Fugitives of the Heart — William Gay

In this, William Gay's last posthumous novel, we have his homage to Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Set in post-World War II Tennessee, in Gay's familiar Harrikan area. Marion Yates is a teenager recently orphaned when his notoriously licentious mother dies. When Yates eyes a pocketknife at the local grocery-hardware store, he is befriended by Black Crowe, who buys the knife for him. Yates in turn nurses Crowe through a work explosion, and the two form a seemingly lasting friendship. Yates falls in love, of course, and of course the love is thwarted. First love, racism, and betrayal-these are all topped with Gay's signature wry humor in his signature Tennessee fictional setting. Gay again proves himself a master of prose.