Long, Last, Happy: New and Collected Stories

by Barry Hannah

Recognized with a PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in short fiction, Barry Hannah was a master of the American short story. He was also one of the most important writers of the South's post-Faulkner generation, introducing a world in which Mississippi pier fisherman, small-town prevaricators, and veterans of American wars---Civil, Vietnam, and Gulf---met a mythic, mold-breaking voice with echoes of Beckett, bebop, and the Bible. He has paved the way for a new generation of young writers, and his death in March 2010 remains an irrevocable loss to American letters.

Now, combining the best of the four story cllections he published during his lifetime, four new stories from the final manuscripts he left behind, and one early-career story never published in volume form, Long, Last, Happy is a feast for readers new and old. Here, a man's estranged wife buzzes his house in her airplane, and a tailgate party can turn suddenly Biblical. The Confederate corporal in love with his general, the retired surgeon turning canine, the teenage boy rebelling against the "gloomy John Birch literature" of his surroundings, who ends up looking after an eccentric, beautiful lush---Hannah's characters occupy the intersection of heartbreak and surreal comedy. In his last works, set in a Mississippi college town terrorized by mysterious arson, the ghosts of history and devilments of love, lust, and drink walk the streets. Throughout, his ferocious, glittering prose maps a literary New South---a fictional landscape burning with racial unease, sex, love, hell-raising, and a deep devotion to the art of storytelling

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has called Hannah a "mendacity-battling Colossus." Long, Last, Happy serves as the definitive collection of Hannah's finest short fiction and confirms that he was one our most brilliant voices until the very end.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Southern Gothic, Southern

464 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2010

About the author

Barry Hannah was an American novelist and short story writer from Mississippi. He was the author of eight novels and five short story collections. He worked with notable American editors and publishers such as Gordon Lish, Seymour Lawrence, and Morgan Entrekin. His work was published in Esquire, The New Yorker, The Oxford American, The Southern Review, and a host of American magazines and quarterlies. In his lifetime he was awarded the The Faulkner Prize (1972), The Bellaman Foundation Award in Fiction, The Arnold Gingrich Short Fiction Award, the PEN/Malamud Award (2003) and the Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was director of the MFA program at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford, where he taught creative writing for 28 years. He died on March 1, 2010, of natural causes.

Reviews

[Michael McNeely · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would say that Hannah gave the best description of what reading and writing are than just about anyone else, below.
“Reading and writing train our people for logic, grace, and precision of thought, and begin a lifelong study of the exceptional in human existence. I think literature is the history of the soul. Writing should be a journey into worthy perception.”
Hannah, Barry. Long, Last, Happy: New and Collected Stories (p. 458). Grove Atlantic. Kindle Edition.

As far as this collection of short stories they are a continuation of the brilliance of Hannah's storytelling. He had the ability to tell a story in an almost passive way that makes the reader feel like they are just talking to a friend and his disruptions of people and events are beyond original and near to bizarre. "Behold the Husband in His Perfect Agony" is one of the best stories in the collection. I highly recommend this collection of stories for pleasure reading and for studying how a master of the short story weaves a story.

[Matthew Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barry Hannah is a mile-high story teller whose maniac command of the English language always leaves me dizzy. Long, Last, Happy, Grove's loving tribute to the recently deceased Southern master, pulls together some of Hannah's best work - from his burgeoning career as a student in the mid-sixties to 2010 and the final manuscripts he left behind at his death. The results are, what else? Grotesque and hilarious and giddily haywire. An excellent retrospective.

[Tali Zarate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read selections from this collection of stories, and have found a new-to-me-and-now-beloved American voice. As the book jacket so eloquently states, "[Hannah] was one of the most important writers of the South's post-Faulkner generation, introducing a world in which Mississippi pier fishermen, small-town prevaricators, and veterans of American wars . . . met a mythic, mold-breaking voice with echoes of Beckett, bebop, and the Bible."

I was particularly moved by the stories "Love Too Long" and "Testimony of Pilot."

