East of Denver - (Strattford County) 3rd Edition by Gregory Hill (Paperback)

About the Book

Mixing pathos and humor in equal measure, East of Denver is an unflinching novel of rural America, a poignant, darkly funny tale about a father and son finding their way together as their home and livelihood inexorably disappears.

Book Synopsis

When Shakespeare Williams returns to his family's farm in eastern Colorado to bury his dead cat, he finds his widowed and senile father Emmett living in squalor. He has no money, the land is fallow, and a local banker has cheated his father out of the majority of the farm equipment and his beloved Cessna.

With no job and no prospects, Shakespeare suddenly finds himself caretaker to both his dad and the farm, and drawn into an unlikely clique of old high school classmates: Vaughn Atkins, a paraplegic confined to his mother's basement, Carissa McPhail, an overweight bank teller who pitches for the local softball team, and longtime bully D.J. Beckman, who now deals drugs throughout small-town Dorsey. Facing the loss of the farm, Shakespeare hatches a half-serious plot with his father and his fellow gang of misfits to rob the very bank that has stolen their future.

Mixing pathos and humor in equal measure, Gregory Hill's East of Denver is an unflinching novel of rural America, a poignant, darkly funny tale about a father and son finding their way together as their home and livelihood inexorably disappears.

Review Quotes

A breezily readable summer novel that not only entertains but also surprises. It explores the dynamics of family relationships without ever stooping to sentimentality, and it's one of this summer's most pleasant surprises.
Austin American-Statesman

East of Denver is a slow burn, but by the end it's burning hot: you'll leave this book a little charred. . . This is writing on a par with that of top-flight black-comic novelists like Sam Lipsyte and Jess Walter, and it deserves to be read.
Lev Grossman

All the characters are quirky if not downright bizarre and you never really know how things are going to play out. A witty, snarky, and thoroughly enjoyable read.
Portland Book Review

East of Denver is painstakingly funny -- the novel offers a deep, dark look into the real life issues that make society uncomfortable.
The Weekender

From beginning to end, the novel's great achievement is Hill's gift of characters: people who are often broken, crumbling, and struggling, but always irresistible.
Brother Patrick Mary Briscoe, O.P. Dominicana

What makes [East of Denver] special, and especially powerful, is that Hill, like his damaged characters, has a real talent for fucking everything up.
Tropmag

Gregory Hill...displays a keen, at times riveting, understanding of the absurdities and freedoms of small-town isolation and the dying way of life that was once the American standard.
Shelf Awareness

There is pathos. Sadness. Dark glimmers of hope. The entire book reveals this balance and shift and makes it absolutely worthwhile to pick up. Hill has a bright future.
Curled Up With a Good Book

[An] agreeable, offbeat debut novel...A story about a father and son who bond against the odds, with an ending as quirkily satisfying as the rest of the book.
Kirkus Reviews

There's no fantasy escapism here. It's real life. And real life is darkly comic.
Adventures With Words

Hill gives up plenty of laughs to go with the pain...a fine first novel from a writer with a great sense of character
Booklist

Dark humor, zany characters, and a sharp eye for detail distinguish this arch novel set in Colorado's dying farmland. . . Charming details of rural life are offset by a madcap plot and tragicomic details of dementia, even as father and son share high jinks and man-hugs on their inexorable journey to face the music.
Marysue Rucci

An eye for detail, an ear for dialogue, and a knack for story-telling distinguish this unflinching novel of rural America.
Publishers Weekly