James Baker Hall’s blackly comic coming-of-age novel has been denied, by unfortunate circumstances surrounding its original 1964 publication, its rightful place alongside classics such as Catcher in the Rye and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in the canon of essential late-twentieth-century American fiction.

Set in Lexington, Kentucky, the story unfolds through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Yates Paul. He becomes consumed with revelations about his inattentive father’s loneliness, his grandmother’s stormy relationship with his boisterous alcoholic uncle, and the frustration of being the best photography assistant in town when no one else knows it. In pursuing his career and falling in love with women twice his age, the precocious Yates falls back on Walter Mittyesque daydreams to cope with a frequently humorous, sometimes dark, world.

Long respected among literary insiders, sought after but nearly impossible to obtain, this “lost” classic will finally reach the wider audience it deserves.

Prize-winning author James Baker Hall, former Poet Laureate of Kentucky, teaches creative writing at the University of Kentucky. He has published many volumes of poetry, collections of photography and other works, including The Total Light Process and Tobacco Harvest .

Sarabande Books has recently published a new book by James Baker Hall: Praeder’s Letters. See http://www.sarabandebooks.org/ for more information.