Timothy Gautreaux crea narrativa di 'ampio spettro', apprezzata sia da intellettuali che da lettori della classe operaia, uno stile profondamente influenzato dal background familiare operaio e dalle carriere marittime del padre e del nonno. Si definisce uno scrittore che capita di vivere al Sud piuttosto che uno 'scrittore del Sud', allontanandosi consapevolmente dalle categorizzazioni regionali. Il suo forte legame con la fede cattolica romana permea il suo lavoro, offrendo una prospettiva distintiva. Le storie di Gautreaux sono note per il loro ampio richiamo, risuonando con un pubblico diversificato.
A collection of stories by a Louisiana writer. In Dancing with the One-Armed Gal, a factory worker dismissed from his job gives a lift to an academic dismissed from hers, Good for the Soul is on an alcoholic priest, while in the title story a man babysits the illegitimate children of his daughters.
After the devastation in France just as World War I, Sam Simoneaux went back to New Orleans eager for a normal life. But when a little girl disappears from a department store on his shift, he loses his job and soon joins her parents working on a steamboat plying the Mississippi. Sam comes to suspect that on the downriver journey someone had seen this magical child and arranged to steal her away, and this quest leads him not only into this raucous new life on the river, but also on a journey deep into the Arkansas wilderness. Here he begins to piece together what had happened to the girl--a discovery that endangers everyone involved and sheds new light on the massacre of his own family decades before.
Before the First World War, Byron Aldridge led a charmed life as heir apparent to a Pennsylvania timber empire, but he returned from France a different man. He ends up working as a company policeman in a backwoods Louisiana sawmill, where violence seems the only way to keep control. Here, amid the cypress swamps and alligators, his younger brother Randolph assumes charge of the mill and tries to rescue his former idol. As the brothers struggle to understand each other and their wives contend with their own hopes and fears, it is Randolph who starts a feud with the Sicilians who control the whisky and girls, and the future grows fearsome for them all.
Exploring the theme of personal empowerment, the book encourages readers to reject mediocrity and strive for a life filled with purpose and fulfillment. Tim emphasizes the importance of recognizing and confronting human limitations while highlighting the transformative power that comes from overcoming them. Through practical insights, the narrative inspires individuals to take charge of their life experiences and create a more meaningful existence.
Traduit de l’anglais (États-Unis) par Jean-Paul Gratais. Grand roman « sudiste » sur la fraternité, mais aussi sur l’impitoyable capitalisme des années 20 dans une Amérique ivre de progrès technique. Randolph, fils d’un riche négociant en bois de Pittsburgh, est expédié en Louisiane par son père pour y récupérer son aîné Byron, qui travaille dans une exploitation forestière perdue au milieu des marais. Les ouvriers y sont rongés par les fièvres et l’alcool tandis que Byron est moralement dévasté par son expérience de la Première Guerre en Europe. Un misérable saloon tenu par des Siciliens mafieux catalyse la violence et le manque d’espoir de ces hommes coupés du monde. Tandis que Byron règle les problèmes à coups de feu et de poing, Randolph, lui, croit encore aux vertus du dialogue et de la diplomatie pour maintenir l’ordre dans la « colonie ». Plus approche le moment où le dernier arbre sera coupé, et les ouvriers renvoyés chez eux aussi pauvres qu’ils étaient arrivés, plus l’on doute de voir Randolph ramener son frère à la civilisation ― et à la raison. « D’une violence infinie et d’une humanité intense, Le Dernier Arbre de Tim Gautreaux est un magnifique roman sur l’Amérique sudiste des années 1920, les séquelles de la guerre en Europe. » ― Lire Vient de paraître, aux Éditions du Seuil : Nos disparus.