and he wanted there to be punishment for that so that he could feel like he was different from them.
Russell gets met at the bus station on his first day out by the brothers of the man that he killed. Russell doesn't get many breaks in life.
Don't get all the tissues out yet though, because Russell is not the perfect man. He still boozes up every-time he gets behind the wheel and that made me kinda eye-twitchy. (It was perfect for this story though..so what do I know?)
He finds himself driving around trying to clear his mind after his friendly welcome home and ends up at a backwoods road where a local deputy has been shot. Then as life would have it he meets the woman on the run that is carrying that deputies gun.
The woman had the look of someone who might have been used to it but the was concern in her voice. He had heard the sound from men who knew what tomorrow would bring and knew there was nothing they could do about it.
This is completely my kind of story. Dark as my hateful old heart. I likey.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
That passage sets the tone of this book. I know
Russell Gaines is being released from prison after eleven years. He admits to and is carrying the guilt of his crime.
He had seen the worst of men and he wanted there to be punishment for that so that he could feel like he was different from them.
Russell gets met at the bus station on his first day out by the brothers of the man that he killed. Russell doesn't get many breaks in life.
Don't get all the tissues out yet though, because Russell is not the perfect man. He still boozes up every-time he gets behind the wheel and that made me kinda eye-twitchy. (It was perfect for this story though..so what do I know?)
He finds himself driving around trying to clear his mind after his friendly welcome home and ends up at a backwoods road where a local deputy has been shot. Then as life would have it he meets the woman on the run that is carrying that deputies gun.
The woman had the look of someone who might have been used to it but the was concern in her voice. He had heard the sound from men who knew what tomorrow would bring and knew there was nothing they could do about it.
This is completely my kind of story. Dark as my hateful old heart. I likey.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
July 22, 2017
5 Stars.
Michael Farris Smith’s “Desperation Road” is a powerful yet desolate tale of a hard-fought life and the consequences of it.
At the onset of this novel, Russell and Maben are strangers on a collision course. Their characters are flawed, yet human. You want to know every ounce of their pain even though reading each word reverberates throughout your soul.
Russell Gaines is now a free man living in McComb, Mississippi. He was incarcerated for 11 years. Though technically he paid for his crimes, not everyone thinks so (himself included) – and those who harbor ill will, take it out on him as often as possible. He does however, still have a few people in his corner, his dad: Mitchell, and his friend Boyd.
Maben and her young daughter Annabel haven’t had a home in forever. In fact, they don’t have anything. A trash bag full of clothes and the shoes on their feet. Walking along the highway for days with an exhausted girl by her side, and no more than a few dollars, Maben know she has to stop. Staying at a hotel for the night, Maben sneaks out and finds herself in big trouble and both she and Annabel have to flee, right quick.
Mad with fright, Maben crosses paths with Russell, changing their destinies forever. Russell recognizes the look in Maben’s eyes. He knows he should run, should choose differently -as his coming to her aide, could have negative ramifications for him. Yet Russell, who many see as a danger and a threat (because he screwed up and has made a lifetime of mistakes), is a man who has a heart. A man who cares. A man whose past does not define him.
Though Maben has never had anyone to trust, in Russell she senses something. A kindness, a kindred spirit. And so, they defy common sense and each helps the other, no matter the cost.
Michael Farris Smith does something quite exquisite here. He wrote a complex novel about characters whose lives are anything but pretty, yet he did so beautifully with words that finesse the reader. Words that evoke emotion from the start and make you feel as though you are there. Based on the storyline, this novel could have taken on a completely bleak and depressing tone, yet in an amazing feat, Michael Farris Smith managed to avoid that, which I am still amazed at. Though this isn’t the happiest of reads and many might find it sad, I can honestly say that this is masterful read. Its beauty has left an indelible mark on my heart.
“Desperation Road” is the story of life; addiction; consequences; frailty of the human spirit; friendship; love; and redemption. Above all, it is a story not to be missed.
Published on Goodreads and Amazon on 7.22.17.
Michael Farris Smith’s “Desperation Road” is a powerful yet desolate tale of a hard-fought life and the consequences of it.
At the onset of this novel, Russell and Maben are strangers on a collision course. Their characters are flawed, yet human. You want to know every ounce of their pain even though reading each word reverberates throughout your soul.
