Larry Brown Reads from Big Bad Love on NPR
Larry Brown was a great writer. I deepy admire his work. It’s tough to pick a favorite book, because I like it all. His story, A Roadside Resurrection, sure is good. But now it becomes difficult not to keep going and tell you that I like Father and Son as a kind of southern noir novel. And then I’d say Joe and Fay are great because these characters are not only brother and sister, but they seem to bubble out of the very Mississippi earth in those novels. I’d have to keep going, but instead I will say it’s a real shame that he passed when he did at such a young age, only 53. He seemed to be coming into his full writing powers and the sky is the limit for what he would have done after his posthumous A Miracle of Catfish.
I was down in Oxford in the summer of 2004 and had the great fortune to meet up with Tom Franklin (a fine writer)and the great Barry Hannah at the City Grocery. They both treated me like a prince. The bartender gave me a funny smile (and a strange explanation) but the upshot was he wouldn’t let me buy Mr. Hannah a beer, but Mr. Hannah ended up sharing with Tom. Tom and I talked about how good Brown’s writing was and then he pointed to the door and said, “He could come walking through that door any minute.” Really? I kept my eye cocked toward the door the rest of the night. I may have talked out of my head along about midnight, but I don’t recall. The next day, a bit bleary-eyed, I was tempted to ask around and find out where Brown lived. But I decided to respect his privacy, thinking I would get the chance to meet him eventually. So it was with great sadness, and regret, when a friend asked me if I had heard the news. Find the 1990 NPR interview below. (It looks crazy, but it works.)
