Doc Ebersole lives with the ghost of Hank Williamsâ??not just in the figurative sense, not just because he was one of the last people to see him alive, and not just because he is rumored to have given Hank the final morphine dose that killed him.
In 1963, ten years after Hank's death, Doc himself is wracked by addiction. Having lost his license to practice medicine, his morphine habit isn't as easy to support as it used to be. So he lives in a rented room in the red-light district on the south side of San Antonio, performing abortions and patching up the odd knife or gunshot wound. But when Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant, appears in the neighborhood in search of Doc's services, miraculous things begin to happen. Graciela sustains a wound on her wrist that never heals, yet she heals others with the touch of her hand. Everyone she meets is transformed for the better, except, maybe, for Hank's angry ghostâ??who isn't at all pleased to see Doc doing well.
A brilliant excavation of an obscure piece of music history, Steve Earle's I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive is also a marvelous novel in its own right, a ballad of regret and redemption, and of the ways in which we remake ourselves and our world through the smallest of miracles… (más)
Now you're lookin' at a man that's gettin' kinda mad I've had a lot of luck but it's all been bad. No matter now I struggle and strive I'll never get out of this world alive.
Manny startled awake as the car door slammed shut and he found Graciela in the passenger seat, her eyes trained straight ahead down the road. "Time to go," she said softly, and the big Mexican started the car.
Doc Ebersole lives with the ghost of Hank Williamsâ??not just in the figurative sense, not just because he was one of the last people to see him alive, and not just because he is rumored to have given Hank the final morphine dose that killed him.
In 1963, ten years after Hank's death, Doc himself is wracked by addiction. Having lost his license to practice medicine, his morphine habit isn't as easy to support as it used to be. So he lives in a rented room in the red-light district on the south side of San Antonio, performing abortions and patching up the odd knife or gunshot wound. But when Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant, appears in the neighborhood in search of Doc's services, miraculous things begin to happen. Graciela sustains a wound on her wrist that never heals, yet she heals others with the touch of her hand. Everyone she meets is transformed for the better, except, maybe, for Hank's angry ghostâ??who isn't at all pleased to see Doc doing well.
A brilliant excavation of an obscure piece of music history, Steve Earle's I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive is also a marvelous novel in its own right, a ballad of regret and redemption, and of the ways in which we remake ourselves and our world through the smallest of miracles
Doc Ebersole vive con el fantasma de Hank Williams. Literalmente. Y no solo porque fue uno de los últimos en verlo vivo, ni tampoco porque se rumorea que fue él quien dio a Hank Williams la dosis final de morfina que le mató.
Texto de contraportada
Doc Ebersole vive con el fantasma de Hank Williams. Literalmente. Y no solo porque fue uno de los últimos en verlo vivo, ni tampoco porque se rumorea que fue él quien dio a Hank Williams la dosis final de morfina que le mató.
En 1963, diez años después de la muerte de Hank, el propio Doc está destrozado por su adicción a la morfina. Ha perdido su licencia para practicar medicina y su adicción no es tan fácil de financiar como antes. Por este motivo, vive en un apartamento de alquiler en un barrio marginal de San Antonio, en Tejas, practicando abortos y remendando heridas de cuchillo o de bala. Pero cuando Graciela, una joven inmigrante mexicana, aparece por el barrio buscando los servicios de Doc, empiezan a suceder cosas milagrosas. Graciela tiene una herida en la muñeca que no se cura jamás, pero en cambio puede curar a otros tan solo tocándolos con la mano. Toda la gente a quien conoce se transforma para mejor, excepto, quizás, el fantasma de Hank Williams; a él no le gusta nada que las cosas le vayan bien a Doc.
No saldré vivo de este mundo es una espléndida novela, una balada sobre el arrepentimiento y la redención, y sobre las maneras en que podemos reinventarnos a nosotros mismos y a nuestro mundo mediante algún pequeño milagro.
«Steve Earle dota a su prosa de la misma autenticidad, espÃritu poético y energÃa cinematográfica que proyecta en su música.» Patti Smith