Russell Gaines is now a free man living in McComb, Mississippi. He was incarcerated for 11 years. Though technically he paid for his crimes, not everyone thinks so (himself included) – and those who harbor ill will, take it out on him as often as possible. He does however, still have a few people in his corner, his dad: Mitchell, and his friend Boyd.
Maben and her young daughter Annabel haven’t had a home in forever. In fact, they don’t have anything. A trash bag full of clothes and the shoes on their feet. Walking along the highway for days with an exhausted girl by her side, and no more than a few dollars, Maben know she has to stop. Staying at a hotel for the night, Maben sneaks out and finds herself in big trouble and both she and Annabel have to flee, right quick.
Mad with fright, Maben crosses paths with Russell, changing their destinies forever. Russell recognizes the look in Maben’s eyes. He knows he should run, should choose differently -as his coming to her aide, could have negative ramifications for him. Yet Russell, who many see as a danger and a threat (because he screwed up and has made a lifetime of mistakes), is a man who has a heart. A man who cares. A man whose past does not define him.
Though Maben has never had anyone to trust, in Russell she senses something. A kindness, a kindred spirit. And so, they defy common sense and each helps the other, no matter the cost.
Michael Farris Smith does something quite exquisite here. He wrote a complex novel about characters whose lives are anything but pretty, yet he did so beautifully with words that finesse the reader. Words that evoke emotion from the start and make you feel as though you are there. Based on the storyline, this novel could have taken on a completely bleak and depressing tone, yet in an amazing feat, Michael Farris Smith managed to avoid that, which I am still amazed at. Though this isn’t the happiest of reads and many might find it sad, I can honestly say that this is masterful read. Its beauty has left an indelible mark on my heart.
“Desperation Road” is the story of life; addiction; consequences; frailty of the human spirit; friendship; love; and redemption. Above all, it is a story not to be missed.
Published on Goodreads and Amazon on 7.22.17.
February 27, 2017
I was so desperate to read this when I read the numerous 4 and 5* reviews, I almost broke out into a cold sweat.
Russell Gaines has just been released from jail after serving 11 years. We aren't told of his crime in the early stages of the story, but rather the 24 hours that follow his release. From being beaten as soon as he walked off the bus, to getting drunk and getting laid and redoing it a few times over for a few days until a woman enters into his life with her child. She is on her own plight having suffered from violence herself.
Smith takes us on a desperate journey and one that comes full circle. The alcoholism and violence that is often followed by bad decisions and moments of regret that last a lifetime. But sometimes in those decisions, comes an opportunity at redemption.
This was a gritty one - all the charm of a hillbilly noir. Character development; plot driven, awesome descriptions. Well done, Williams. Even James Lee Burke gave you a satisfying applause in a review- that is top notch. You make me want to inhale a beer and satisfyingly wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. 4****
Russell Gaines has just been released from jail after serving 11 years. We aren't told of his crime in the early stages of the story, but rather the 24 hours that follow his release. From being beaten as soon as he walked off the bus, to getting drunk and getting laid and redoing it a few times over for a few days until a woman enters into his life with her child. She is on her own plight having suffered from violence herself.
Smith takes us on a desperate journey and one that comes full circle. The alcoholism and violence that is often followed by bad decisions and moments of regret that last a lifetime. But sometimes in those decisions, comes an opportunity at redemption.
This was a gritty one - all the charm of a hillbilly noir. Character development; plot driven, awesome descriptions. Well done, Williams. Even James Lee Burke gave you a satisfying applause in a review- that is top notch. You make me want to inhale a beer and satisfyingly wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. 4****
March 5, 2017
Loved it! Wow it is so good!
Two hard-luck cases collide in this smooth-flowing novel of the Deep South, where a Mississippi town harbors a long-brewing hunger for vengeance and a slim chance of redemption.