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was "currently reading" this for a while. I guess you could say I was savoring it, especially since I've read most of these in past collections. It's been an exhilarating experience to reread them. For Hannah fans that are sad, knowing this is his last book, there are some great pieces on the man in the Oxford American (issues #72 and 73).
A constantly impressive collection of Hannah's electric language, surprising humor, and rule-breaking attitude. Essential stuff.

[Sultan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone really needs to build this motherfucker a statue.

[Colin Brightwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird Southern fried literature. It's like Flannery O'Connor and Carver's stories had a baby and that baby grew up on Faulkner and meth. Some stories are better than others, but I know genius writing when I see it. Hannah obviously didn't shy away from experimentation. At some points he seems very Joycean, or even like Beckett. A strange collection but damn was I jealous of a LOT of lines in this 450 page collection. A great introduction to Hannah's work.

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

At long last, finished!
And fairly happy too that I did not chuck this book after the 3rd or 4th story from his earliest collections. The writing, no matter how distasteful the vocabulary, was of a quality to take note. My problem of course was that the early stories portray the deep south attitude in all its casual racist bigotry. Not that interesting.

There's no wisdom.... Only tomorrow if you're lucky. p54

So I picked this up from time to time, huge tome as it is, and soon enough I found his later stories in which I could lose myself. Always with a bit of a grating quality, rough edges bundled into flowing paragraphs and unsavory idiosyncrasies blunted by compassion for the unexpectedly tender heart of the monster. BH looked deep into the human condition without flinching. For this, my rating of two evolved to 4.

I'm even somewhat glad of those stories I hated that reveal the terrible contradictions at the heart of democracy and the cost of breaking free of the traditions in which we are embedded.

We need your big heart....The forces of good need you. Technique and facts and indifference are out there winning. Money is winning, mere form and the tightasses are winning. Commerce is making the town uglier and uglier. p365

all that is required for evil to prosper is the silence of good men. p427

[KONSTANTINOS ANASTASILAKIS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Συλλογή διηγημάτων όπου κάποια είναι "διαμάντια "( όπως τα Μαρτυρία πιλότου, Εσο έτοιμος, Scandale d'estime, Ει έχεις τσιγάρο., Τυμπανιστης στο έδαφος, ο Θείος της μεγάλης μοναξιάς, Τελευταίος υπαρχηγε Τζέιμς), τα περισσότερα πολύ καλά, αλλά και κάποια απλώς αλλόκοτα και γκροτεσκα. Συνολικά ένα βιβλίο αξιομνημονευτο...Ίσως όχι αγαπημένο, αλλά σίγουρα αξέχαστο. Γιατί, στις καλύτερες στιγμές του γράφει με ένα εκρηκτικό μείγμα οξυδερκειας και οικονομίας λόγου ανάλογης του Καρβερ, κυνισμού εφάμιλλου του Μακ Καρθυ, παραστατικοτητας και τραγικότητας ισάξιας του Φωκνερ, "βρωμιάς "βγαλμένης από σελίδες του Μπουκόφσκι και όλα αυτά μπολιασμενα με γερές δόσεις σουρεαλισμού και σκωπτικής διάθεσης.
ΥΓ: Εάν ο Καρβερ σας φαίνεται καταθλιπτικός και απαισιόδοξος, ο Χαννα τον "τρώει" χαλαρά για πρωινό... Μιλάμε για τον αδιαφιλονικητο Βασιλιά της ματαίωσης και της παρακμής

[Jim Leckband]

I tried reading this a few summers ago as a book-bingo thing for our public library - it was the short story bingo space. Had to abandon it then after a 100 pages as I just couldn't get into it and have time for the other book-bingo books.

Tried again and failed. Won't fail again, won't fail better. I'm just not wired to get this writing it seems.

[Eugene · Rating 5 out of 5]

a lunatic god. dummy me was avoiding him (maybe cuz of some revulsion to macho south hype). my loss. (turns out macho south can write fire and be perfectly weepy on command.) he's amazing and i wish i'd known that earlier.

