David Joy (1) (1983–)

This was phenomenal story all the way through. Don't come into a David joy novel without expecting every single character to be broken all to shit, because that's what the man excels in...broken people begging and stealing and crying out for redemption.

David Joy, for me, is like a darker, grimmer John Hart. They both write beautifully, and see the world through mostly cynical eyes, but damn, can they tell a story.

The only thing that had me pulling a star off this one was the lack of a show more specific ending. And I'm not talking the last bit, I'm talking the bit before the last bit (yeah, I ain't gonna spoil the novel, so you'll have to read it to get what I'm talking about here).

It was a small flaw in an otherwise stunning novel. show less

A finalist for the 2015 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy is an intense Red-Neck Noir that is harsh, evocative and powerful. The author sets his story in the North Carolina mountains and as Jacob McNeely’s story unfolds we learn that he lives in a tight, unjust world of crystal meth dealing as run by his clever, cold, and ever watchful father. Jacob desperately needs to escape but the only way out means crossing his father and Jacob doesn’t know show more anyone who has done that and lived.

Although Jacob left school and turned his back on his peers to work for his father, he is in love with Maggie, who has been in his life since they were very young. It’s through Maggie that he hopes to find redemption. She is going to be leaving soon, heading toward University and a new life and wants Jacob to go with her. The only thing standing in their way is money, and money is one of the things that his father has withheld from him.

I found Where All Light Tends to Go a moving account of one young man’s desire for a new life set against the brutal reality of what he currently has. With a father who is a killer and a mother who is an addict, Jacob has never had any choice in who or what he would become. This is the author’s first book and I have previously read his second, The Weight of the World, so I know that this is an author who can deliver a dark and gritty story along with beautiful descriptive writing. I am looking forward to book number three. show less

This is the third book I've read by David Joy and, by far, my favorite. Where his previous works focused on ordinary Joes who struggled with, or had family members who struggled with, drug addiction, Joy made a big switch her and decided to target racism and The Lost Cause the "pseudohistorical negationist myth that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery".

As he has always done, Joy takes pains to add dimension show more to his characters and make them much more interesting that one would expect from, say, an aging long-term white southern small-town sheriff. John Coggins deeply mourns the death of his best friend and hunting buddy, the grandfather of Toya Gardner, the young Black artist from Atlanta who has returned home North Carolina mountains and begun stirring up trouble by using her art to dredge up unpleasant truths from the past, truths whose dormancy have allowed Jackson County to remain the largely peaceful backwater county that Sheriff Coggins has enjoyed for so many years.

Joy uses Toya to pose questions about the nature and meaning of art. While this may sound boring, it becomes less so when one asks which is a better example of art, a bronze statue of a confederate soldier, or that same statue painted to show it with bloodstained hands. (I, for one, support Bertolt Brecht's assertion that "Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.") Needless to say, things in Jackson County start to heat up quickly.

I highly recommend this book.

My thanks to the late Mike Sullivan, aka Lawyer, and all the folks at the On the Southern Literary Trail group for giving me the opportunity to read and discuss this and many other fine books. show less

The Weight of This World by David Joy is a red-neck noir story set in Appalachia. The story centers on two boys, Thad an unloved child of rape, and Aiden, the child of a father who killed both himself and his mother. The two boys grow up together in a dilapidated trailer and forge a strong bond. They think of themselves as brothers. Thad goes to war and comes back a damaged vet and needs the strength of Aiden, along with plenty of booze and meth to help him get through the days. His mother, show more April, haunted by her own experiences, has also learned to lean on Aiden for comfort and support. All three lives are about to be shattered when the boy’s drug dealer accidentally shots himself. This triggers a series of drug-addled situations that spiral out of control.

I have a weakness for books set in Appalachia. It is a totally different world from the one I live in and I am both fascinated and repelled by it’s dark beauty. The mountains of North Carolina make a lush backdrop to this brutal tale. But as dark and tragic as the story is, I came to care for all these troubled characters.

Despite the sense of inevitability that the author infuses throughout the story, The Weight of This World was an outstanding read. David Joy is an author that I will be looking for again as I was impressed by both his descriptive powers and his realistic dialogue. show less