Saturday Review: “Twelve Steps from the Blues” by Ivor S. Irwin, a review from NCLR 1993 of three novels, including Michael Parker’s Hello Down There (1993)
This Saturday, we are sharing a review from NCLR’s second issue of Michael Parker’s first novel, Hello Down There (1993). As this novel has just been reissued by Blair, it seems like the perfect time to look back and see what makes it a timeless Southern Gothic narrative.
According to our reviewer, in Hello Down There, set in the 1950s, “eccentric humor meets Southern Gothic tradition” as Parker explores the lives of the residents of “the alcohol-soaked small town of Trent, North Carolina.” Trent is a classic, idyllic North American town haunted by tragedy, addiction, and social conflict. In his review Irwin tells us “beyond all the old clichés of small town suffocation is something far darker and more horrifying.”
Parker’s characters all struggle with a sense of “intoxicated horror” and dreams of escape, complicated by the dangers of the world both inside and outside the boundaries of Trent. As they work toward the “grand opportunity for redemption” they are also forced to deal with the “legacy of tragedy” that follows them all. As Irwin states, in Hello Down There “Parker’s prose sings.”
Read the entire review here (which includes two other early ’90s novels)! And order a copy of Michael Parker’s reissued novel from Blair’s website!
