The South Will Rise at Noon

by Douglas Glover

After Douglas Glover's Governor General's Award for fiction for his riotous novel, Elle, Goose Lane has brought back into print Glover's hilarious novel, The South Will Rise at Noon, originally published in 1988. At the centre of this story of a modern-day knight errant is Tully Stamper, a bankrupt, a liar, a tippler of corn juice and a deadbeat husband who has abandoned his wife and child on fraudulent psychiatric grounds. He is also one of the world's last innocents. The setting for Tully's adventure is Gomez Gap, Florida, a sliver of the Old South turned into a Hollywood backdrop for the movie recreation of a famous Civil War battle. From the time Tully stumbles out of the swamp and into bed with his sleeping ex-wife and her flamboyant film-director husband Oscar Osterwader to the moment when the enraged citizens of Gomez Gap carry him back to the swamp and leave him chained to a pine tree to die, we are Tully's co-conspirators, his partners in crime, sharing his pain, his optimism and his wayward wit. A disarmingly intimate and energetic portrait at once hilarious and cautionary, crazy and bittersweet, The South Will Rise at Noon shows off Douglas Glover's true comic form.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

266 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Douglas Glover worked in the newsrooms of daily papers in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec, before publishing Precious in 1984. His byline later appeared in the book pages of The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and The Boston Globe.

He is the author of two works of literary criticism, including The Enamoured Knight, a recent book on Don Quixote, and nine books of fiction, including 16 Categories of Desire, A Guide to Animal Behaviour, The Life and Times of Captain N., and the best-selling historical novel Elle, winner of the 2003 Governor General's Award for Fiction.

Elle was also a finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and was on the short list of finalists for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The book is now available in a new, reader's guide edition. Born and raised in southwestern Ontario, Douglas Glover now lives near Saratoga Springs, New York.

Reviews

[1.1]

Elle was one my favourite novels in the CanLit pantheon, a comic and slightly sweet and weird confabulation that earned an award, was a good read despite it, and was in fact quite touching and amusing and even funny.

So when I saw The South Will Rise at Noon for one dollar at the local bookshop, that was an easy decision. An old book by a writer who penned one of my favourite award-winning books in CanLit? Tongue in cheek title? Done deal. And it paid off quite well.

This a weird one, about a deadbeat artist protagonist who really has little to recommend him, living in Florida’s backwoods to escape his problems from up north, and be with his wife and child (maybe?) but mostly to continue a wildly dissolute life. Tully’s basically living the madcap, antic-filled life any dysfunctional person aspires to, right down to the casual drug abuse, dishonesty, jail time, and estranged child.

The main problem for Tully is the town of Gomez Gap, which is the antagonist, as much as that makes sense. It’s definitely a Southern Town in many ways. The sheriff is suspicious, the townsfolk are rough around the edges, and they don’t really love Tully though he’s enamoured with the whole locale (though he doesn’t love its history, and has been jailed on account of that). They never buy his lamps, which were a quixotic way for him to become a success and 'enter business', and pop up quite a bit. When a big movie comes to town, things start to get weird for him, and strikingly less friendly.

How would I describe the thematics in one word? Quixotic, maybe (used loosely here, but then the whole novel’s quite breezy). There’s a real sense of a character running errant, and yes it’s zany, and the quest is never quite clear and tends to change on a whim, but it does carry the reader along. But then, old Don Quixote probably didn’t have substance abuse issues, and if he was running from his issues, well, I didn’t catch it. Still, Tully’s full of hopes, he just can’t reach them, which is relatable enough. The ghost of ambition, etc…

It’s a solid book. Amusing, very effectively paced, and, strangely, over too soon. Maybe not ‘laugh out loud’ but droll indeed, in a dissipated kind of way.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is an unnoticed gem-- funny and offbeat...the kind of ridiculous story that continually throws you for loops. it was out of print for years and has been reprinted recently when doug glover won the canadian governer-general's award.