{"product_id":"junior-ray-9781961938076","title":"Junior Ray","description":"\u003cp\u003eA Barnes \u0026amp; Noble Sensational Debut Novel\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Something of a miracle.\" - The Memphis Flyer\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Pritchard's acclaimed first novel, Junior Ray, takes the reader on a wild ride\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003einside the mind of Junior Ray Loveblood, a Mississippi Delta deputy sheriff\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eas bloodthirsty as he is misguidedly hilarious. Junior Ray narrates the story in\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehis own profane, colloquial voice, telling why he hates just about everybody, and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewhy he wants to shoot Leland Shaw, a shell-shocked World War II hero and poet\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewho is hiding in a silo from what he believes are German patrols.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough a series of sleights of hand, misdirections, and near misses, Junior Ray\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand his sidekick Voyd give a dark tour of the Delta country as they chase their\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emysterious prey. Junior Ray's thoughts are peppered with excerpts from Shaw's\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enotebooks-sometimes starkly different from Junior Ray's diatribe, sometimes\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eeerily similar-and by the end of the story, it is up to the reader to sort out whose\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ereality is more fantastic, Shaw's or Loveblood's, as the one stalks the other through\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe pages of this highly original and darkly comedic story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This writer knows the country whereof he speaks, its dialect, its mores and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efolkways. But this is not sociology. It is primitive fiction of the sort one rarely\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esees. More's the pity. Underneath this violent language and narrative, there is a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esweet truth. It deserves to be read.\" - Harry Crews, The Mulching of America\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Junior Ray runs on a belly laugh per page. When Junior Ray, a deputy sheriff\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewho makes Flem Snopes sound cultured, sets out to track down a 'maniac' loose\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ein the Mississippi Delta, he proves to be more demented than his prey. Like his\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eprotagonist, John Pritchard's novella is outrageous and ribald, a revolt against\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe literary school of manners and a ride that takes Southern Gothic to new\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eextremes.\" - Curtis Wilkie, Arkansas Mischief\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Tnsb","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50917152489746,"sku":"9781961938076","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_be6e8ead-bda9-4031-9ca1-fb606397d9f4.jpg?v=1738860972","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/junior-ray-9781961938076","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}