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An astonishing, even shocking debut written with both humor and heart by, as John Casey puts it, "a natural-born writer who inhabits every one of his characters - the good, the bad, and those who swing back and forth."
Set in a bitterly benighted, mine-polluted corner of Virginia, Nitro Mountain follows a group of people bound together by alcohol, small-time crime and music. There's Leon, a hapless bass player who can embroil himself in trouble just by getting out of bed in the morning. And his would-be girlfriend, Jennifer, who's living with Arnett, the town's most dangerous thug - and hoping Leon will help her poison him. And there's Arnett himself, a psychopath for the ages - albeit so charming and deranged, so strikingly authentic, that he arrests the reader's attention at first sight and holds it fast. His mirror image, a singer-songwriter named Jones, has his own moral issues, though at least he's trying to be a good man. The bright if battered soul who pulls us through this story is Jennifer, a vulnerable yet strong woman struggling heroically to survive the endemic hopelessness and violence that have surrounded her since birth.
Relentless? Yes, of course, but never remotely gratuitous. Every single moment is shot through with the pain and misery that inspire so much of the music these people love more than life itself.
"Starred Review. Appalachian noir at its darkest and most deranged ... An ambitious, disturbing, and daring debut." - Kirkus
"Exquisitely stark and gritty ... Raw, yet relentlessly compelling." - Publishers Weekly
"Johnson captures the lives of down-and-outers in remarkably well-crafted language. Yet despite some strong scenes, the narrative finally misses the tragic dimension of a Daniel Woodrell or Donald Ray Pollock work, making this just one more sorry tale." - Library Journal
"A suspenseful, action-packed thriller that's also a brilliant study in humanity and what pushes someone over the line ... He's skilled at delivering shocks when they're least expected, and likewise at humor - witty banter and memorable one-liners that will leave the reader laughing in the most unlikely places." - Jill McCorkle
"Meet Leon, the lovesick bass player with a broken hand who prays, 'Please, more for me, I won't throw it away this time' ... Lee Clay Johnson also gives us lost, smart-ass Jennifer and a cast of other low-life bar rats trying to feel or figure out what, if anything, is precious, and how to save one another before it's too late." - Darcy Steinke
"Perturbingly good. Hazardous. Addictive. Harrowing and hilarious too." - Joy Williams
"The book is crack-the-whip funny and then darker and drastic. Lee Johnson writes so well that the whole story is one electric current." - John Casey
This information about Nitro Mountain was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lee Clay Johnson grew up around Nashville, Tennessee, in a family of bluegrass musicians. He holds a BA from Bennington College and an MFA from the University of Virginia. His work has appeared in The Oxford American, The Common, Appalachian Heritage, Salamander, and The Mississippi Review. He lives in St. Louis and Charlottesville, Virginia.
My Darling Boy by John Dufresne
The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.
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