Preston Falls: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries)

Beautifully written.... Gates [has a] pitch-perfect ear for contemporary speech...and...[a] keen journalistic eye.--Michiko Kakutani The New York Times. In this comic fiercely compassionate novel David Gates whose first novel Jernigan was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize sends his protagonist on a visceral journey to the dark side of suburban masculinity explores the claims youth makes on middle age and the tenacious --at times perverse--power of love to assert itself.. When Doug Willis has a mid-life crisis he doesnt join a gym or have an affair. Instead he gets himself arrested while camping with his wife and kids takes a two month leave of absence from his PR job and retreats to his farmhouse in rural Preston Falls--where he plugs in his guitar and tries to shut out his life.. While his wife Jean struggles to pay the bills and raise their sullen skeptical kids Williss plans for hiatus crumble into Dewars-and-cocaine fueled disarray. A shattered window an unguarded gun and a shady small town attorney force a crisis--and Willis cant go home again. With its biting humor and harsh realism Preston Falls confirms David Gates as a talent in the tradition of Russell Banks and Richard Ford: a master of dark truths and private longings.