On the Night Plain

On the Night Plain

by J.RobertLennon (Author)

Synopsis

From the critically acclaimed author of The Light of Falling Stars and The Funnies, a beautifully written story about a man who reluctantly accepts his birthright in a sheep-ranching family torn apart by tragedy. Hoping to make a new life for himself after World War II, and to escape the guilt he feels over the death of a brother who fought and died in his place, Grant Person abandons his family's ranch on the Great Plains for a fishing boat on the Atlantic. But the death of his mother three years later draws him back to the nearly doserted ranch. His father has mysteriously disappeared, and his only remaining brother, Max, a lifelong rival, takes off the day Grant returns, leaving Grant with a couple of hired hands, a sickly flock, and a mass of debt. When Max returns the following year, he is not alone. The ensuing contest of wills threatens to tear what is left of his family apart, and to revive ghosts Grant had hoped were gone for good. In spare, poetic prose J. Robert Lennon explores the complications of love and work; loyalty to family, the land, and one's own desires; and the nature of solitude.

$44.72

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Publisher: Granta Books
Published: 17 Aug 2001

ISBN 10: 1862074666
ISBN 13: 9781862074668

Media Reviews
A bleak novel about Midwest angst on a sheep ranch, where life is hard and human relationships are mostly monosyllabic if often complicated. Grant Person flees the ranch after WW2, guilt-ridden because one of his brothers, the simple-minded Thornton, had enlisted in his place and had been killed in an accidental explosion before even reaching the frontline. A spell at sea ends with the news of his mother's death and the disappearance of his father, and Grant begins an endless struggle against both debt and the elements to save the ranch and wrest a meagre living from it, further troubled by the recurring appearance of a drowned man in his dreams. Other brothers had also perished or, in one case, taken his own life, and his surviving sibling Max reappears with a woman in tow. Lennon writes eloquently and knowledgably about the harsh Great Plains rural life and the taciturn people trying to survive it, but one feels more than once like imploring them either to get a grip or go elsewhere permanently.
Author Bio
J. Robert Lennon lives in New York State. He was awarded the 1997 Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award.