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I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive
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Review
`We're lucky to have storytellers like singer/songwriter Steve Earle lay bare the truths of this world' --Times Educational Supplement
`The former junkie and `hardcore troubadour' has fought his demons and found God. Now he wants to show us how it's done.' --The Times
`Snapshots of brilliance'
--Metro
`Earle's language is vividly poetic, his humour is never clunky and he always convinces, whether working on a cinematic or intimate scale.' --Time Out
`The former junkie and `hardcore troubadour' has fought his demons and found God. Now he wants to show us how it's done.' --The Times
`Snapshots of brilliance'
--Metro
`Earle's language is vividly poetic, his humour is never clunky and he always convinces, whether working on a cinematic or intimate scale.' --Time Out
Book Description
From celebrated musician Steve Earle comes a novel imagining the life, addiction, and redemption of Doc Ebersole as he is haunted by his former patient, Hank Williams.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive is Steve Earle's first novel. Confusingly, the book shares the title with his recent album, though the only obvious link is perhaps a haunting presence of Hank Williams.
It tells the tale of Doc Ebersole, a morphine junkie whose addiction led to the loss of his medical license and the downward spiral that followed. In 1963 he finds himself living in the red light district of San Antonio, carrying out illegal abortions and minor surgeries to support his addiction. To make his troubles worse, he lives with the ghost of Hank Williams - punishment perhaps for the fact that Doc is rumoured to have given the country singer the final morphine dose that killed him out on a lonesome highway in West Virginia. But then he meets Graciela, a seemingly fragile Mexican girl who finds herself delivered to Doc by her wayward boyfriend. This night is a turning point for Doc and those around him: slowly Graciela's influence affects the whole neighborhood and an aura of hope permeates San Antonio. Helping Doc with his surgeries, she is seen as a miracle worker, calming and healing those who even Doc believed were beyond hope.
The book has a wonderfully varied cast of characters; linked by their status as outcasts, these whores, addicts and drunks are invisible to the rest of society. Yet even at their lowest, these people have redeeming qualities. This is a tale of survival and redemption. It questions the concept of faith, of `good' and `evil' as binary opposites, showing that even a priest can sin, that an abortionist can want only to heal. It is Doc who holds this community together, and Father Killen who shatters the peace in his over-zealous desire to `save' Graciela. The throes of addiction are described in vivid and uncomfortable detail, but Earle also shows the beauty of companionship; Manny is Doc's dealer, but also his friend and does everything to look after him, while the relationship between Doc and Hank's ghost is at times laugh-out-loud funny, but also incredibly touching as Hank is literally lost without Doc. It is the link between Doc and Graciela which is central to the novel though and the reader can't help but be moved by the tenderness and warmth, the inherent understanding between the two characters.
I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive is a beautifully nuanced novel, combining social reality with pop culture in just the right measure to make a story that is incredibly powerful and easily readable. Steve Earle has crafted a vivid and heart-warming story, mixing elements of magical realism with gentle humour and raw emotion to create his own modern-day myth.
It tells the tale of Doc Ebersole, a morphine junkie whose addiction led to the loss of his medical license and the downward spiral that followed. In 1963 he finds himself living in the red light district of San Antonio, carrying out illegal abortions and minor surgeries to support his addiction. To make his troubles worse, he lives with the ghost of Hank Williams - punishment perhaps for the fact that Doc is rumoured to have given the country singer the final morphine dose that killed him out on a lonesome highway in West Virginia. But then he meets Graciela, a seemingly fragile Mexican girl who finds herself delivered to Doc by her wayward boyfriend. This night is a turning point for Doc and those around him: slowly Graciela's influence affects the whole neighborhood and an aura of hope permeates San Antonio. Helping Doc with his surgeries, she is seen as a miracle worker, calming and healing those who even Doc believed were beyond hope.
The book has a wonderfully varied cast of characters; linked by their status as outcasts, these whores, addicts and drunks are invisible to the rest of society. Yet even at their lowest, these people have redeeming qualities. This is a tale of survival and redemption. It questions the concept of faith, of `good' and `evil' as binary opposites, showing that even a priest can sin, that an abortionist can want only to heal. It is Doc who holds this community together, and Father Killen who shatters the peace in his over-zealous desire to `save' Graciela. The throes of addiction are described in vivid and uncomfortable detail, but Earle also shows the beauty of companionship; Manny is Doc's dealer, but also his friend and does everything to look after him, while the relationship between Doc and Hank's ghost is at times laugh-out-loud funny, but also incredibly touching as Hank is literally lost without Doc. It is the link between Doc and Graciela which is central to the novel though and the reader can't help but be moved by the tenderness and warmth, the inherent understanding between the two characters.
I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive is a beautifully nuanced novel, combining social reality with pop culture in just the right measure to make a story that is incredibly powerful and easily readable. Steve Earle has crafted a vivid and heart-warming story, mixing elements of magical realism with gentle humour and raw emotion to create his own modern-day myth.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having seen that one of the main characters in this novel is the ghost of Hank Williams, I couldn't resist, although I knew of Steve Earle as a musician rather than as a writer. I was gripped by this from the very start. Set in Texas near the Mexican border in 1963 (it's not giving much away to say that JFK's assassination takes place offstage), this book brings together a gallery of marginal characters including a heroin-addicted abortionist, a madame, an illegal immigrant who might just be a saint . . . . I think what I like best is the dialogue: Earle's ear for music is apparent everywhere and the characters all have their distinctive voices. The ongoing talk between the Doc and Hank's ghost is perhaps best of all.
Very highly recommended.
Oh, and you might like to listen to Steve's album of the same title, too.
Very highly recommended.
Oh, and you might like to listen to Steve's album of the same title, too.
Format:Paperback
I am a long-time fan of Steve Earle's music so I was really keen to read his first novel and I was not disappointed. I literally couldn't put it down, reading it in one day. I may well read it all over again straightaway. Full of characters drawn with sympathy and understanding, at least one of them autobiographical, I would imagine, it held my attention from start to finish. Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent read
Just finished this book and really enjoyed it. I won't go into a description 'cause that been done but I would ask the the question as to why anyone would pay £8 for the kindle... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Robbo
A generous book about folks for whom the only way is up.
It's 1963 in Texas, and Doc is down on his luck. Haunted by the irascible ghost of his sometime friend and patient Hank Williams, Doc has fallen out of practice and into dope... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jason Mills
Vivid writing - even if the plot is a little incoherent
There's a lot to like about country stalwart Steve Earle's latest novel. It is roughly concerned with the ghost of equally famous country legend Hank Williams, who dies in... Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. Coulton
a compelling read
steve earle's descriptive narrative hooks you over the first few pages and doesn't let go.all of the characters are very believable in their varied roles but for me the ghost of... Read more
Published 7 months ago by I. R. Jesson
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