Nitro Mountain: A novel

Author: Johnson, Lee Clay

Edition: First Edition

Features:

• Alfred a Knopf Inc

Format: Deckle Edge

Number Of Pages: 224

Details:

An astonishing, even shocking debut written with both humor and heart by, as John Casey puts it, “a natural-born writer who inhabits every one of his characters—the good, the bad, and those who swing back and forth.” Set in a bitterly benighted, mine-polluted corner of Virginia, Nitro Mountain follows a group of people bound together by alcohol, small-time crime and music. There’s Leon, a hapless bass player who can embroil himself in trouble just by getting out of bed in the morning. And his would-be girlfriend, Jennifer, who’s living with Arnett, the town’s most dangerous thug—and hoping Leon will help her poison him. And there’s Arnett himself, a psychopath for the ages—albeit so charming and deranged, so strikingly authentic, that he arrests the reader’s attention at first sight and holds it fast. His mirror image, a singer-songwriter named Jones, has his own moral issues, though at least he’s trying to be a good man. The bright if battered soul who pulls us through this story is Jennifer, a vulnerable yet strong woman struggling heroically to survive the endemic hopelessness and violence that have surrounded her since birth. Relentless? Yes, of course, but never remotely gratuitous. Every single moment is shot through with the pain and misery that inspire so much of the music these people love more than life itself.

Reviews:

“[A] darkly stunning tale of stark dramas and tragic lives.”

— O Magazine

“Dark, frightening and staggeringly good.”

— Deep South Magazine  

“Brutal and beautiful . . . You’ll find yourself engrossed in the hard times and bad choices of its characters and, ultimately, the humanity we all share.” —Jay Strafford, Richmond Times-Dispatch  

“Johnson is a literary juggernaut. . . . This superbly well-written and tightly crafted book is not for the faint of heart.” —Holly Nadler, Martha’s Vineyard Times

“Tense, disturbing, impressive. . . Johnson, a writer of great ability, is adept at conjuring dismal sensory details. . . and he’s excellent, in a book told from several divergent points of view, at inhabiting the twisted psyches of his unfortunate and self-destructive characters.” —Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

“A forceful debut novel . . . Johnson’s sharp prose sometimes evokes Ron Rash—by way of Charles Bukowski.” —Tray Butler, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution  

“Cover to cover, the book exerts a fierce magnetic pull, sucking its reader into a profound desolation.” —Susannah Felts, Nashville Scene

“Daring . . . a worthy addition to the growing canon of contemporary Appalachian noir. . . . Johnson shows an incredible control of language.  The narration is simple, but it enhances the world in which he plants us. . . . Nitro Mountain is like the home we failed to escape.” —Bradley Sides, Electric Lit

“Excellent . . . bold, arresting and well-timed [with] intelligent and sympathetic portraits of hard-up people making bad, justifiable decisions.” —Kenneth Champeon, BookPage

“Exquisitely stark and gritty . . . Raw, yet relentlessly compelling.”

— Publishers Weekly

“Appalachian noir at its darkest and most deranged . . . An ambitious, disturbing, and daring debut.”

— Kirkus (starred)

“A suspenseful, action-packed thriller that’s also a brilliant study in humanity and what pushes someone over the line. Johnson paints some dark and desperate portraits, but even in the darkest he allows just enough light to reveal how complex and fragile each life is. He’s skilled at delivering shocks when they're least expected, and likewise at humor—witty banter and memorable one-liners that will leave the reader laughing in the most unlikely places.” —Jill McCorkle

“Meet Leon, the lovesick bass player with a broken hand who prays, ‘Please, more for me, I won’t throw it away this time.’  In Nitro Mountain, Lee Clay Johnson also gives us lost, smart-ass Jennifer and a cast of other low-life bar rats trying to feel or figure out what, if anything, is precious, and how to save one anothe...

EAN: 9781101946367

Release Date: 17-05-2016

Languages: English

Item Note: Great shape- pages are unmarked and sharp.Has a remainder mark. Hardcover Used - Very Good Ships fast! 2016First Edition

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood

Binding: Hardcover