M Glenn Taylor grew up in Huntington, West Virginia - the influence of which is clear in his passionate writing. I loved his descriptions of the landscape, which reminded me in parts of Annie Proulx, in that the American landscape itself has a huge role in shaping the novel and its characters. Yet, this is also a novel which completely gripped me. It is a beautifully written, fantastic adventure with a unique and memorable hero - blues & folk singer, brave unionist, lone marksman distilling his own moonshine, cunninglinguist extraordinaire and snake charmer. While America changes into something unrecognisable around him, Trenchmouth doesn't change, he continues to embody the values of the lone frontiersman, for many still the archetype of the American dream.
Taylor has been compared to such legendary American writers as John Irving and Cormac McCarthy - indeed this book was a National Book Critics Circle Fiction Finalist, a prize which McCarthy won with All the Pretty Horses. Taylor is a literary author whose work has very wide potential appeal, and if enough people spread the word about how great his writing is I'm sure he could reach similar heights to these greats of American literature. His next novel, The Marrowbone Marble Company, publishes in the US in May 2010, and in the UK in February 2011. I'll be reading it as soon as I can get my hands on a copy!
Reviews of The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart:
The Guardian
The Independent
The Telegraph
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