[b · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting to see the careful selection of many recurring energies (foolish civil war generals an echo over the Iraq war later on, back-breaking parachute ejections, the fetishization of the female leg, halfways decent musicians having a hard time growing up, lifelong obsessions with explosives, etcetera). When I was younger I would have said Testimony of Pilot is the best piece of short fiction I’ve ever read, and I think I am forced to agree here again. Hannah’s free movement in thought and constant musical zing make for a digestible hard dish of the south, full of the worst of what the south has to offer (CW: tons of racists, sore losers, womanizers, death and plenty more). I am really really glad to have come to Hannah again. Hell of a sway to that marching step.

[Chaitra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel dim because I didn't get all the fuss.

[Al · Rating 1 out of 5]

This guy lives in a different world than I do. Or, more accurately, he sees a different world than I see. Not a criticism, just an observation. I actually like fantasy, but I guess I like coherent fantasy. I have the feeling there are things going on in these stories that I don't understand, and that if I were smarter I might understand them. The problem is, I can't get interested enough to try to find out.
Another reaction: This book is to other books as abstract art is to representational art. There again, I'm OK with surreal or fantastic, but prefer things I can understand. (That's more of a comment on me than a comment on the art.) It's not that everything has to be totally representational. One of the things I love about Mark Helprin's work is that he can take you over the edge of reality and you don't realize it's happened for a long time.
So, anyway... I really liked the little Civil War stories about JEB Stuart and his time. Some of the other ones are intriguing, too. Some look like he was just doodling, wandering and discoursing. Fancy doodles, for sure, but in the end, he's not for me.

[KW · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Long, Last, Happy" is like a big piece of pie I've been keeping by my bedside for three months. I take a nibble here and a nibble there, reading a story or two before bedtime or upon awakening. I do this because I'm almost guaranteed to love these stories, and I do. I also do this because this book is quite the brick, and I can't carry it around with me (I live in NYC and take a book for subway reading with me almost everywhere) without throwing my back out. If I could place in on my to-read and have-read lists simultaneously, I would, but I can't. So I'll continue working away on it and hoping it never ends and, when I finish the last story, I'll put it on the "read" list.

Hannah: so good, he gets away with the stuff no one else can get away with. (Thus far.) Pick this one up.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say. This collection is a freakin' revelation. Strands of the blood of Faulkner, O'Connor & Twain coil through this work. Hannah's world is populated with unadultered liars, fisherman, war vets (Civil, Korea & beyond) failed poets, dipsomanic college professors, arsonists & heart-achingly beautiful women (amongst others). His world is one of racial unease, low-grade resentments & anger, crazy love/sex, devotion to lost causes & quiet bedevilment. His language is beguiling, brazen & bracing. His love for, the genomic need to tell stories knifes through. Fierce, darkly comic, ballsy. Barry Hannah is sorely missed.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A master of the elliptical short story. So much madness and beauty in this collection. As with Faulkner, you've got to learn how to read him, but once you do, the rewards are many. Slow down, take your time, and you'll be a little bit changed when you finish.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

He seems to have some writing ability but his stories are very muddled and difficult to follow. I got about 3/4 of the way through before giving up. Some people appear to think he's a genius. I don't.

[Mercedes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not since Jim Harrison have I stopped and read sentences aloud over and over. Sometimes because they were just so unusually strung together but mostly because they were so strong and original.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the other reviews say that Airships is the best part of this collection, and I'm inclined to agree, although there are many masterpieces scattered throughout.

[z]

