In his fourth novel, Tim McLaurin's "knack for moving to the heart of the human experience and for doing so with grace and simple eloquence" ("Chicago Tribune") has never been clearer. A troupe of performers--an old-time carnival act--faces prejudice and demons from the past when they travel away from the South.
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In his fourth novel, Tim McLaurin's "knack for moving to the heart of the human experience and for doing so with grace and simple eloquence" ("Chicago Tribune") has never been clearer. A troupe of performers--an old-time carnival act--faces prejudice and demons from the past when they travel away from the South.
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Add this copy of The Last Great Snakeshow to cart. $2.57, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Putnam Adult.
Add this copy of The Last Great Snakeshow to cart. $3.23, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Putnam Adult.
Add this copy of Last Great Snake Show to cart. $7.50, good condition, Sold by Dunaway Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Saint Louis, MO, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Putnam Pub Group.
Add this copy of The Last Great Snake Show to cart. $8.95, very good condition, Sold by Keeper of the Page rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Enumclaw, WA, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Putnam Adult.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Very Good DJ. Putnam Adult 1997 First Edition NL with 1 Light wear to boards with tape marks on boards where jacket was once attached, Pos blotted out inside cover, tight bright pages. Bright exceptionally glossy dust jacket with mended front and old tag on spine.
Add this copy of The Last Great Snake Show to cart. $14.00, very good condition, Sold by Row by Row Bookshop rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sugar Grove, NC, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Putnam.
Add this copy of The Last Great Snake Show to cart. $20.00, very good condition, Sold by Between the Covers-Rare Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester City, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Add this copy of The Last Great Snake Show to cart. $27.00, like new condition, Sold by Robinson Street Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Binghamton, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Putnam Adult.
Add this copy of The Last Great Snake Show to cart. $73.63, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Putnam Adult.
Add this copy of The Last Great Snake Show to cart. $175.00, very good condition, Sold by Ground Zero Books, Ltd. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Silver Spring, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by G. P. Putnam's Sons.
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Seller's Description:
Bruce McLaurin (author photograph) Very Good in Good jacket. [14], 224, [2] pages. Signed by the author on the title page. Autographed copy sticker on front of DJ. Includes Prologue. Minor DJ wear. This book is a disarmingly sweet tale of Love and Courage from Tim McLaurin. Armed only with their wits, a few hundred dollars, and a scribbled list of potential clients to perform for, the crew heads westward in the Jubilee Express, a ramshackle bus previously owned by a gospel group. With each stop along their winding route, these innocents from a region of the country they have come to believe rife with intolerance face perversions and prejudices they never encountered at home. And with these confrontations, demons from the past come forward in a new light, and the need to escape heritage is balanced by the desire to defend it. The travelers are each called to give something of themselves, and each must finally determine whether, and at what price, one sells one's soul. Among other things, the late McLaurin spent his life as a Marine, Peace Corps volunteer, carpenter, truck driver, snake handler, N.C. State University professor and acclaimed author. The UNC-Chapel Hill journalism major left behind an impressive body of work including the novels The Acorn Plan, Woodrow's Trumpet, Cured by Fire and The Last Great Snake Show, the narrative poem Lola, and the memoirs Keeper of the Moon: A Southern Boyhood and The River Less Run. Cured by Fire won the 1995 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for fiction. Derived from a Kirkus review: A band of misfits sets off across country with a traveling road show to take their dying leader home, in a disarmingly sweet tale of love and courage from McLaurin. When Wilmington, North Carolina, becomes a hot spot for movie-making, Darlene, a former bar girl and topless dancer, seizes the opportunity and is soon accruing a fortune at her House of Joy. There, she offers the kind of illegal extras-moonshine, girls, and a snake show-that the movie types are only too happy to pay big money for. The Captain (Cappy), dressed up in a Civil War uniform, acts as doorman; Darlene, aging but still a beauty, is hostess; Gloria is a dancer and provider of additional services in private; and Jubal Lee handles the poisonous snakes. Each is making the best of lives that haven't quite panned out as they'd been intended: Darlene wants to get back to the land she'd been saving to buy on the Oregon coast; Cappy is haunted by nightmares from his time in Vietnam; Gloria is studying to become a cosmetician; and Jubal, who had dreams of being an environmentalist, is haunted by his brother's death, for which he feels responsible. When a hurricane destroys the House of Joy's building and leaves a piece of glass embedded in Darlene's brain, the group, now homeless and jobless, decide to take the dying hostess back to Oregon. Setting off in an old bus, they're soon joined by wealthy runaway Kitty Monroe, who's fled Wilmington on the day of her wedding. As Darlene grows frailer and their money diminishes, the troupe holds shows along the way. They finally reach Oregon, where the now-blind Darlene dies; Cappy finds himself at last able to put Vietnam behind him; and Jubal, Kitty, and Gloria, surprised by hidden strengths, also find happiness. A southern Wizard of Oz, celebrating kindness and character and the way that-sometimes-they can be bonded together.