Maben and Russell are heading to McComb from different directions, geographically and otherwise. She has been on the road for too many years after a terrible car accident and has tried almost everything to make a life somewhere for herself and her young daughter. Russell has been serving 11 years in prison for a drunken driving incident that killed a young man. But fate takes Maben on yet another nasty detour via a deputy sheriff who rapes her and then calls up two friends to join the party. Maben grabs his gun and ends that soiree before it gets going. Russell steps off a bus and into the fists and boots of the dead young man’s two brothers. Russell’s stolid father and a Mexican woman he has taken in offer stability when it’s most needed. Another deputy sheriff, who played high school football with Russell, faces the awkward task of finding out why his old friend turned up at the scene of Maben’s highly motivated gunplay shortly after investigators arrived. Smith gives Maben a gritty strength that may not be enough in her current plight. Russell, a moody, meditative loner who knows that “rough lives got rougher,” has his hands full with the murderous brothers and seeking out the woman he lost while in prison, but he’s inclined to help where he can. The book’s brooding atmosphere lights up often with strong scenes of high tension.
Smith writes shapely prose and sharp dialogue and everywhere displays an acute sense of the moments and pain that can define lives in a small town
Two hard-luck cases collide in this smooth-flowing novel of the Deep South, where a Mississippi town harbors a long-brewing hunger for vengeance and a slim chance of redemption.
Maben and Russell are heading to McComb from different directions, geographically and otherwise. She has been on the road for too many years after a terrible car accident and has tried almost everything to make a life somewhere for herself and her young daughter. Russell has been serving 11 years in prison for a drunken driving incident that killed a young man. But fate takes Maben on yet another nasty detour via a deputy sheriff who rapes her and then calls up two friends to join the party. Maben grabs his gun and ends that soiree before it gets going. Russell steps off a bus and into the fists and boots of the dead young man’s two brothers. Russell’s stolid father and a Mexican woman he has taken in offer stability when it’s most needed. Another deputy sheriff, who played high school football with Russell, faces the awkward task of finding out why his old friend turned up at the scene of Maben’s highly motivated gunplay shortly after investigators arrived. Smith gives Maben a gritty strength that may not be enough in her current plight. Russell, a moody, meditative loner who knows that “rough lives got rougher,” has his hands full with the murderous brothers and seeking out the woman he lost while in prison, but he’s inclined to help where he can. The book’s brooding atmosphere lights up often with strong scenes of high tension.
Smith writes shapely prose and sharp dialogue and everywhere displays an acute sense of the moments and pain that can define lives in a small town
July 18, 2020
I love brooding tales set in the steamy Deep South. Stories of troubled people whose destiny seems set from page one: there will be trouble, it’s just a case of where and when. This is such a tale. Russell has just been released from Parchman Penitentiary where he’s served eleven years for vehicular homicide. He’d been enjoying a late night drive around the back roads, close to his home town in McComb, Mississippi. He’d had a drink too. And when his vehicle crashed into a parked truck a boy was killed. But his time has been served and now Russell is going home to see if it’s possible to pick his life back up again.
At the same time, another previous resident of McComb is also making her way back to the town, with her young daughter Annalee. Maben doesn’t intent to stay long but there’s a homeless shelter there - at least there used to be – and she needs somewhere for to hold up for a day or two. Will the two paths cross? Almost inevitably.
I loved the way the characters were fleshed out. I really warmed to Maben, a troubled girl who’s made some wrong choices and suffered from bad luck too. She wants to take care of her daughter – no, she needs to take care of her daughter, it’s the only thing that makes the struggle to pull through worthwhile. Her story is heart wrenching but she’s tough, a survivor. Russell has always been a touch reckless. He’s been scarred by the knocks life has dealt him but at least he’s happy to be free again. He means well but he’s really got no plan, no direction. He’ll drift along for a while and see which threads he’s able to pick up from his past life.
This book just sizzles with atmosphere and tension. The problems just keep piling up and it’s never clear how it’s all going to play out. There were times whilst I was reading this that I caught myself whispering ‘no don’t, don’t’, I was so caught up in it. The ending was dramatic, surprising and not surprising all at the same time. It was, in my view, brilliantly done. If I don’t read a better book this year, I won’t be surprised. Simply brilliant.
My sincere thanks to Oldcastle Books and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
At the same time, another previous resident of McComb is also making her way back to the town, with her young daughter Annalee. Maben doesn’t intent to stay long but there’s a homeless shelter there - at least there used to be – and she needs somewhere for to hold up for a day or two. Will the two paths cross? Almost inevitably.