His shtick gets old quick. What a letdown.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some gems in this long short story collection, but most were meandering and populated by similar fallen southern males.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Διάφορα βιβλία του Μπάρι Χάνα τα είχα (και τα έχω) σε μια λίστα βιβλίων Αμερικανών συγγραφέων που ανήκουν με τον έναν ή τον άλλο τρόπο στην κατηγορία του Southern Gothic, και που κάποια στιγμή θα ήθελα να διαβάσω. Τώρα επιτέλους βλέπουμε μια ανθολογία του στα ελληνικά, μια επιλογή δεκαεννιά διηγημάτων από τα δεκάδες που έχει γράψει. Βέβαια, θα προτιμούσα κάποιο από τα μυθιστορήματά του (π.χ. Ray ή Geronimo Rex) μιας και είμαι περισσότερο του μυθιστορήματος παρά του διηγήματος, αλλά όταν σου χαρίζουν γάιδαρο, δεν τον κοιτάς στα δόντια. Λοιπόν, πολύ ιδιαίτερος συγγραφέας, αν μη τι άλλο. Πολύ ιδιαίτερος και περίεργος τρόπος σκέψης και γραφής, όχι για όλα τα γούστα, όχι για όλες τις ορέξεις, όχι για όλα τα μυαλά. Δεν ξέρω ποιες ουσίες πρέπει να πάρεις για να μπεις στο νόημα και να πιάσεις όλα όσα θέλει να πει ο ποιητής, πάντως νομίζω ότι χρειάζονται. Με τον δικό του τρόπο ο Χάνα μιλάει για το Νότο και τους ανθρώπους του, τον Νότο της θρησκείας, της λαγνείας, των εξαρτήσεων, των διαστροφών, της βίας, των όπλων, της φύσης, του ψαρέματος, όλων αυτών τέλος πάντων, χρησιμοποιώντας περίεργους και εκρηκτικούς συνδυασμούς, πότε με σκληρό ρεαλισμό και πότε με τρυφερό σουρεαλισμό. Γενικά στις ιστορίες του κάνουν την εμφάνισή τους διάφοροι περίεργοι τύποι και περίεργες τύπισσες, συμβαίνουν διάφορα κουλά, περιγράφονται διάφορα κωμικοτραγικά, με ή χωρίς νόημα, δεν έχει σημασία, σημασία έχει η αίσθηση που αφήνει στο τέλος η κάθε ιστορία, μια αίσθηση περίεργη και αλλόκοτη. Δεν μπορώ να πω ότι απόλαυσα στον απόλυτο βαθμό όλες τις ιστορίες και γενικά το βιβλίο, αλλά αν μη τι άλλο θαύμασα τις εκφραστικές υπερβολές και τον ιδιαίτερο τρόπο αφήγησης και σκέψης του συγγραφέα. Και αν ήταν να επιλέξω πέντε διηγήματα που ξεχώρισα για τον έναν ή τον άλλο λόγο, θα ήταν μάλλον αυτά: "Μαρτυρία πιλότου", "Έσο έτοιμος", "Πάρε λίγη νιότη", "Ο θείος της μεγάλης μοναξιάς" και "Ρανγκούν Γκριν". (7.5/10)

[Άγης · Rating 3 out of 5]

Το διήγημα, το καλό διήγημα τουλάχιστον, είναι ένα ζόρικο λογοτεχνικό είδος. Σε περιορισμένο αριθμό σελίδων, ο συγγραφέας πρέπει να στριμώξει πλοκή, χαρακτήρες και λόγια, υφαίνοντας μια ιστορία η οποία, μην έχοντας τον “ζωτικό” χώρο που προσφέρουν άλλα είδη όπως η νουβέλα ή το μυθιστόρημα, πρέπει για να επιτύχει να εκμεταλλευτεί δημιουργικά τους περιορισμούς που θέτει το διήγημα. Φαίνεται ότι το να “δαμάσει” κανείς το διήγημα είναι δύσκολη υπόθεση· ο Αμερικανός Μπάρι Χάνα είναι ένας από τους συγγραφείς που καταφέρνουν αυτό.

Ο Μπάρι Χάνα υπήρξε ιδιαίτερα δημοφιλής συγγραφέας στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, με τα βιβλία του να έχουν τιμηθεί με σημαντικά βραβεία και με τον ίδιο να διαμορφώνει μέσα από τα μαθήματα δημιουργικής γραφής που έκανε, την “επόμενη” γενιά λογοτεχνών. Το συγγραφικό του ύφος, τυπικά “Αμερικάνικο”, θα θυμίσει στον αναγνώστη κάτι από Φώκνερ, κάτι από Μακάρθυ και σίγουρα θα του αφήσει μια επίγευση φερμένη από τον σκληρο Αμερικανικό Νότο, του οποίου τέκνο είναι και ο ίδιος ο Χάνα. Άγνωστος στο Ελληνικό κοινό, ο συγγραφέας που έφυγε πρόωρα το 2010, μεταφράζεται για πρώτη φορά από τις εκδόσεις Καστανιώτη με τη συλλογή διηγημάτων Ψεύτες του Νερού και άλλες ιστορίας, έναν τόμο που αποτελείται από γνωστές και άγνωστες ιστορίες που εκπροσωπούν και μας συστήνουν τον συγγραφέα.

