This is both an imaginative novel and a southern gothic, so it was impossible for me not to love it. It was the first I have read by William Goyen, so I rely on Reginald Gibbons' biography to learn that the novel's themes of friendships and alienation, betrayal and reconciliation, wandering travellers, and of course living as a divided person, were all literary obsessions for Goyen and that they and carry across most of his works. Goyen wrote this novel in the last few months of his working life, as he was dying of cancer, and it is a very open and emotional exploration of the themes that of his life. I don't remember how I came across this lyrical little book, but I am glad I did and would recommend it to anyone. It is a great story beautifully told.
