Ernest J. Gaines

Gaines, Ernest J. Bloodline. NY: Dial, 1968.

If "A Long Day in November" is a short story, "Heart of Darkness" might as well be.

Gaines is a competent author in a conventional sense, writing a style that comes out of 19th century realism moderated by 20th century consciousness of perspectives. Perspectives are arranged for easy identification. It's an easy read altogether. Long Day makes a statement, then: about values.

Basically Hapless Hubby gets a car, probably for the first time. He gads about, leaving his wife alone until she gets fed up and leaves him -- that's where we enter the narrative, seen through the POV of their early gradeschool-aged child. HH is probably messing around on her, though that's not altogether clear. She takes off to Grandma's; he follows within a few hours; Granny strews some buckshot over his head to discourage him.

He borrows money to pay a soothsayer. The cagey old lady tells him he has to burn his car. He goes to his wife and burns it, and she does indeed return to him.