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Crossroads and Memory in William Gay's Provinces of Night

Crossroads and Memory in William Gay's Provinces of Night a mand a Freeman c r ossr oads and m emory in w illiam g ay ’s Provinces of n ight Perhaps William Gay’s most well-known story is that of the paperhanger—not the short story bear- In Provinces ing that title, but the story of Gay himself, long-ti me drywall hanger and son of a sharecropper. Gay was of Night in the fi rst in his family to graduate from high school, particular, Gay where one of his teac hers noticed him reading Zane Grey novels and gave him Thomas Wolfe’s Look effortlessly Homeward, Angel. “Wolfe’s novel,” William Giraldi draws upon relates in an interview-based essay on Gay’s corpus, “ignited him to his core; it proff ered the insight the Rough that this can be done, that a writing life for him South and the was not a pipe dream” (331). After that , Gay quickly found some of his favorite authors such as Flannery global South O’Connor and C ormac McC arthy: “The Signet edi- to create a sort tion of A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Gay told Derrick Hill, “was the best thi rty-five cent s I ever spent” of crossroads (Hill). Gay even formed http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Southern Literary Journal University of North Carolina Press

Crossroads and Memory in William Gay's Provinces of Night

Freeman, Amanda
The Southern Literary Journal , Volume 49 (2) – May 12, 2018
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 the Southern Literary Journal and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of English.
ISSN
1534-1461

Abstract

a mand a Freeman c r ossr oads and m emory in w illiam g ay ’s Provinces of n ight Perhaps William Gay’s most well-known story is that of the paperhanger—not the short story bear- In Provinces ing that title, but the story of Gay himself, long-ti me drywall hanger and son of a sharecropper. Gay was of Night in the fi rst in his family to graduate from high school, particular, Gay where one of his teac hers noticed him reading Zane Grey novels and gave him Thomas Wolfe’s Look effortlessly Homeward, Angel. “Wolfe’s novel,” William Giraldi draws upon relates in an interview-based essay on Gay’s corpus, “ignited him to his core; it proff ered the insight the Rough that this can be done, that a writing life for him South and the was not a pipe dream” (331). After that , Gay quickly found some of his favorite authors such as Flannery global South O’Connor and C ormac McC arthy: “The Signet edi- to create a sort tion of A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Gay told Derrick Hill, “was the best thi rty-five cent s I ever spent” of crossroads (Hill). Gay even formed

Journal

The Southern Literary Journal – University of North Carolina Press

Published: May 12, 2018

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