by Barry Hannah
First published 1994
Dr. Ray stands at his kitchen window, bourbon in hand, watching another sleepless dawn break over his small Southern town. The Vietnam veteran carries more than medical knowledge in his doctor's bag. He carries the weight of deaths he delivered from fighter cockpits over Southeast Asia. Ray moves through his days as poet and drunk, faithful husband and serial womanizer, healer and vigilante. He treats patients who need him, loves a wife who endures him, and fights demons that follow him home from war. The people around him cling to Ray through their own desperate needs. Some seek his medical expertise, others his protection, still others his twisted wisdom. Ray tries to make sense of a world that seems as fractured as his own conscience. His attempts to connect with others become both salvation and destruction. This American Book Award nominee captures one man's struggle to find meaning after surviving what he wishes he could forget.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: redemption, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Southeast Asia, Southern Town
Period: Vietnam War
128 pages · Paperback · Grove Press
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse, violence, war