The Evening Road

Imagine you're all fired up about going from your small Indiana town in summer 1920 to witness a lynching in the nearby town of Marvel. There's plenty of liquor on hand, and everyone you meet on the way is as excited as you are about this upcoming spectacle. Hunt (Neverhome) relates here the attempt of Ottie Lee Henshaw; her husband, Dale; and her lecherous boss Bud to make their way to the lynching. Bud's car breaks down early on, and the hapless trio are forced to rely on passersby to get them to their destination. Not everyone is going to the lynching, however. In a parallel story, teenage Calla Destry, a resourceful African American who has been orphaned and is trying to escape from Marvel to start a new life. William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying—with its mix of the tragic and the comic—comes to mind as one follows Hunt's characters on the paths he's laid out for them.