Beyond Twisted Sorrow

Book excerpt: Twentieth-century mass produced pulp crime usually ends with the protagonists unable to rid themselves of the presence of forces that inhibit professional or emotional growth. Stoic perseverance is often their acknowledgement of the power of fate. The diverse, still-emerging genre of Country (or Redneck, Ridgerunner, or Ozark) noir is marked by protagonists who have an instinct for community as a coherent territory and recreate the possibly self-destructive but stubbornly self-assertive traits that characterized what Greil Marcus called “the old, weird America.” Rural fiction’s protagonists struggle to replace a set of convictions which no longer sustain community or family. Often enough, their struggles produce a generational survival of perseverance, family and clan mutuality, the need for passing tough tests, and spirituality. They often wind up “far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow” (Dylan’s “Tambourine Man”).