Donald Harington was een belangrijke Amerikaanse auteur wiens werken zich vaak afspelen in het fictieve stadje Stay More in de Ozark Mountains, geïnspireerd door zijn jeugd. Ondanks het vroege verlies van zijn gehoor wist hij de unieke taal en de mentaliteit van de Ozark-bewoners meesterlijk vast te leggen en weer te geven. Hoewel door velen bejubeld als een van Amerika's grootste hedendaagse schrijvers, blijven zijn romans opmerkelijk onontdekt door het grote publiek. Critici prijzen zijn ongelooflijk originele en onderscheidende oeuvre, en noemen het een onontdekt continent binnen de Amerikaanse letteren.
Corrupt politicians of Stay More, Arkansas, frame Nail Chism for rape and sentence him to death in 1914, while Viridis Monday, an artist trained in Paris, draws trial sketches and decides that Chism is not guilty.
Jacob and Noah Ingledew trudge 600 miles from their native Tennessee to found Stay More, a small town nestled in a narrow valley that winds among the Arkansas Ozarks and into the reader's imagination. The Ingledew saga - which follows six generations of 'Stay Morons' through 140 years of abundant living and prodigal loving - is the heart of Harrington's novel. Praised as one of the year's ten best novels by the American Library Association when first published, this tale continues to captivate readers with its fusion of lyricism and comedy.
Harington turns to the insect world of his Ozark town of Stay More. The cockroach community perambulate on gitalongs and apprehend their environment through sniffwhips. Maidens dance to the scents and sounds of the bewitching Purple Symphony of early evening. The faithful attend prayer meetings - the exalted Lord is Man, of the Holy House, (so called because when He's drunk He shoots holes in the walls with His guns). Meet our hero Squire Sam Ingledew, an intrepid fighter, philosopher, and leader, afflicted by deafness - and by acute bashfulness in the presence of females. Meet the lovely Letitia Dingletoon, who lives with her Maw, Paw, and forty-two siblings in an old log, and is in a fair way of losing her virginity. The cast of characters is rounded out with a few mammals, and mythological critters too. There is cliff-hanging action, there is merrymaking. So come visit, and stay more in this fanciful irreverent underworld.