I loved the way the characters were fleshed out. I really warmed to Maben, a troubled girl who’s made some wrong choices and suffered from bad luck too. She wants to take care of her daughter – no, she needs to take care of her daughter, it’s the only thing that makes the struggle to pull through worthwhile. Her story is heart wrenching but she’s tough, a survivor. Russell has always been a touch reckless. He’s been scarred by the knocks life has dealt him but at least he’s happy to be free again. He means well but he’s really got no plan, no direction. He’ll drift along for a while and see which threads he’s able to pick up from his past life.
This book just sizzles with atmosphere and tension. The problems just keep piling up and it’s never clear how it’s all going to play out. There were times whilst I was reading this that I caught myself whispering ‘no don’t, don’t’, I was so caught up in it. The ending was dramatic, surprising and not surprising all at the same time. It was, in my view, brilliantly done. If I don’t read a better book this year, I won’t be surprised. Simply brilliant.
My sincere thanks to Oldcastle Books and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 13, 2017
Dark, gritty, and utterly beautiful.
There are many things I loved about Desperation Road, but what stands out to me the most is Farris Smith’s ability to bring McComb, Mississippi to life. His vivid description of McComb, coupled with the social dynamics that encompass the town, capture the essence of the South with a raw, unfaltering honesty.
When Russell Gaines, freed from prison after serving 11 years, returns home to McComb, he is struggling to merge his past with the present, having to adjust to who he was to who he has become. When the chance for redemption comes along, he grapples with doing the right thing. But what is right for Russell is potentially harmful to others. Farris Smith plays with the ambiguity of right and wrong in a complex, thought provoking, yet subtle way.
Ultimately, Desperation Road is a powerful story about redemption.
This is by far one of my favorite books of 2017. I highly recommend.
There are many things I loved about Desperation Road, but what stands out to me the most is Farris Smith’s ability to bring McComb, Mississippi to life. His vivid description of McComb, coupled with the social dynamics that encompass the town, capture the essence of the South with a raw, unfaltering honesty.
When Russell Gaines, freed from prison after serving 11 years, returns home to McComb, he is struggling to merge his past with the present, having to adjust to who he was to who he has become. When the chance for redemption comes along, he grapples with doing the right thing. But what is right for Russell is potentially harmful to others. Farris Smith plays with the ambiguity of right and wrong in a complex, thought provoking, yet subtle way.
Ultimately, Desperation Road is a powerful story about redemption.
This is by far one of my favorite books of 2017. I highly recommend.
August 31, 2019
Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith is a gritty, character driven thriller set in the stultifying heat of Mississippi.
The novel evokes an America of lonely roads, dusty towns and of disillusioned, hard drinking characters - those living on the wrong side of the breadline and often, the wrong side of the law.
Against this difficult backdrop are also those, trying against the odds to build a decent future.
Russell, fresh out of prison and Maben on the run with no money and a young daughter, are heading home. They are both trying hard to put the past behind them and we sense that their paths will cross. We also sense that not all outcomes will be happy and there probably won’t be many belly laughs.
Desperation Road as the name suggests is bleak ........ but never depressing. There are certainly some desperate and damaged people within its pages but the narrative is emotionally gripping and drags you along with with a sense of queasy anticipation. I found the book genuinely hard to put down.
The language is straight forward, tough and lyrical and the action is fast paced and violent. The whole time it feels like there’s a storm building, static in the air and ominous clouds brooding on the horizon.
I’m sure this will be one of my favourite books of 2019.
I finished it in four days, which for me is reading at the speed of light!
Really looking forward to my next book by the same author.
The novel evokes an America of lonely roads, dusty towns and of disillusioned, hard drinking characters - those living on the wrong side of the breadline and often, the wrong side of the law.
Against this difficult backdrop are also those, trying against the odds to build a decent future.
Russell, fresh out of prison and Maben on the run with no money and a young daughter, are heading home. They are both trying hard to put the past behind them and we sense that their paths will cross. We also sense that not all outcomes will be happy and there probably won’t be many belly laughs.
Desperation Road as the name suggests is bleak ........ but never depressing. There are certainly some desperate and damaged people within its pages but the narrative is emotionally gripping and drags you along with with a sense of queasy anticipation. I found the book genuinely hard to put down.
The language is straight forward, tough and lyrical and the action is fast paced and violent. The whole time it feels like there’s a storm building, static in the air and ominous clouds brooding on the horizon.
I’m sure this will be one of my favourite books of 2019.
