North Texas Libraries on the Go

Down to the Dirt is Joel Thomas Hynes' award-winning first novel. Told in the voices of various characters and from first and third-person perspectives, Down to the Dirt follows the hard-drinking, hard-living Keith Kavanagh from his sexual initiation with an older woman in the small community of his childhood to his Quixotic quest for meaning in the big city. Kavanagh is one of Canadian literature's most memorable and mesmerizing creations. He may appear hard as nails—a self-destructive hedonist, a dynamo of crackling energy and imminent violence—but at heart, he is (in the words of novelist Michael Crummey) “a troubled Holden Caulfield innocent" desperately searching for his place in a world that doesn't seem to want or need him. Hynes’ great achievement is in maintaining a convincing balance between tenderness and brutality as he guides the seemingly hopeless Kavanagh from one scene of comic chaos into another. Down to the Dirt is a lit fuse burning with anarchic energy. Originally published by Killick Press in 2004; reprinted by HarperCollins 2005.

Reviews

"In reading, whether with the eyes or the ears, serendipity is the discovery of a new writer -- that is, a writer previously unknown to the reader.

For me, one such discovery was Joel Thomas Hynes (also called just Joel Hynes), rising young literary star from Newfoundland. His 2004 debut novel, Down to the Dirt, won awards and created real buzz, drawing enthusiastic praise from established writers like Michael Crummey and David Adams Richards.

It is obvious why. The book, which reads like a collection of closely linked stories told from shifting points of view, is an explosive look at growing up in Newfoundland's "Irish Loop," along the southern coast of the Avalon Peninsula. By turns violent, frightening and funny, the book is also poignant, rollicking, raw and decidedly not for delicate sensibilities. It is a riveting read -- or listen, in its dynamic audiobook format. The unique spoken version captures every nuance of its in-yer-face poetry and inimitable vernacular.

Read by Hynes himself, Sherry White and Jonny Harris -- all three of whom appeared with Mary Walsh in CBC's blackly comic Hatching, Matching and Dispatching -- the audio version of Down to the Dirt (6.5 hours unabridged/MP3 CD, $29.95) is the work of Newfoundland's upstart audiobook publisher, Rattling Books.

You won't find it easily in the bookstores, even though the company has a distribution agreement with HarperCollins and you can get your favourite store to order it. But you can order it directly from the publisher at rattlingbooks.com

It's a heck of a trip."

About the Author

Joel Thomas Hynes (aka Joel Hynes) is the author of Down to the Dirt, winner of the Percy Janes First Novel Award, shortlisted for the Winterset Award and nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Award. He co-wrote the acclaimed stageplay The Devil You Don't Know and his recent play Say Nothing Saw Wood, won the Best Dramatic Script Award at the 2005 NL Arts and Letters. Also an actor, Hynes has performed leading roles in numerous stageplays, films and television productions, and recently received the prestigious Golden Sheaf Award for Best Actor at the Yorkton Film Festival.

Joel Hynes is currently a series regular and contributing writer for the CBC's Hatching, Matching and Dispatching. His new novel, Right Away Monday, is due for release in 2007. Hynes lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Format Information

Description

Reviews

About the Author

Digital Rights Information