Back to Wando Passo"Back to Wando Passo quivers with authentic life and is so bold in concept and audacious in scope that it seems like the summing up and exclamation point of a great writer's career. The novel contains everything -- from the horror of 1860s rice culture slavery, to the perils of modern love, to the history of rock and roll . . . Payne takes on the whole known world and pulls it off with the deftness of a writer in his prime, enhancing a literary reputation that burns as brightly as any writer of his generation."
-- Pat Conroy
"Rock-'n'-Roll, Charleston by moonlight, passion dangerous and doomed, the specter of slavery and misty memories of blasted Confederate bravado, all sung in a key of high rhapsody: Could a novel be more Dixie-fried?
"Craggily handsome, yet a tad wrecked in a sexy, world-weary way, Ransom Hill is pure fantasy. Only a master fabulist could pull him off... Payne (Early from the Dance) hooks the reader like a wide-eyed catfish... Payne's plot is a fine, twisty marvel, but what ultimately sells this epic is his outsized passion. Steamy sex, family life in all its closeness and conflict, landscape in high relief, quasi-biblical prose poetry--about the only thing this gusher lacks is irony. And that's a big plus.
"Basically defining "sweeping saga"... [Back to Wando Passo] is heaven for die-hard romantics."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"...a complex and rich literary effort... Like 'Cold Mountain,' 'Wando Passo' could turn out to be both a best-seller and a modern masterpiece."
-- The Herald-Sun
Payne Pens Charleston Blockbuster
"Back to Wando Passo" is destined to be a breakout publication...His previous three novels have won awards and sold well. I predict a bestseller this time around.
"I am a huge fan of Payne. He is a master of interpersonal dynamics, explosive scenes (in a way that compares him to Pat Conroy) and lyrical prose... Readers will gleefully embrace this book. It's big. It's exotic. And it's got plenty of trademark Payne.
"Payne hits paydirt with Ransom (called Ran)... a hero-clown with manic-depressive symptoms, remarkable resiliency, a chip-on-his-shoulder upbringing, literary genius, and no assured good future...
"The novel, in all its fertile bulk, heads toward a piece of wisdom. True freedom is more important than true love, which is, however, connected.
"There's even some of the appeal of "Gone with the Wind" in Payne's novel."
--Asheville Citizen-Times
"A luscious, engaging, and heartfelt novel with plenty to say about individual responsibility and the legacy of slavery."
-- Library Journal, Editor's Pick
"... wildly readable... the praise that Pat Conroy, Annie Dillard and Lee Smith have lavished on fellow Southerner David Payne's fifth novel is largely deserved. Back to Wando Passo is that most delicious of guilty pleasures: a big, fat, decadent Southern-fried potboiler, fitfully brilliant, frequently over the top, chock-full of lust and betrayal, miscegenation and madness, but held together by Payne's gorgeous writing. At the very least, this should be the most literate beach read of the year."
-- The Washington Post
"'Back to Wando Passo' is a big book, big in ideas, lush in its poetic text, large in its expansive reach through centuries, extravagant in its addresses on slavery, war, love, race, marriage and spirit.
"With his rich writing style, his troubled heroes, his embrace of the Lowcountry and his broad sweep of topics, Payne calls to mind Pat Conroy... Like Conroy, Payne is irresistible... You submit to his wash of words and are swept along, past the probable and improbable, not that worried which is which."
--The State
"A haunting portrait of the American South."
-- Vanity Fair
“It is said that the American South is a haunted land -- haunted by the region's violent past and by the shades of the long-dead people who were part of that past.
“The claims of the past take on a decidedly supernatural cast in "Back to Wando Passo," the fifth novel by Hillsborough writer David Payne…Wando Passo is the unusual name of a storied place, a former rice plantation in the South Carolina backcountry. The setting for long-ago acts of interracial lust, bloodletting and vengeance, Wando Passo is haunted -- not by the restless ghosts that roam other stories of what Flannery O'Connor famously called the "Christ-haunted" South, but by the spirits of an ancient and earthy religion, that of voodoo.
