World Literature, Fiction Subjects

Ray in Reverse

Name: Ray in Reverse
Author: Daniel Wallace
ISBN: 9781565122604

by Daniel Wallace

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Overview

Early praise for Ray in Reverse

"Funny, thoughtful, full of refreshing surprises, it will take you to Heaven and back." --Elizabeth Strout, author of Amy and Isabelle

"Ray in Reverse is filled with wonder at the world and a gentle sadness over one man-child's baffled place in it. Unfailingly gentle and acute, the book somehow manages to get bigger and bigger as it moves toward its unusual vanishing point. A winning production from a singular writer." --Thomas Mallon, author of Dewey Defeats Truman

"A damn good book." --Percival Everett, author of Glyph

"A delightful, small package of exquisite writing...Ray is real, and his life makes oddly compelling reading--especially in reverse." --Booklist, starred review

Praise for Big Fish

"A comic novel about death, about the mysteries of parents and the redemptive power of storytelling." --USA Today

"Refreshing, original debut...the transformative quality of fable and fairy tale." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"An audacious, highly original debut novel...an imaginative, and moving, record of a son's love for a charming, unknowable father." --Kirkus Reviews

"Both comic and poignant." --The New York Times Book Review

"A magic carpet ride of a novel...amazing." --Birmingham Weekly

Synopsis

Sitting in Last Words group where everyone is recounting their last words on earth, Ray is embarrassed. He didn't declare his love. He didn't say anything symbolic. He didn't reveal his benevolence or goodwill. In fact, he didn't even finish his sentence. His words didn't measure up, and now he can't seem to get them out of his head.

Now, in Heaven, he has time to reflect on his short life of fifty years. This is the darkly humorous story of that life, told backward. We see Ray Williams in his life's most crucial moments--his moments of infidelity, his premature proposal of marriage, his sexual confusion, the dog he accidentally killed, the penny he had to have, and the baby he unwittingly saved. Ray is Everyman at his very best and at his absolute worst--and is none too clear about when he's being either one. Beginning at death and ending at age ten, Wallace's novel leads us back to Ray in his innocence--achieving, against all odds, a happy ending.

Funny, unforgettable, and with one foot in a fabulistic world, Ray in Reverse continues the incandescent storytelling of Big Fish, the storytelling that one reviewer described as "Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets Rowan and Martin."

New York Times Book Review

Both comic and poignant.

About the Author, Daniel Wallace

Daniel Wallace has published stories in numerous magazines, including Story, Glimmer Train, Prairie Schooner, and Shenandoah. His first novel, Big Fish, was translated into German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Daniel Wallace now lives with his son, Henry, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he also works as an illustrator.

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Editorials

USA Today

A comic novel about death, about the mysteries of parents and the redemptive power of storytelling.

New York Times Book Review

Both comic and poignant.

Birmingham Weekly

A magic carpet ride of a novel...amazing.

New York Times Book Review

Despite Ray's habits of the heart, Wallace suggests that the only hero a life like Ray's can have is Ray himself: he's more Homer Simpson than David Copperfield, but wise enough to see the ironies of his acts on earth and eventually able to tell a good joke in heaven." -The New York Times Book Review

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Wallace follows his inventive debut novel, Big Fish, with another ingenious tragicomedy about a father and son, death and life, storytelling and reality. Beginning when a dead Ray Williams arrives in Heaven, the novel unfolds as the deceased proceeds to tell his life story backwards. As dodgy and shiftless in the afterlife as he was on Earth, Ray finds himself in Heaven's popular Last Words discussion group, where, for dramatic effect, he lies about his final utterances. A series of flashbacks reveals Ray's defining moments, including his real last words and what they meant, in a funny, poignant narrative that moves with the clarity of a fable and the complexity of modern psychology. Ray spent his life hiding--from the demands of marriage and fatherhood; from his fears of sexual ambiguity--and each chapter riffs on his signature confusion about reality. Ray builds a tree house for his 10-year-old son, James, then usurps it, using it as a getaway from his wife and life, drinking and dreaming about his girlfriend. Elsewhere, Ray walks through his life like a ghost, although it is 1982 and he's alive. Often in the wrong place at the wrong time, Ray can be a meddler, as when he chases bluebirds in the yard of the attractive widow next door or finds himself accidentally in the middle of another couple's messy divorce. Consistently, scenes of Ray's everyday life turn both farcical and insightful. When Ray writes a letter to an ex-girlfriend, he's honest, then heartfelt, then confused, then ridiculous, and then he starts over again. Wallace's stylistic tour-de-force, bolstered by the richness of his family portraits, humor and appreciation of ordinary people, demonstrates again extraordinary originality, craftsmanship and charm. Author tour. (Apr.) FYI: Big Fish was a Book Sense and Barnes & Noble Discovery selection. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|