Falling Dark
by Tim Tharp
The story follows the lives of several fallen dreamers, including Donna
Bless, the alcoholic mother of two perceptive boys; Sam Casey, whose
marijuana crop is ready for picking; and Roy Dale, bitter and rageful,
who connects them all.
If Roy Dale is the dark center of this novel,
Sam Casey's farm provides the light. The characters move through
several small-town settings (bars, the grocery store, beat-up
subdivisions, the local high school) and even up to Tulsa, but everyone
is at some point drawn to the farm that was once a commune, complete
with geodesic dome.
In cadences of a tale spoken aloud,
Tim Tharp creates a contemporary small town and moves inside the minds
and hearts of its people. His tale delineates the fragility and
difficulty of redemption—the question of whether new growth can come
from dying leaves, faded ideals, and crushed lives.
Tim Tharp
Author's Bio:Tim Tharp was born in Henryetta, Oklahoma, about fifteen miles from
Woody Guthrie’s hometown. After two years of college, Tharp explored
the U.S. by thumb and pickup truck. He later completed both an
undergraduate and a master's degree and now teaches at Oklahoma State
University. He lives in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.
Awards:Milkweed National Fiction Prize: 1999
Finalist, Oklahoma Book Award, Fiction Category: 2000 Quotes:“In
the same kind of rich, fluid prose that made Larry Brown today's
foremost practitioner of Southern Gothic, Tharp asserts his own
considerable abilities. There is no doubt that this prize-winning novel
lands him squarely on the same hallowed ground.”—Terry Collins for
Oklahoma Family Magazine
“A fast-flowing, vivid tale of a new kind of prairie that is home to
an old kind of conflict, good versus evil.”—New York Times Book Review
“The
characters in Tim Tharp's powerful first novel lead lives as harsh and
vacant as the Oklahoma landscape they inhabit. . . . Tharp brings the
unsentimental glare of Richard Avedon's 'American West' to his
character portraits. But Tharp's stark writing finds a surprising,
hollow beauty that Avedon's snide photographs never did.”—San
Francisco Chronicle
“This novel about diminished expectations commands full
attention. . . . Set in a rural Oklahoma town, Tharp's first novel
attempts to capture the gritty backlash against '60s hippie
idealism. . . . Teenage love, small-town blues and neighborhood bullies
flourish amid the strip joints, honky-tonks, gas stations and the
Git-n-Go convenience store. Trapped in their weaknesses, steeped in
marijuana-haze and rum-and-coke stupors, Tharp's characters seem primed
to convey philosophical reflections on self-destruction and recovery.”—Publishers Weekly
“Tharp
knows his part of the world: the small towns and rural corners of
Oklahoma and the folks who dwell there. . . . Behold America far from the
nearest Starbucks and rumor of the latest IPO. . . . A beautifully
rendered story. . . . It limns a world not often depicted in fiction.”—Austin Chronicle
“Falling Dark is a chilling
portrait of America at the end of the 20th century from a forceful and
lyrical new literary voice.”—Minnesota Monthly
“You may be able to put this book
down, but by the time you're halfway into it, you won't want to. . . . A
compelling and inclusive finale.”—Bloomsbury Review
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