“Into this steaming world strides Ransom Hill, a middle-age rock musician who has seen better days, seeking to reconcile with his estranged wife, Claire…
“Since time out of mind, Claire's family has owned Wando Passo and its dark secret: Shortly after the Civil War, Claire's great-great-great-grandparents walked out of the house one day and vanished without a trace…
“Within a day of his not-entirely-welcome arrival, Ran discovers that all is not normal, natural or right at Wando Passo. He discovers an overturned iron caldron partly buried in the ground, containing strange artifacts. Standing in the front yard, he spots a mysterious figure silhouetted in an upstairs window of the empty house…Then a landscaper's backhoe and dozer uncover a pair of human skeletons -- directly beneath the spot where Ran had earlier found the overturned caldron.
“And that's not the sum of Ran's problems. He strongly suspects that Claire is having an affair…Ransom sees his relationship with Claire slipping away and in need of defending -- with deadly force, if necessary.
“Ran's struggles echo the long-ago events of interracial love, jealousy and murder that haunt Wando Passo. During the Civil War-era, a love grew between the white mistress of the plantation, Addie DeLay, and her husband's half-brother, a black servant named Jarry… Their love grows and is consummated, and it seems that all will end well for them -- until Addie's husband, long rumored dead in the war, returns home…
“Payne asks us to question whether we are bound by the evils of the past or can break free of them. Is forgiveness possible for the deepest hurts? Is love stronger than death?
“These are weighty questions that permeate a remarkable novel, written by a master craftsman. The accurately captured, formal speech patterns of Addie and the other 19th-century characters contrasts sharply with the short, declarative sentences of Ransom and the modern-day characters. Some of Payne's sentences may cause the reader to simply pause and admire… "Back to Wando Passo" is a novel not to be missed by readers who appreciate an intriguing, well-crafted story, one that draws one's thoughts into matters often feared and avoided, written in language that fairly sings.”
-- The News & Observer
"Payne's richly ornate Southern saga... fashions elaborate prose and touching characterization into an absorbing tale."
-- Publishers Weekly
"In many ways, Payne's novel is like [his main character,]Ransom Hill. You can find fault, but it's hard not to like Ransom, because he's so full of life with all its sadness and joy, hope and despair. Wando Passo has... undeniable allure."
--USA Today
"Back to Wando Passo is like a delightful, slightly dangerous house party that swept me up for days. What I admired most were the characterizations, particularly that of the protagonist, Ransom Hill, a triumph. I adore Payne's wicked humor, his rich, inventive language, and his deep engagement with the moral tangle of American history. Though this book is Southern down to the molecular level, its ambition, scope, and range are universal."
-- Annie Dillard
"Back to Wando Passo is a mystery story inside a history story; a supernatural, psychological roller-coaster ride through the frightening fun house that is our American South. Chilling and thought-provoking, Back to Wando Passo delivers a delicious new twist on the ghost story."
-- Randall Kenan
"Back to Wando Passo soars!... This novel has it all-- credible characters, history, mystery, music. The tension pulls the reader, wondering how this story will end... David Payne has... created a classic novel."
--Contemporary Literature
"The range of characters is astonishing and also the passion. I really think this is a work of genius... Sometimes a good writer will happen upon a story that literally lifts the work to another plane . . . this is what happened to David Payne with his astonishing new novel, Back to Wando Passo. This big, ambitious book, rooted in a tormented family and its Southern past, will remind some readers of Pat Conroy. Here's the basic plot: in an attempt at family reconciliation, a down-on-his luck musician moves to an inherited South Carolina rice plantation, where he unearths a voudou pot in the garden. His search for its meaning takes him--andus---back a hundred years to an illicit, interracial love affair during the last tempestuous days of the Civil War, a tale infused with the voudou culture of Wando Passo's slaves. Masterfully interweaving contemporary and 19th century story lines, Payne crafts a suspenseful tale of tragic love that spans the centuries and goes beyond death. Back to Wando Passo holds the deepest themes of human life - passion, jealousy, race, and belief - at the center of its torn heart."
-- Lee Smith
"An elaborate, supernatural mystery told in a luscious Southern rococo style."
--Select Fiction
"Great novelists are philosophers-- keen observers of life.
"This description fits David Payne. The lifeblood of Payne's latest novel, "Back to Wando Passo," is his sensitivity to the human condition. He uses it to examine big questions in life, and a captivating Civil War and modern-day tale is conjured in the process... his latest novel is a multi-layered story that entertains and educates.
""Imagine Wando Passo-- a verdant South Carolina homestead. The skies are thick with waterfowl. Old trees form canopies pierced by the six chimneys of the riverfront mansion...
