Fallen from grace and shunned by respectable society, Bobby Long is joyously content drowning his past in cheap hooch and bedding any woman with low standards and high tolerance. His partner, an unproductive writer named Byron Burns, is happy to join him for the long ride down.
Their distant salvation is an unwritten manuscript sure to redeem their standing and pride—though both know it’s just a thin reason to get up and go to the bar. When their latest female companion dies in their fleabag hotel room, the duo find themselves putting up her young but futureless daughter, Hanna.
Despite their own dishonorable intentions and aging desires, the pair cannot abide her lack of ambition and low expectations for herself. Together, they dust off their teachers’ instincts and conspire to use every means necessary—legal, illegal, fair, and unfair—to get Hanna into college. Fueled by the purest motives they can muster, the men battle the seduction of vice to give Hanna a chance, and discover for themselves that true character doesn’t drown easily.
Ronald Everett Capps is a graduate of Auburn University and lives in Fairhope, Alabama, where, in addition to writing, he paints and sculpts. Off Magazine Street is his first novel.
“In this post-Katrina era, Capp's evocation of New Orleans in all weathers and moods seems like a forgotten dream of a long-lost city. It is more than a backdrop; its personality and smells permeate every page…Capps beautifully nails the kinds of places tourists never see yet which deeply define, or defined, the local culture…[It is] a fine and nuanced portrayal of damaged, complex people attempting to make their way. Capps' deft blending of place, language, human longing and hope make this book a command performance.”
— – Mobile Register (BOOK OF THE YEAR)
Publication Date: September 14, 2004
Paperback
$24.00
336 pages
ISBN 978187844886
trim size: 6x9 Hardcover