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Southern Nights
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published May 4, 1999
8 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
Barry Gifford
144 books205 followersBarry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness.
He is described by Patrick Beach as being "like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny..."He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.
He is described by Patrick Beach as being "like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny..."He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 2, 2010
All of the three short novels in this omnibus would make good movies by Tarantino. Lots and lots of violence, interspersed with black humour.Excellent writing as well.
March 21, 2007
A compendium which includes Night People, Arise and Walk and Baby Cat Face - all the books are roughly the same but still dead entertaining. Basically consists of all these weird Southern characters getting either bumped of or prevailing. Pretty funny too, which I never say about books.
February 18, 2012
Loosely tied together or randomly bumping into each other, the characters in this collection of novellas are prey, predator or both. It's gruesome and sleazy and endlessly fascinating. The N.O. vernacular is poifec'!
December 24, 2021
Fun pulpy existentialism. Although somewhat repetitive, I like Barry’s formula of wake up, fuck and get fucked, then die in a blaze of violence. This book taught me that some people drink whiskey with milk and you can be killed by a wasp flying into your ear.
December 10, 2009
I love the dialogue. You can almost feel the southern heat. Good writer.
December 1, 2019
Barry Gifford's Night People was my first purchase from Amazon.com, sometime during the late 90s. I recall reading the slim 192-page novel seated in a booth across from my mother and grandmother while eating lunch at our local Red Lobster.
Night People quickly became one of my favorite books; I dreamed of visiting New Orleans and interacting with some of Gifford's colorful characters; at least, the less psychopathic ones. Sometime later, I made my way down to the French Quarter and devoured the rest of Gifford's written work, as well as some real seafood. Twenty years have passed since that afternoon at Red Lobster, and I've kept my original copy of Night People and reread it several times since.
I still consider it among the best books I've come across. Gifford has a masterful ear for dialogue and an uncanny ability to drill deep inside his character's heads.
People move quickly through Gifford's world, some staying for little more than a few paragraphs, but live entire lifetimes in only a few sentences of expertly crafted, frequently hilarious, and detailed backstories.
Gifford's novels contain scenes of shocking violence, kinky sex, and the blackest of humor - something Elmore Leonard might write after checking into a fleabag hotel, popping bennies, and spending all night punching his typewriter keys in a speed-addled frenzy. Both writers have the same penchant for snappy dialogue and lowlife characters, but Gifford's is far more outlandish.
The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula maybe Barry Gifford's most well-known work, thanks in part to the David Lynch award-winning adaptation, but Night People is his masterpiece. A sentence in the first chapter of, containing the phrase "Lost Highway" convinced Lynch to collaborate on a screenplay. The result, of course, was the 1997 film of the same name, co-starring Robert Blake in his final role before allegedly murdering his wife.
Straddling that fine line between novel and novella, Night People tells four fully-realized, interconnected stories in less than two-hundred pages. The subplot about restrictive abortion rights in New Orleans is just as relevant today as when the book was written, especially since Louisiana recently passed one of the most anti-choice laws in the country. I've finally lived long enough to see art imitate life, and the inherent danger of seeing a favorite work of fiction become your reality.
Speaking of the eerily prescient, Arise and Walk, Night People's pseudo-sequel, features a white suppressant Donald Trump-like businessman (complete with a fortune inherited from his far more successful father) running a campaign for governor. The book shares a few familiar characters and a pre-Katrina New Orleans setting; you can smell the gumbo and hear the jazz music playing in the background of some scenes.
The final, and slimmest book, Baby Cat-Face, may seem like Gifford's most disjointed work, even for an author who takes pride in following his lengthy digressions and detours. The eponymous Baby Cat-Face is a poorly educated woman fated to give birth to the messiah.
Southern Nights collects Night People, Arise and Walk, and Baby Cat-Face into a single volume. Night People is, by far, the standout, but each subsequent novel helps us understand the surreal universe Gifford created and expands upon.
Barry Gifford is far from the mainstream, but if your madness runs along with the same current as his, you'll have quite the ride.
