Yonder Stands Your Orphan - Tapa blanda

Set in and around Eagle Lake, Mississippi, Yonder Stands Your Orphan pits Man Mortimer, an aging pimp who resembles Conway Twitty, against a group of hopelessly flawed lakeside denizens, including a preacher with a biker past and a Maltese cross tattooed on his cheek, a Christian saxophonist in a Latin-fusion band fronted by his wife, an elderly veteran who's become a sentimental and unstable proponent of animal rights, a pair of preteenage boys who are half feral and more mature than any of the adults around them. Mortimer learns that he has competition for the favor of Dee Allison, the town femme fatale. Despite his generally contemptuous attitude toward other people, Dee's very disinterest in him has made Mortimer feel some sort of love for her, and her betrayal sends him over the edge. He stabs his rival, who retaliates, and he ends up hospitalized. He then tracks the rival down and cuts his face up. This begins an on-again, off-again crime spree in which his fascination with ever-more-improbable knives and his desire to mutilate those who offend him come together. He is also simultaneously trying to cover up an old crime-the disposal of the bodies of an old girlfriend, who killed herself and her child whom he refused to claim-and trying to get an in at a camp for orphans so he can seduce the older, preteenage girl orphans into his burgeoning amateur porn empire. It culminates in a showdown between the heavily-armed orphans, Mortimer, and whomever happens to be standing in the way.

Barry Hannah's collection of short stories, Airships, is regarded as a contemporary classic.His novel Ray was nominated for the American Book Award.He is also the author of High Lonesome and Bats Out of Hell.Barry Hannah's achievements in fiction have been honored by the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Letters.Mr. Hannah lives in Oxford, Mississippi.