LITERATURE: Provinces of Night – Foreshadowing and Black Humor

Gay is quite skillful in setting up his story and giving us plenty of sideplots that are self-standing and yet nicely interwoven by the characters.  For example, Brady Bloodworth, Fleming’s uncle and Boyd’s brother, supposedly claims certain powers of foresight and abilities to cast hexes on people.  Brady appears to successfully sicken the mailman who’s run over his dog. Fleming tells his friend Junior Albright about his uncle and Albright, whom Gay has already endowed with a serious problem as a result of a rather hilarious scenario, does ask Brady to help him.  But there is something that Gay has given us as a detail earlier in the book that we delightedly pick up on when the spell is about to be cast.

Love it.

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