Rats Alley

By John H. Irsfeld

Rats Alley is the final volume in Irsfield's trilogy of Texas novels, a series begun in 1975 with Coming Through and followed in 1976 by Little Kingdoms. The three books share the landscape of modern Texas, a landscape scarred with the myriad compulsions and passions of the contemporary world. Set in Houston and in a mythical small Texas town, the book is the story of a young man's wrongful death, the ensuing cover-up by authorities, and the quest for justice and then revenge by the victim's father. As the story inevitably tracks to its brutal end, suicide and murder are among the fruits of the first wrong acts. If there is a lesson in this dark but moral tale, it is best expressed by the following lines from W.H. Auden's "September 1, 1939" "Those to whom evil is done, Do evil in return."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874171172
• ISBN13: 9780874171174
• Release Date: June 1987
• Publisher: University of Nevada Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Another evocative look at humanity through its people

While it's less nihilistic and sharp than Irsfeld's Little Kingdoms, Rats Alley offers more than enough in truly sympathetic characters and heart-tearing scenes. The portayal of death to a young man and its after effects on those left behind is carefully played out, and hardly a point of view is left out of the progressing story. Serious reading for those interested in such.

In the tradition of William Faulkner

In Rats Alley, John Irsfeld creates understanding and even compassion and sympathy for a wide variety of the most ordinary human beings. His characters are the nameless police officers and high school kids and housewives that most people would never notice and soon forget. Yet, in this story, these individuals stay with you long after you have finished the book.Set in Houston and a small Texas town, the story explores right and the wrong and the string of consequences that spring from seemingly incidental actions. Above all else, however, Irsfeld is a great story-teller, in the tradition of Faulkner, Twain and other great Southern writers.J. David Green