The Pitcher Shower

Stay More #11

by Donald Harington

When Hoppy rolls into town in his horse-drawn truck, he is often met with anticipation and attention because he brings shoot-em-up pictures, but his predictable routine is disturbed when a teenager stows away in his truck, and together they set off on a series of adventures throughout the Ozarks.

Genres: Fiction

202 pages, Hardcover

First published July 30, 2005

About the author

Donald Douglas Harington was an American author. All but the first of his novels either take place in or have an important connection to "Stay More," a fictional Ozark Mountains town based somewhat on Drakes Creek, Arkansas, where Harington spent summers as a child.

Harington was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. He lost nearly all of his hearing at age 12 due to meningitis. This did not prevent him from picking up and remembering the vocabulary and modes of expression among the Ozark denizens, nor in conducting his teaching career as an adult.

Though he intended to be a novelist from a very early age, his course of study and his teaching career were in art and art history. He taught art history in New York, New England, and South Dakota before returning to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, his alma mater, where he taught for 22 years before his retirement on 1 May 2008.

Harington is acclaimed as one of America's greatest writers of fiction, if not one of its best known. Entertainment Weekly called him "America's greatest unknown writer." The novelist and critic Fred Chappell said of him "Donald Harington isn't an unknown writer. He's an undiscovered continent." Novelist James Sallis, writing in the Boston Globe: "Harington's books are of a piece -- the quirkiest, most original body of work in contemporary U.S. letters."

Harington died of pneumonia, after a long illness, in Springdale on 7 November 2009.

Harington's novels are available from The Toby Press in a uniform edition, with cover illustrations by Wendell Minor. Since his death, The Toby Press has made available the entire set of Harington novels as The Complete Novels of Donald Harington.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

as unfair as it is to give me 10 stay more books and then veer off into non-stay more territory, i forgive you, donald harington, but i miss my friends...

[Bud Mallar · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, if you haven't started at the beginning of Mr Harington's series, start now.

Each book, although they have common thread running through them of a story line, is different, with different viewpoints, different characters, perhaps a cockroach and a ghost or two.

They, like this one, are about the characters of the rural Ozarks, real people, with real stories, with real problems and interesting solutions.

I'm sure greater literary minds than mine got a lot more of the parallels of A Midsummer's Night Dream than I out of this one, but who cares.

These are wonderful folks, living wonderful lives, doing wonderful things, and, okay, a bit of mostly non graphic sex thrown in for fun.

You will instantaneously be involved in the lives of these characters.

And sadly, there are only a few more books in the series.

What will I do when I need to feel good all under when there are no more Stay More books to read?

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unique, compelling, heart-warming, and at times, humorous historical read.

[Lisle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming, light-hearted, een silly...Donald Harigton harks back to the days of traveling picture shows, when a fan of Hopalon Cassidy could pull into town with he truck, hang up a coated besheet and show pitchers to the residents of the rural Ozarks. Our hero, called Hoppy (the show-er of pitchers) follows a trail laid by William Shakespeare, among others, with romance, pornography, car chases, larceny, and more! Harington is always deft with his material. It was a little slow getting into this one, but well worth it.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I wish had been about three times as long as it is. So engrossing is this story of a moving-picture shower that I wanted it to go on forever, riding along through the Ozarks with Hoppy, around the hairpin switchbacks of Newton County. The book opens with Hoppy blowing his horn announcing the next moving picture show. It took me to the end of the first chapter to realize what Harington was doing with this novel, and then I was hooked. I couldn't put the book down and in fact plan to read it again. As with all of Harington's novels, I think a second and third reading would be extremely rewarding. But multiple readings are not necessary to appreciate the story of a band of interesting characters of an era gone by. It's not exactly within his Stay More series, yet some of our favorite aspects of Stay More at least make cameo appearances. The playful narrative hops along like the sturdy truck that is Hoppy's world, and we are happy to be along for the ride. This was an excellent, excellent book and one of the best books I read in 2007.

[Jim Krotzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pitcher Shower by Donald Harington is a delightful story, really a love story about an itinerant who shows movies at small towns in the Ozarks. He is accompanied by Sharline Whitlow. The main conflict is the robbery of his Hopalong Cassidy movies and serials by the Reverend Binns. The pitcher shower (picture projectionist) is Hoppy Boyd, the protagonist, who hates himself, even though everyone else seems to love him including Sharline. This is a light, shallow novel that does not fill in much history of Stay More.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

If any of Donald Harington's books could be made into movies, 'The Pitcher Shower' would be it.

[Veronika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hoppy's story of his travelling pitcher show.

[Steve Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A typically fascinating and fun wild ride from Mr. Harington.

[Jeffrey Zima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book by Donald Harrington!! This guy is fast becoming one of my top 5 favorite authors.

[Dominic · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy, shortish, sexy and Shakespearian Stay More instalment (the 11th in the series). Actually it's not that much of a Stay More story (only references to it - if you don't know what or where Stay More is, read the first in the series. It's darker than The Pitcher Shower and very good, too: Lightning Bug). But you can also start with here without missing out on the fun.

The story in this one (I only understood 'pitcher' after seeing the cover) concerns a traveling movie projectionist who trucks from settlement to settlement, bringing entertainment in the form of Hopalong Cassidy westerns (William Boyd played Hopalong in sixty-six films, so he sure has sufficient to screen). There's love tryst, a dollop of skullduggery, nothing too deep and all great fun.

Harington shows off his ease with language and throws in a bit of playfulness - starting with the title - but doesn't indulge in (much) experimentation this time.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had a lot of potential, but somehow wasn't quite as engaging as some of his other books. . still a pretty fun book.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light and fun.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very different from what I usually read but I enjoyed it. Not What I expected especially the sex parts. Fun read.