Gay, who was a carpenter and drywall hanger until four years ago, when he sold his first novel at the age of 57, is blessedly unschooled. He may do a few things writers learn not to do in workshops–such as pile on adverbs–but his prose is as natural and pure as it comes. “You got a look about you like you don’t care whether you live or die, and maybe you’d a little rather die,” says one character. This is fiction at its most real.
