In this Book

summary
Initially appearing in Hebert’s first Darby Chronicles novel, The Dogs of March, Ollie Jordan and his clan live in shacks behind a huge billboard advertising a Vermont business. Although he’s a brooding character with an inquiring, philosophical turn of mind, Ollie has grown up with no education, no mentors, and a serious Freudian hang-up. A family history of poverty, stubborn pride, and a culture that runs contrary to mainstream society have robbed Ollie and his people of opportunity, even hope. They live by a culture of “succor and ascendancy.”

When Ollie is evicted from his shacks, he breaks his drinking rules and heads out into the wilderness with his disabled son, Willow, literally chained to him. Father and son are doomed. How that doom plays itself out, as experienced by the disturbed but insightful Ollie Jordan, is what makes A Little More Than Kin unique in contemporary American literature. Hebert gives his rural underclass protagonist the depths of a tragic hero.

Though A Little More Than Kin is action-packed and its prose is clean, hard, lyrical, and sometimes very funny, the book is at its heart an exploration into a brilliant mind that has laid waste to itself. This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy prose that explores the human psyche at its most perverse.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page, Copyright, Also by this Author
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. p. v
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Ollie and Willow
  2. pp. 1-5
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Sign
  2. pp. 6-22
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Charm
  2. pp. 23-33
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Mrs. Clapp
  2. pp. 34-45
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Donald's Junkyards
  2. pp. 46-55
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Niagara Falls Park
  2. pp. 56-62
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Grant Us Peace
  2. pp. 63-75
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. A Deal
  2. pp. 76-81
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. St. Pete's
  2. pp. 82-86
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Scarecrow
  2. pp. 87-96
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. A Night
  2. pp. 97-114
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. A Day
  2. pp. 115-138
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Hadly and Kay
  2. pp. 139-149
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Winter
  2. pp. 150-183
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Appointment
  2. pp. 184-195
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. The Charcoal Burners
  2. pp. 196-201
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Where Willow Went
  2. pp. 202-209
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Statues
  2. pp. 210-219
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Estelle
  2. pp. 220-224
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.