In his fictional Falls North Carolina–a watchful zone of stifling mores–Allan Gurganus’s fond and comical characters risk everything to protect their improbable hopes from prejudice poverty betrayal. Seeking warmth and true connection they shield themselves and loved ones while creating a rarely-glimpsed world of valor minor grandeur side-street heroics. Muriel Fraser a poor Scottish-born spinster is the subject of a John Singer Sargent portrait in the imagination of her devoted grand-nephew. Tad Worth a young man dying of AIDS finds ways to restore vitality to old friends and 18th-century houses. Overnight one pillar of the community accused of child molesting becomes the village pariah. And Clyde Delman ugliest if kindest man in Falls finds the love of his eight-year-old son jeopardized when troubling family secrets arise. In each of these splendid complex tales Allan Gurganus wrings truths–sometimes bruising ofttimes warming–from human hearts as immense as they are local.
