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James Hagerty's
NEW NOVEL
Nut
Grass |
Norman,
nicknamed El Demente, “the crazy one," hitchhikes
and
hops freight across the southern United States in search
of Ma -
to him, MaBelle - and his ragtag family. Afflicted with
syphilis and a head wound from pimping at a Mexican
whorehouse just across
the Texas border, he struggles in both mindless and
lucid states to reach their dream home in the California
desert before the end...
Finley, the youngest brother, has filched the farm
tractor battery to replace the one stolen from the
family rattletrap. This brings the opening day of corn
harvest to a screeching halt. Sylvester, a sadistic
ex-Marine of a foreman, is sent to retrieve the stolen
battery at a funky gas station where a fourth
greasemonkey
brother, N.A., works. This triggers the first of many
fistfights and
death threats.
Sylvester despises MaBelle’s boys because the gigolo
second eldest, Pete, has made a conquest of his
high-rolling live-in love, Phoebe. Meanwhile, Pete’s
long-suffering pregnant wife is past due to deliver.
This turns into a life and death breach birth, which
further bogs down corn harvest, and results—after a hayride, rape,
and murder—in the eviction of MaBelle’s brood back to “God’s country” from whence they
arose.
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James Hagerty moved five years ago to Morongo
Valley, California, from Mesquite Tree Ranch in
nearby Thermal, the “hotspot” of the nation.
This is the setting
for Nut Grass, which takes place in the early
1950s before the era of welfare for the dirt
poor. Author of an underground work,
Rabbit’s Leap, and a short story col- lection,
Voices from the Tomb, Mr. Hagerty also enjoys
making rust-iron sculptures and playing piano
jazz.
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