Eveningland

Starred review from January 23, 2017
The interconnected stories in this exquisitely crafted collection explore the lives of characters living in and around Mobile, Ala., in the years preceding the destruction wrought by a fictional hurricane. A master of the short story, Knight (The Typist) distills some of life’s most significant and transformative experiences into a deceptively small amount of space: a young man’s coming of age expressed through his first experience of heartbreak in “Water and Oil”; the entirety of a marriage portrayed in a series of small moments as a middle-aged couple plans a birthday party in “Jubilee”; or a grieving widower descending into old age under the eye of his worried daughters in “The King of Dauphin Island.” Characters are frequently brought into potentially violent conflict, such as when a burglar is caught by a teenage girl while robbing a house he thought was empty in “Smash and Grab,” or in “Grand Old Party,” when a humiliated husband brings a shotgun to the home of his wife’s lover. And “Landfall,” the novella that closes the collection, is a stunning and heartbreaking portrait of a family trying to stay together as the hurricane is finally upon them. Peppered throughout with regional history that to firmly places the reader in the collection’s southern setting, these often funny and heartfelt stories explore life in its messy fullness while also exuding a deep, wistful wisdom. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Associates.

Starred review from January 1, 2017
A quiet, beautifully modulated group of six short stories and a novella set in or near Mobile, Alabama.Knight (The Typist, 2010, etc.) focuses mostly on characters who belong, as he says with gentle irony, to "the right kind of Mobile family." These are for the most part white Southerners working with--and sometimes against--hereditary privilege: an older generation of male real estate moguls, shipping magnates, lawyers, marina owners and their well-meaning but insulated children, who must grapple with the shadows thrown by these gruff, un-self-conscious self-made men, who, as one of the younger generation puts it, "could take up space like nobody in the world." Knight's style is deceptively plainspoken, with low-key wit and a laconic precision that often ripens, as a story proceeds, into poignancy. One standout, "Jubilee," focuses on a middle-aged bourgeois cliche, a 50th-birthday bash at a grand hotel, but does so with such deftness and delicacy that the reader is ambushed, in the end, by mingled envy, pity, and empathy. As Dean and Kendra walk along the boardwalk toward the party and spy their assembled friends inside, there's a frisson of nerves, a kiss quickly wiped away, and finally a bittersweet revelation, half joy and half caution: "They must stay this course until the end." But the centerpiece and triumph of the collection is its closing novella, Landfall, which tells with enormous finesse, speed, and concision, like a family saga in demi-glace reduction, the mingled stories of a shipyard-owning family--the widow of the paterfamilias, her daughter and two sons, the daughter's two daughters, one son's beloved dog--as a hurricane bears down on Mobile. From a distinguished Southern writer, a very fine collection capped by a masterful novella.

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October 1, 2016

A teenage girl holds a hapless burglar hostage, while a grief-stricken real estate agent buys up an entire island. These are some of the scenarios in Alabama-born Knight's story cycle, which is set in Mobile Bay just before a hurricane blows in. Knight's recent The Typist was on Oprah Winfrey's summer reading list and named among the Huffington Post 10 Best Books of 2010.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2017

Winner of a Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award special citation, Knight (The Typist; Dogfight: And Other Stories) frequently appears in New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, and the short stories in this new, thematically linked collection show why. Superbly drawn, all of the pieces are set in Mobile Bay, AL, on the Gulf of Mexico, and they seek to map complex, difficult, often hidden psychological and emotional truths. As suggested by the title, many of the stories feature characters in the later stages of life, confronting the passage of time, regret, and loves lost and found--all of which is handled with great humility, insight, and compassion. Two entries may turn out to be classics. "Water and Oil" is a wonderfully poignant story about first love, set at a marina on the Gulf, while "Smash and Grab" offers a remarkable take on a thief who robs homes and meets his match in the most unlikely way in a sleepy suburban community. VERDICT Essential for fans of literary fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 9/12/16.]--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017

Winner of a Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award special citation, Knight (The Typist; Dogfight: And Other Stories) frequently appears in New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, and the short stories in this new, thematically linked collection show why. Superbly drawn, all of the pieces are set in Mobile Bay, AL, on the Gulf of Mexico, and they seek to map complex, difficult, often hidden psychological and emotional truths. As suggested by the title, many of the stories feature characters in the later stages of life, confronting the passage of time, regret, and loves lost and found--all of which is handled with great humility, insight, and compassion. Two entries may turn out to be classics. "Water and Oil" is a wonderfully poignant story about first love, set at a marina on the Gulf, while "Smash and Grab" offers a remarkable take on a thief who robs homes and meets his match in the most unlikely way in a sleepy suburban community. VERDICT Essential for fans of literary fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 9/12/16.]--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.