I finished it in four days, which for me is reading at the speed of light!
Really looking forward to my next book by the same author.
August 6, 2017
Good story... true to the time, the place and the people.
October 3, 2017
Despair: the complete loss or absence of hope.
In the Southern Mississippi swamp you can watch the world awaken as the pale yellow sun edges itself between the trees and moss and widewinged cranes. Dragonflies buzz and racoons come out of their dens and crawl along fallen trees. Turtles situate themselves onto stumps that will later become sunsoaked and hidden things slide beneath black water with murderous patience and skill. Limbs too old to hold themselves up any longer bend and break like old men accepting their marshy graves. Reptiles slither and blackbirds cry as the early light slashes and relieves the deep and quiet night.
This is the land that Russell is remembering. He has just been released after serving 11 years for vehicular manslaughter. He has done his time, and is all too aware that others will not consider his debt paid. His nerves thrum as the wheels turn and the bus brings him ever closer to his fate.
This is also the land, upon whose roads Maben is trudging, seeking refuge with her young daughter Annalee in tow, fleeing an unimaginable, horrific past. Their future looks pretty grim.
Sometimes you just know when you start a new story that it is going to pluck you from the here and now and take you away. Michael Farris Smith did just that. He had me from the first page with this haunting and gritty, hard scrabble tale, that has left its indelible stain upon me.
On the dust cover the prose is described as muscular and I like that, it fits. Muscular and lyrical and raw; it pulls and digs and takes root within, as you read this searing, relentless search for survival and redemption.
The title and cover are spot on and get a full WOOT for curb appeal.
My thanks to Zoeytron for putting this one on my radar and my daughter Arah-Leah for loaning me her beautiful, hardcover edition.
Five indelibly bright stars!
MIS SIS SIPPI: Does anyone else remember spelling this out in singsong or am I more likely, wearing my age on my sleeve?
September 23, 2019
My second book of this author and a d*mn good one. This author does not write 'pretty stories' (Rivers, the first book I read of this author, is a rather grim story), and this story, well, the title says it, Desperation Road. Especially the beginning chapters of mother Maben and her little daughter on the road walking with only the clothes on their back and a sack of belongings, ending up in a grim situation, is shocking and a heartbreaker. A dark story in the Southern, hot part of US, but also a story of hope and redemption. 4.5. Great read, more to follow!
And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry.....
Then your light will rise in the darkness,....
Isaiah 58:10
And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry.....
Then your light will rise in the darkness,....
Isaiah 58:10
July 12, 2018
7/11/18 Exciting news. The film option deal on DR is now official and MFS will be part of the script adaptation. If you haven't read this one I highly recommend you get to it! I read for books like this.
5★ with 5 ❣❣❣❣❣ exclamatory bonus points
Boyd is sitting in his cruiser “trying hard to understand a God that would allow the weakness of innocence and the strength of evil.”
Have you raced through a book with your heart in your throat because you can’t wait for the end—only to arrive at those final pages laboring to slow your pace down because now you no longer want that end to come?
Get in the truck going down Desperation Road and be prepared for 0-289 pages in no time flat.
Tune into the radio station playing praise songs by your GR friends who have fallen hard for Michael Farris Smith.
Buckle your seat belt and be on guard for approaching headlights.
Pay attention to the road signs from Ron Rash, Wiley Cash, Tom Franklin, and James Lee Burke (Jimmy now has serious competition for my reading affections) directing your way to perfectly paced—muscular—taut—brutal—thrumming—fearless prose from an only comes around once in a while writer.
Open the book and leave life as you know it in the rear-view mirror of your brain and be prepared for a climax of reading excitement and enjoyment because you're going to want to have what I'm having.
☞ ☞ ☞ ☞ ☞
5★ with 5 ❣❣❣❣❣ exclamatory bonus points
Boyd is sitting in his cruiser “trying hard to understand a God that would allow the weakness of innocence and the strength of evil.”
Have you raced through a book with your heart in your throat because you can’t wait for the end—only to arrive at those final pages laboring to slow your pace down because now you no longer want that end to come?
Get in the truck going down Desperation Road and be prepared for 0-289 pages in no time flat.
Tune into the radio station playing praise songs by your GR friends who have fallen hard for Michael Farris Smith.
Buckle your seat belt and be on guard for approaching headlights.