"Payne's unusual, yet apt, descriptions of life and land foster an intimacy between the reader and characters...
"The best fiction mirrors real life. Payne is a master at understanding and re-creating it."
-- The Virginian-Pilot
"Payne's engrossing narrative resembles that of Rushdie['s Satanic Verses] in that it describes the experience of crossing racial, temporal, and ethnic-cultural-national boundaries. Doing so, Payne pioneers in uniting the historic and global South...."
-- Grounded Globalism, James L.Peacock
"... Payne skillfully treat[s] themes of race and gender while giving the historical subject a human face... Payne achieves a perfect balance between the past and the present and between belief in the supernatural and skepticism. Is Ransom possessed by a wandering spirit from the past or is he suffering from an unmedicated bipolar disorder? To his credit, Payne never definitively answers... [He] creates complex characters: human, flawed, and likeable..."
-- Betina Entzminger, North Carolina Literary Review
"Who the lovers choose in the end is as riveting as how the rejected ones deal with it. Payne does a splendid job telling a fascinating story. I was a 'believer' from the beginning."
-- Oxford Public Ledger
"Unforgettable characters coupled with a fast-paced plot make "Back to Wando Passo" read a lot faster than its length would make one think possible. Even the leisurely reader will finish this novel in record time."
--The Register-Parajonian
"Back to Wando Passo" is a novel filled with adventure, mystery, beautiful writing and wicked humor. Payne has created a Southern gothic novel and does a masterful job moving between two stories separated by four generations. The story raises questions which are not answered until the very last pages of the book, at which point all comes to light..."
--The Salisbury Post
"Payne offers his readers elegant prose that captures the beauty of the Low Country... [He] brings unhappy souls of two eras to life with detailed descriptions of music and poetry, war and work... an often colorful and sometimes moving depiction of the South, past and present."
-- Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Ran and Addie are likeable characters...the novel is well-written and does an admirable job of juggling two story lines. Back to Wando Passo is part love story and part ghost story... the book is definitely worth reading."
-- Winston-Salem Journal
"Like "Cold Mountain," it is rich literary fiction and, perhaps, a classic."
--The Chapel Hill News
Gravesend LightRon Charles, The Christian Science Monitor:
"If you don't belong to a book club, start one with this book. If you already have a reading group, stage a coup during that frustrating selection process at the end of each meeting. This is a novel to disturb the deadly niceness that afflicts so many book clubs. A smart love story that will incite group wrestling. the grains of this plot eventually gain an irresistible momentum till it begins to move like an avalanche, crashing toward a spectacular natural disaster and a moral calamity. Joe's search for the magnetic field that orients people's lives and shapes their thoughts and actions finally takes him deep into that first, final, and most harrowing subject: himself. The novel reaches its climax in an explosively told disaster at sea that makes it clear there are no perfect storms. Payne is a rough, but trustworthy captain, and this is a story that rolls and pitches through all the moral waves of modern life."
Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe:
"David Payne is a writer whom readers take personally, a novelist who speaks to their lives, whose books become part of their experience. He began with a flourish in 1984 with the publication of an exuberant fabulation, ''Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street.'' This was followed by another large novel, ''Early from the Dance'' and, in 1993, a shorter country cousin, ''Ruin Creek.'' ''Gravesend Light'' [is] another wonderful book.Payne sees and hears the human reality in every situation; the book is certainly the captivating summer read promised in some of the early publicity, but it is also something different from, and more than, that. Payne pegs all of his characters as adroitly as a casting director, but then they surprise us with things that don't ''belong'' there; he hears the variety and music of different kinds of speech; he knows what things look like and how they feel in the hand; he has learned how a fishing boat works and how complicated the human heart is. His words are like stones, polished smooth, then dropped into great depths, leaving ever-widening ripples of implication. The book demonstrates the value of instinct, the virtue of thinking twice. Payne sees his characters for who they are, accepts them, loves them, and joins their voices in a hymn of life."
The Winston-Salem Journal:
"David Payne is rapidly earning himself a place high on the list of excellence among American authors writing serious fiction. In this story of a young man in search of self-knowledge, Payne mines a psychological depth that few authors attempt, never mind reach.his writing skills are prodigious. [Reminiscent] of Pat Conroy or perhaps a Southern John Irving."
