Additional Information:

Release Date: June 25, 2019
Paperback ISBN: 9781578690152
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019931670
# of Pages: 376

SYNOPSIS

J.C. Myers’ spirited first novel, Junkyard at No Town, captures rural Vermont’s land, language, and culture in outrageous and vernacular-rich dialogue, combined with crazy and splendid plot twists and descriptions. You’ll find yourself breathless, sometimes wide-eyed, and sometimes laughing hard, as you follow young Jules’ initiation, fresh out of college in the early 80s, seeking a life far from his Westchester upbringing. He buys a junkyard in the rural Vermont village of Iraton—right on the edge of No Town.

 Deep-rooted mysteries link incongruous neighbors and illicit livelihoods, impossible loves and unlikely devotions—a house burns, water mysteriously flows and disappears, and people, too, change course, ignite, vanish, or die.  Readers will long remember the wild, haunting comedy of Jules, Butchy Guyette, Maddy and Byron Peas, Lutheria Tupper, Copeland DeMassey, and Aunt Martha, whose intertwined and braided tales reveal Junkyard at No Town’s vulnerable secrets, its sins, and its virtues— and our own.

PRAISE 

“J.C. Myers has a winner here. He portrays rural Vermont, in substance-soaked No Town, as rough and ready. The curiouser and curiouser plot is every bit as engaging as Howard Frank Mosher’s Disappearances.”   
– Willem Lange, author

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“The names: Butchy, Arden, Lutheria, Ansen, and Punk—a few folks from Junkyard at No Town who’re the same as folks I grew up around, loved and still love . . . because they’re smarter than me by two. J.C. Myers writes Vermonter-life that seems to have passed, so it’s a pleasure catching up with it in his Junkyard at No Town. Love this book ‘cause it’s real, and really funny.“
– Rusty DeWees “The Logger,”  writer, producer 

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“This hilarious, outrageous novel is about a backroads town full of crazy rednecks and vivid characters. It’s also about finding love, mystery, and meaning in life—and it’s a story you won’t forget."  
– Doug Wilhelm, author of the acclaimed novel The Revealers, and the forthcoming Street of Storytellers (Rootstock August 2019)

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“Welcome to a cast of ribald Vermonters, featuring one inquisitive young flatlander and a dozen or more homegrown locals who sprouted from the soil of Vermont's hillside farms covered in manure and crankcase oil. Sprinkled with bawdy humor, existential angst, and mysticism, Junkyard at No Town is a delightful novel that evokes the writings of E. Annie Proulx and Howard Frank Mosher.”
– Bernie Lambek, author of Uncivil Liberties, 2018 INDIES Honorable Mention for Best Mystery

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“In this debut novel, Myers presents a rich world while also paying tribute to the sleepy charm of rural Vermont and to America’s automotive history. In an author’s note, Myers explains that Iraton is fictitious, but he makes the town feel incredibly real with lush descriptions of greenery and carefully crafted characters. He nails the distinctive Vermont dialect in his dialogue (“Might’s well make yourself cozy, bein’ as you’ll be living here”), which is entertaining to parse as Jules adjusts to it. Although the sheer number of characters may be overwhelming at first, the novel fluidly brings them together, and they quickly feel like a genuine group of friends. Overall, this is a distinctive reading experience that sincerely expresses how one should appreciate overlooked things.

– Kirkus Reviews

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“For those with a taste for black humor, this a wonderful book. Its fascination with old cars rings absolutely true, and its slap-stick comedy is laugh-aloud funny. Throughout, it is laced with love for Vermont and its beauties, but also sorrow for its tragedies. Behind its dead-pan tone lies a deep, compassionate understanding of rural poverty, violence, abuse, wasted feminine intelligence, and ecological destruction. Read it, laugh, and weep.”

– Laura C. Stevenson, read the full review here

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“Compelling and true—5 out of 5 stars. A deeply felt, deeply-lived story of a slice of Vermont at a particular point in time (the 1980s), that will ring true to anyone who lived here back then (outside of the state's few cities). Characters and plot are deftly drawn and absolutely believable, and Myers brilliantly and accurately captures the cadence and tenor of his characters' conversations with each other and with themselves. A tale well-imagined and very well told. Couldn't put it down, and am still wondering what some of Myers' people are up to.”

– Amazon Reader

MEET The Author

J.C. Myers was born in the smallest hospital in Vermont when the baby boom (1946–1964) only had four more years to go. He remembers the Vietnam War and the peace movement, and what it was like to be a long-haired kid in a Vermont grade school in the sixties: “wicked rough, but ‘oh din’t we have fun.” The standard English spoken by his educated family got him an English degree from Vassar. His school years, time spent logging, cutting firewood, building houses . . . anything for money—those things taught him how to speak and write Vermontics. Have some fun with Junkyard at No Town.

Visit JC’s website: www.jcmyers.com