Pay attention to the road signs from Ron Rash, Wiley Cash, Tom Franklin, and James Lee Burke (Jimmy now has serious competition for my reading affections) directing your way to perfectly paced—muscular—taut—brutal—thrumming—fearless prose from an only comes around once in a while writer.
Open the book and leave life as you know it in the rear-view mirror of your brain and be prepared for a climax of reading excitement and enjoyment because you're going to want to have what I'm having.
☞ ☞ ☞ ☞ ☞
February 7, 2017
A high 4 stars! This is a dark tangled story about flawed people in nasty circumstances showing strength, bad judgment, resilience, more bad judgment, and small and not so small acts of kindness. I can’t say much about the plot, because it comes together in a way that you should experience as it unfolds. At most, I will say that it takes place in Mississippi – so it fits into what I think of southern noir literature -- that it features homeless single mother Maben on the run with her five year old daughter and recently released from prison Russell. At first, it’s not clear why Farris Smith tells their parallel stories, but quickly their lives become tangled in more ways than one. There is something mesmerizing about Farris Smith’s writing. He takes us into the heads of a few characters, drawing us into the cadence of their thoughts, emotions and impulses. This is not a thriller or a mystery, but often I felt like reading with just one eye open because I sensed that nothing good was coming -- characters in a bad way trying to keep their heads above water, but often using the most abysmal strategies. But it’s not all bad, so there’s room to catch your breath. I would be remiss if I didn’t add that I don’t think I’ve ever read a novel that featured so much unabashed drunk driving. Yikes! Regardless, this one is highly recommended to anyone who doesn’t shy away from dark non-linear stories. For me, this was a great introduction to a new writer. I will happily search out his other books. Thank you to GR friend LeAnne and her excellent enthusiastic review that put this one on my radar, and thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for giving me access to an advance copy.
May 24, 2017
4 stars! I enjoyed this gritty, backroads, gun-slinging, alcohol-drenched crazy journey!
This novel captivated me from the first page. I felt completely immersed in the characters’ lives and wanted to know what would happen to each of them. I had such a soft spot for the main character, Russell. My love for him (and his father Mitchell) grew as I turned each page. As rough as Russell was, I just wanted him to get a break and move forward in his life – I was rooting for him.
This is the first book I have read by Michael Farris Smith. He has such a unique writing style. There were so many long, run-on sentences but it somehow flowed perfectly with the story and actually added to the experience.
There is A LOT of drinking in this book! I couldn’t believe how many times characters were driving around while holding a beer between their legs – I really hope this doesn’t happen this much (or at all!) in real life – scary!
I wanted a bit more detail in the end and felt that there were some questions left unanswered. However, overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
This novel captivated me from the first page. I felt completely immersed in the characters’ lives and wanted to know what would happen to each of them. I had such a soft spot for the main character, Russell. My love for him (and his father Mitchell) grew as I turned each page. As rough as Russell was, I just wanted him to get a break and move forward in his life – I was rooting for him.
This is the first book I have read by Michael Farris Smith. He has such a unique writing style. There were so many long, run-on sentences but it somehow flowed perfectly with the story and actually added to the experience.
There is A LOT of drinking in this book! I couldn’t believe how many times characters were driving around while holding a beer between their legs – I really hope this doesn’t happen this much (or at all!) in real life – scary!
I wanted a bit more detail in the end and felt that there were some questions left unanswered. However, overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
December 1, 2016
Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review.
A man is released from prison after serving eleven years for manslaughter. A young mother with her small daughter in tow wearily makes her way toward a women's shelter after a terrible ordeal. Two men filled with rage and blood in their eyes seek retribution for the death of their brother. These lives and others are destined to collide in a small town in the Mississippi Delta.
What this author can do with his character creation is pure gold. You don't want to miss this one.
A man is released from prison after serving eleven years for manslaughter. A young mother with her small daughter in tow wearily makes her way toward a women's shelter after a terrible ordeal. Two men filled with rage and blood in their eyes seek retribution for the death of their brother. These lives and others are destined to collide in a small town in the Mississippi Delta.
What this author can do with his character creation is pure gold. You don't want to miss this one.
April 16, 2017
The story was full of twists and flawed individuals but it was also very organic. Effortless!! I especially liked how forthcoming the main characters were with each other.
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