We’re excited that Barry Gifford will be here on Wednesday along with Karl Marlantes. I have long wondered about the two shelves of space which Barry Gifford’s books occupy. I knew that John thought Barry to be somebody special, but I didn’t know why. Now I’m starting to learn why.
I have been doing a little of my own research and talking to John about Barry as we prepare another First Edition Flashback, a new series on our website which tells the story of why, since 1993, we have selected certain books for our First Editions Club.
For my own knowledge, I read an interview done by Richard Birnbaum in 2003. Since Richard and Barry are friends, I found the interview to be very frank. Here are some brief highlights, but it is worth reading the entire interview.
The more you get to know about Barry the more you realize that he modestly “plays his own game”. This started at a very young age, setting the tone for his fiction. I thought this story from the interview illustrated his independence very well:
“I was at Clinton Public School and I was talking in line before recess one day. It was second grade or something. So the teacher said to me, ‘Barry, you stay here’ as a reprimand . . . So all the other kids went out to play, and I was humiliated, standing alone in the classroom as everyone else went out. As soon as they went out and down the stairs one way I went out of the room and down the stairs and walked home. It was ten o’clock in the morning . . . [My mom] gets a call. It’s the school saying, ‘Gee, we don’t know what happened to Barry. He disappeared.’ She said, ‘Oh, he’s right here.’ And then she got the picture.”
Richard Birnbaum remarks, “And so begins your career in fiction.”
Barry’s mom and teacher seemed to understand Barry a little better:
“I had my own personality and my own agenda I felt–I guess kids now would say–disrespected. And I wasn’t going to take that from somebody.”
Lemuria is honored to have Barry at Lemuria again to mark the publication of Sailor and Lula: The Complete Novels. I began reading Sailor and Lula this weekend, but my appetite has already been whetted with several of the stories from American Falls: The Collected Short Stories. “Wrap It Up” manages to convey, in an impressive two pages, the horror associated with the fallout of the Vietnam War and a sliver of dark humor as the characters discuss how they deal with bad memories and compartmentalizing. One character talks about keeping the boxes tightly closed on bad memories. The final lines from another character: “My mind is one big open box. The only thing I can’t remember is where I put the lid.”
Don’t miss Barry on Wednesday. Fortunately, Jackson is one of four cities on his book tour. Read on for a synopsis of my conversation with John.
* * *
One of the most unique aspects of an independent bookstore are the relationships built up over time with authors.
The year was 1990 and John’s pal Carl was throwing a party for the Vintage Contemporary series gang in Las Vegas. He placed Barry Gifford the writer and John Evans of Lemuria Books side by side at the lunch table. The good conversation the two enjoyed served as the basis for a long relationship between bookseller and author, a friendship made through reading and writing, and conversations about music and books and baseball–baseball, because John and Barry both had sons who played baseball.
Barry’s first visit to Lemuria was for the publication of Sailor’s Holiday (second in the Sailor and Lula series) in 1991. By the time Barry came back, his popularity had escalated with the production of the David Lynch movie, Wild at Heart, the first book in the Sailor and Lula series.
In 1995, the publication of Barry’s very strange Baby Cat-Face marked the first time we had the opportunity to select one of Barry’s books for the First Editions Club, and we welcomed him again to Lemuria. Baby Cat-Face was so wonderfully strange and cutting-edge that we used the cover to make t-shirts.
Barry kept coming back because he loved the bookstore and felt a part of it. He also spent evenings with Willie Morris talking sports. The Mayflower was a favorite as well, a place he remembered from his childhood while staying at the Heidelberg Hotel in Jackson. And many times he came to Lemuria with his own supporting cast: Vinnie the plumber and karate extraordinaire, Swindle the poet and veteran mullethead tosser, Grissom the Hemingway expert, and various ladies.
John’s final comments: Barry Gifford is a writer who makes the characters real despite extreme eccentricities. Barry’s books are hot, weird books filled with believable evil.
Photo Credit for Barry Gifford: William P. Davis
Official Website: http://www.barrygifford.com/home.html
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