Ο Μπάρι Χάνα, μέσα από τα 19 διηγήματα της συλλογής, ταξιδεύει τον αναγνώστη στον Αμερικανικό Νότο, δημιουργεί μια πολυποίκιλη προσωπογραφία αλλά και μια πολυεπίπεδη, σουρεαλιστική και παρακμιακή λαογραφία. Βετεράνοι του πολέμου της Κορέας και του Βιετνάμ, επίδοξοι έφηβοι καλλιτέχνες, περιθωριακοί και αυτοκαταστροφικοί μουσικοί, αλκοολισμός, θρησκευτικός φονταμενταλισμός, ανολοκλήρωτες αγάπες, υπερήλικοι ψαράδες που αναμασάνε ιστορίες που γνωρίζουν ότι είναι ψεύτικες περιμένοντας να πεθάνουν· ο Αμερικανικός νότος είναι σκληρός και δύσπεπτος, συχνά ρατσιστικός και άξεστος, αλλά ταυτόχρονα, πάντα αληθινός.

Η πρώτη γνωριμία με τον συγγραφέα αφήνει θετική εντύπωση αλλά και την προσδοκία να μεταφραστεί μελλοντικά κάποιο από τα μυθιστορήματα του. Βρήκα τις μεγαλύτερες σε έκταση ιστορίες να κλέβουν τις εντυπώσεις, με τα διηγήματα “Μαρτυρία Πιλότου”, “Scandale d' estime” και “Ει, έχεις τσιγάρο, έχεις ώρα, έχεις νέα, έχεις την όψη μου;” να δικαιολογούν με την μαεστρία τους την φήμη του συγγραφέα. Αντίθετα, μερικά από τα μικρότερα διηγήματα του Μπάρι Χάνα, ήταν αποσπασματικά και χάνουν αφήνοντας την υπόνοια μια περαιτέρω ανάπτυξης που δεν έρχεται ποτέ.

[Spiros Γλύκας · Rating 5 out of 5]

Οι 'Ψεύτες του νερού' είναι μια συλλογή διηγημάτων ούτε λίγο ούτε πολύ 440+ σελίδων. Συνήθως από μόνος του ένας τέτοιος αριθμός σελίδων για αυτό το λογοτεχνικό είδος με βάζει στη λογική να διαβάσω το βιβλίο παράλληλα με κάποιο μυθιστόρημα. Διαβάζοντας πολλά διηγήματα, το ένα πίσω απ' το άλλο, με κουράζει.
Τι συνέβη όμως εδώ; Τα διηγήματα δεν είναι πολλά σε αριθμό, είναι - τα περισσότερα - μεγάλα σε έκταση, έως πολύ μεγάλα, 20,30,40,50 σελίδων και σε μερικά από αυτά νόμιζα ότι όντως διαβάζω ένα μέρος από κάποιο μυθιστόρημα. Οπότε, ναι, το μαντέψατε, δεν διάβασα τους 'ψεύτες' μαζί με κάποιο άλλο. Περισσότερα εδώ: https://spirosglykas.blogspot.com/202...

[Cail Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read about five stories in this and really loved them. All from the Airships era, his earliest work. The title story is an absolute banger. This is a hefty book, encompassing Barry Hannah‘s whole career. I am pausing it for now to read more comics and animal fiction. I am very much looking forward to revisiting this.

[Jimmy Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this wasn’t a library book I would have filled it full of underlined passages, scribbles in the margins and post it notes. At times the writing is damn near indecipherable but you just have to hold on for the ride and the glory come charging out at you in flames

[Sheldon Birnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to stop on page 328 in order to return to the library. Some of the stories are utterly amazing! A handful were a bit of a slog

[Stauros Kallinikas · Rating 4 out of 5]

8,5

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

All his best stuff here. Faulkner on meth