Review for the Audiobook, Gone South, By Robert R. McCammon, George Newbern (Narrator)
Here’s another book and author I’d never heard of. It was discount offer from Chirp; the cover and description looked good, so I took a chance. Only when I’d finished the audiobook did I learn that Robert R. McCammon is a well-known horror writer, the author of the classics Boy's Life and Swan Song.
Gone South is not horror, but is it drama or comedy? It is what some call Southern Fiction/ Southern Gothic, or Southern Noir. There is tragedy, murder and humor; sarcastic humor in abundance. It’s a bit of Stephen King with some Carl Hiaasen stirred in. In this story, the big question is; How fast and how far can things go bad?
The title: Gone South, has a double meaning. The location of the story is The South; Louisiana. When you’ve gone south in Louisiana, it means you’re dead. It’s also the term that Viet Nam vet, Dan, the story’s hero, uses for the soldiers who went crazy or screwed up. Dan came back from ‘Nam with PTSD. He’s lost his job, his family, and now he has leukemia, probably from all the Agent Orange the U.S. dumped on him.
Dan is already down on his luck when he has a bad day, a terrible day. He gets in a fight with the new loan manager of the bank in his small town. Dan didn’t go there for a battle and he didn’t have a gun, but a gun went off and the manager killed. Not sure where to go, Dan just knows he needs to get out of there. It doesn’t take long for the killing to be a top line news item and the police are looking for him.
The side story is that of Flint, a bounty hunter with an internalized Siamese/Parasitic twin (you’ll have to read or listen to it yourself to appreciate it). Flint get unwillingly partnered up with Pelvis Isley; an Elvis impersonator (with his dog, Mama).
These threads of Dan’s escape, and pursuit by Flint and Pelvis, keep this a well-paced adventure/escape story. Then throw in a young Texas woman, Arden, who’s searching for a (faith?) healer rumored to live in the swamps. It is the same swamp where a drug king ships out Meth in the bellies of alligators his gang has poached.
This audiobook is a total winner for me. The descriptions and dialogue are great. The narrator, George Newbern,does an outstanding job with accents, timing, and all the little nuances that kept me rapt with attention. I highly recommend it! So much so, that I’ve put Boy’s Life on my To Be Read List. Boy’s Life has a different narrator. I’ll listen to a sample and decide whether to get the audio or paperback version.