I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive [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.

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.

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 addiction, scraping by in a boarding house by performing back-street abortions for prostitutes and poor girls. One of these waifs, Graciela, is left behind with him, unable to speak English and with nowhere to go. Over time he and Graciela become partners - in 'crime', if not precisely in love - but her startling and inexplicable healing powers begin to draw unwelcome attention.

This is a smart novel at the bottom of society. Steve Earle's prose is economic and pointed and he evokes the time and place very well. Ultimately the characters are fumbling towards ways to get right with themselves and their gods, and Earle deftly mixes elements from Mexican, Catholic and American cultures, his fantasy inclusions nodding towards magic realism. A word-fencing conversation between two priests, pulled out of a hat near the end, is a particular treat. The book is a heartening yet clear-sighted redemption song.