Matthew Jones - A Single Shot

Did the ending of A Single Shot surprise you? If so, why? If not, why not?

Is Moon right to turn down Nobie’s offer to work for him? Clearly the decision has to do with pride, as the land he would be working used to belong to the Moon household. Does this decision to turn away money honorably earned affect your opinion of how Moon handles the money he has unlawfully obtained? What would you do?

When A Single Shot begins, Moon and his wife, Moira, have already separated, though we experience snippets of their time together in Moon’s many vivid flashbacks. It’s clear that Moon cares deeply for Moira, even though she wishes to end their marriage. Do you accept Moon’s reasoning for why she wants to leave him? Is she right to seek a divorce? Who do you sympathize with more, Moon or Moira?

When Moon holds his little boy seemingly for the first time after he has broken into Moira’s apartment, he discovers he is less capable of comforting the child than the babysitter who has made a wreck of the place and invited a man over as Moon’s child sleeps in the next room. Do you think this is evidence enough to show whether Moon would have made a good father to his son? Do you think Moon, like his father before him, would have been viewed as a disappointment to the generation he raises?

Daggard Pitt, Moon’s lawyer, appears at first to be on Moon’s side. Later, Moon finds out he has been representing the interests of the thieves who have come after Moon at the same time. Do you find this to be moral behavior? How much does Pitt’s job as defender of the accused affect how you view the nature of his decisions?

What do you make of the many hallucinations Moon experiences of the woman he has killed? Particularly, do you find the sexual nature of many of them to be expected? What reason, subconsciously or consciously, do you think Moon has for giving the dead girl a personality and thoughts of her own, despite having never met the girl before her death?

To what extent is Moon’s assertion that the “bad thing” he refers to in his letters “was nobody’s fault” accurate? Is Moon culpable? Who in the novel is most culpable? Who is least culpable?

A Single Shot has something in common with the plot of a Greek tragedy. Do you consider Moon to have a tragic flaw? If so, what is it?

Matthew F. Jones’s 1999 novel Deepwater was adapted for a 2006 film of the same title. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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Deepwater

Boot Tracks

Collected for the first time in a single volume—three early works of crime fiction by a major American novelist.

“A backcountry Shakespeare…. The inhabitants of Daniel Woodrell’s fiction often have a streak that’s not just mean but savage; yet physical violence does not dominate his books. What does dominate is a seasoned fatalism…. Woodrell has tapped into a novelist’s honesty, and lucky for us, he’s remorseless that way.”

“Daniel Woodrell writes with an insistent rhythm and an evocative and poetic regional flavor.”

“Woodrell writes books so good they make me clench my fists in jealousy and wonder.”

“What people say about Cormac McCarthy goes double for Daniel Woodrell. Possibly more.”

“Good to the last drop… a Great American Crime Novel…. The perfect introduction to Scudder’s shadow-strewn world and the pleasures of Block’s crisp yet brooding prose…. A Drop of the Hard Stuff reads like it’s been jolted by factory-fresh defibrillator pads, as Scudder recalls his first, nerve-rattling year of sobriety. Block makes the hard work of sobriety totally gripping…. A bracing distillation of Block’s powers.”

“Moving… Elegiac… Satisfying…. Right up there with Mr. Block’s best.”

“Block is a mesmerizing raconteur…. [The book is] a lament for all the old familiar things that are now almost lost, almost forgotten.”

“Insanely entertaining.”

“More exciting than whatever you are reading right now.”

“Cool, suspenseful, tragic, and funny as hell, Fun and Games is Duane Swierczynski’s best yet. I haven’t had this much fun reading in a long time.”

“A white-hot nuclear explosion.”

“The finest portrait of guilt since Crime and Punishment . Jones is unpredictable and, therefore, terrifying. His characters are knowable, if changeable and complicated. If you say yes to his use of language (like deciding to read poetry) you will not be able to shake him…. The most terrifying thing about this unnervingly vivid novel is the fact that the protagonist is a simple man, a basically good man, the victim of a single moment, a single accident that pulls the switch on his already derailed life…. His anguish and confusion are precisely drawn, physically, spiritually, emotionally.”

“The most gripping read of the summer…. Jones is remarkably adept at detailing the way both nature and necessity turn against Moon. The result is something like Patricia Highsmith plotting a novel by John Gardner… scenes of gruesomely detailed violence alternating with exquisitely described natural beauty.”

“Intense, violent, and graphic, this novel of backwoods mayhem may remind some readers of Deliverance .”

“Jones owns a fine writer’s eye for the kind of details that matter…. It is Jones’s skillful straight-from-the-shoulder depiction of [Moon] and his pinched world that resonates and then compels…. The author draws on his disoriented thoughts with dark and excellent detail.”

“Compelling…. Jones is an evocative writer.”

“The ultimate noir nightmare…. Jones conveys the claustrophobic, dead-end lifestyle of the rural poor with a frightening incisiveness.”

“A high-voltage thriller… a gritty, claustrophobic blend of Jim Thompson and James Dickey.”