Roy's World

A tie-in to the new documentary, Roys World, directed by Rob Christopher narrated by Lili Taylor, Matt Dillon and Willem Dafoe, these stories comprise one of Barry Giffords most enduring works, his homage to the gritty Chicago landscape of his youth

Barry Gifford has been writing the story of America in acclaimed novel after acclaimed novel for the last half-century. At the same time, hes been writing short stories, his "Roy stories," that show America from a different vantage point, a certain mix of innocence and worldliness. Reminiscent of Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn and Ernest Hemingways Nick Adams stories, Giffords Roy stories amount to the coming-of-age novel he never wrote, and are one of his most important literary achievements--time-pieces that preserve the lost worlds of 1950s Chicago and the American South, the landscape of postwar America seen through the lens of a boys steady gaze.

The twists and tragedies of the adult world seem to float by like curious flotsam, like the show girls from the burlesque house next door to Roys fathers pharmacy who stop by when they need a little help, or Roys mom and the husbands she weds and then sheds after Roys Jewish mobster fathers early death. Life throws Roy more than the usual curves, but his intelligence and curiosity shape them into something unforeseen, while Roys complete lack of self-pity allow the stories to seem to tell themselves.