Roanoke Times:
"The best novels are written over and over again. They are both revised and repeated. Gravesend Light is a novel about the rhythm of life and the mystery of revelation. The characters travel and seek and learn and, in the end, accept themselves and each other. This creative pattern began before Gilgamesh and will continue so long as we read and are interested in learning about ourselves. Gravesend Light is a realistic and hopeful story, managing somehow to confirm all those who have faith and strive. It certainly has a powerful and redeeming message and stands head and shoulders above most contemporary fiction."
Ruin CreekRichard Dyer, The Boston Globe:
"David Payne may not be the most publicized American novelist homing in on 40, but he is certainly the most gifted. "Ruin Creek" is full of life, full of wisdom, full of words that singe, sing and somehow console. The strength of "Ruin Creek" is in the interplay of voices, the people, the rootedness in time and place that alone can support a flowering into the universal. There is a shimmer of nostalgia over the whole novel, and the glare of human cruelty cuts right through it, but neither cancels the other out: this is a rare achievement. "Ruin Creek" grabs you and won't let you go."
The Dallas Morning News:
"I begin with what may seem a bold observation: David Payne is the most gifted American novelist of his generation. Not to put to fine a point on it, "Ruin Creek" is the best new novel I've read this year. As in "Early from the Dance," he sets his literary table on the Carolina Outer Banks, a literary territory as palpable in these pages as Tobacco Road in Erskine Caldwell's works or the Salinas Valley in John Steinbeck's"
Tim McLaurin, The New York Times Book Review:
"In his fine new novel, "Ruin Creek," [David Payne] writes of a people and a place from deep in his heart. Mr. Payne knows the hopes, fears and habits of his characters, and weaves a powerful, lyrical story for them that is a joy to read."
Linda Barrett Osborne, Washington Post Book World:
"[Payne] understands that place most families inhabit-somewhere between love and necessity, between truth and myth, between self and the expectations, the dreams and, ultimately, the separateness of others. "Ruin Creek" has an elegiac beauty. It celebrates the power of family love, even as it chronicles its dying. Writing this fine evokes a past time, but also a state of boyhood that is timeless."
The Providence Journal:
"This is an extraordinary work, richly textured and painfully precise in its rendering of emotion. Stories this brilliant are told only by the masters of fiction, a short list to which the name of David Payne now belongs."
Richmond Times-Dispatch:
"A master stylist, Payne breathes life into his material, cloaking it in rich, evocative prose and deftly drawing us into his world until, suddenly, we realize that this is our family, these are our own tragic flaws. For a relatively young author, Payne has a rich knowledge of life."
South Bend Tribune:
"Payne is a superb writer with a keen memory of youth. "Ruin Creek" is to preadolescence what "A Separate Peace" or "Catcher in the Rye" is to adolescence."
Early from the DanceRichard Dyer, The Boston Globe:
"Brilliant. a defining voice for his generation. Reading stretches of "Early From the Dance" is like attending a play in which every line is a curtain line. Payne has the deepest human sympathy for his characters and knowledge of the heart; everyone in this book comes alive. Payne is extraordinarily gifted."
The Los Angeles Times:
". choreographed with sinewy definition and split-second timing. David Payne is in top form, and it's some of the strongest, most demanding writing to be found in American fiction today."
Raleigh News & Observer:
"Payne's new novel captures the desperation of being 18, confused and wildly in love, and it will remind readers of the poignance and amazing grace of second chances."
Newsday:
"A symphony of a novel. Payne keeps us mesmerized."
Confessions of a Taoist on Wall StreetJoseph McLellan, Washington Post Book World:
"This novel, with its glorious style and rich profusion of detail, should remind readers of the time, fading into memory, when the works of John Barth began to burst on the literary horizon. It is, for all its length, a book to be read twice, first to be gulped down in great chunks during sleepless nights; later to be sipped slowly, savoring details, like a well-brewed cup of tea. absorbing and deeply rewarding."
The Dallas Morning News:
"David Payne's first novel reads like the happy collaboration of the eastern mystic Lao Tzu and the discount broker Charles Schwab, a hybrid of the I CHING and HOW TO PROFIT FROM THE COMING STOCK MARKET CRASH co-written by a prophet and a profiteer. I marvel at Payne's virtuosity, his technical brilliance, his enormous ambition. Take a tip: his stock is bound to rise."
Business Week:
"Exuberant. the makings of a young Charles Dickens-a consummate storyteller in love with language and all the variations of life, people, and improbable situations."