Geronimo Rex

Barry Hannah is a literary craftsman of rare verve and flawless turns of phrase. Geronimo Rex, his first novel, was awarded the William Faulkner Prize and was nominated for the National Book Award.

Reared in gloomy Dream of Pines, Louisiana, where the pines have long since yielded to paper mills, Harry Monroe is ready to take on the world. Inspired by the great Geronimo's heroic rampage through the Old West, Harry pulls on knee boots and a scarf and voyages out into the swamp of adolescence in the South of the 1950s and '60s. Along the way he is attacked by an unruly peacock; discovers women, rock 'n' roll, and jazz; and stalks a pervert white supremacist who fancies himself the next Henry Miller. As Harry comes awkwardly into his own, Barry Hannah gives us a brilliant portrait of those times and that place -- plagued by violent reality but giddy, like Harry himself, with a sense of unlimited possibility.