Night People quickly became one of my favorite books; I dreamed of visiting New Orleans and interacting with some of Gifford's colorful characters; at least, the less psychopathic ones. Sometime later, I made my way down to the French Quarter and devoured the rest of Gifford's written work, as well as some real seafood. Twenty years have passed since that afternoon at Red Lobster, and I've kept my original copy of Night People and reread it several times since.
I still consider it among the best books I've come across. Gifford has a masterful ear for dialogue and an uncanny ability to drill deep inside his character's heads.
People move quickly through Gifford's world, some staying for little more than a few paragraphs, but live entire lifetimes in only a few sentences of expertly crafted, frequently hilarious, and detailed backstories.
Gifford's novels contain scenes of shocking violence, kinky sex, and the blackest of humor - something Elmore Leonard might write after checking into a fleabag hotel, popping bennies, and spending all night punching his typewriter keys in a speed-addled frenzy. Both writers have the same penchant for snappy dialogue and lowlife characters, but Gifford's is far more outlandish.
The Wild Life of Sailor and Lula maybe Barry Gifford's most well-known work, thanks in part to the David Lynch award-winning adaptation, but Night People is his masterpiece. A sentence in the first chapter of, containing the phrase "Lost Highway" convinced Lynch to collaborate on a screenplay. The result, of course, was the 1997 film of the same name, co-starring Robert Blake in his final role before allegedly murdering his wife.
Straddling that fine line between novel and novella, Night People tells four fully-realized, interconnected stories in less than two-hundred pages. The subplot about restrictive abortion rights in New Orleans is just as relevant today as when the book was written, especially since Louisiana recently passed one of the most anti-choice laws in the country. I've finally lived long enough to see art imitate life, and the inherent danger of seeing a favorite work of fiction become your reality.
Speaking of the eerily prescient, Arise and Walk, Night People's pseudo-sequel, features a white suppressant Donald Trump-like businessman (complete with a fortune inherited from his far more successful father) running a campaign for governor. The book shares a few familiar characters and a pre-Katrina New Orleans setting; you can smell the gumbo and hear the jazz music playing in the background of some scenes.
The final, and slimmest book, Baby Cat-Face, may seem like Gifford's most disjointed work, even for an author who takes pride in following his lengthy digressions and detours. The eponymous Baby Cat-Face is a poorly educated woman fated to give birth to the messiah.
Southern Nights collects Night People, Arise and Walk, and Baby Cat-Face into a single volume. Night People is, by far, the standout, but each subsequent novel helps us understand the surreal universe Gifford created and expands upon.
Barry Gifford is far from the mainstream, but if your madness runs along with the same current as his, you'll have quite the ride.
July 2, 2019
A disappoinitng read. Gifford knows how to introduce characters, place them in context, and write a quick backstory for each, but he doesn't know how to write to a story arc. The three novels contained in this collection are more like unfinished experiments, and the reader is ultimately left unsatisfied and feeling just a touch ripped off by the author. I'm surprised they were ever published. To be avoided.
March 13, 2019
Feels a little specific to the late 80s/early 90s 'wow these wacky lowlifes' kind of dated way. 5 stars for the names, tho. And, nice to read out loud, if anybody is looking for a monologue for an audition!
May 22, 2024
Trilogy that includes Barry’s books: Night People, Arise & Walk, and Baby Cat-Face. Of the three novels, Night People was my favorite. All the stories feature southern weirdos & degenerates. Sailor & Lula from Wild At Heart are introduced. Loved this book.
September 15, 2020
Maybe spoilers ahead.
I’m including two quotes to give the tone of the book which is grotesque, gruesome, sexual southern gothic and hilarious. After a quarter way through you find what happens to the characters funny because it is completely over the top. Worth a read if you have the stomach.
“She lifted the gun again, propped the barrel end on her lower lip, and exhausted Rodrigue’s progeny on this earth”
“You don’t cry over anything you have to give up, because you eventually must give up everything”
I’m including two quotes to give the tone of the book which is grotesque, gruesome, sexual southern gothic and hilarious. After a quarter way through you find what happens to the characters funny because it is completely over the top. Worth a read if you have the stomach.
“She lifted the gun again, propped the barrel end on her lower lip, and exhausted Rodrigue’s progeny on this earth”
“You don’t cry over anything you have to give up, because you eventually must give up everything”
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews