Pulp Fiction discussion

In SA Cosby's My Darkest Prayer, Nathan Waymaker is an outcast in Gloucester, Virginia. His family was biracial. His parents were killed when a sheriff's deputy ran them off the road. The event was ignored by media and uninvestigated by local "law enforcement." Nathan was a Marine in Iraq, where his assignment was preparing bodies for burial. The "thank you for your service" phrase makes him think about the scarred and burned pieces of young men in those coffins. Beneath the right-thinking, patriotic main street Gloucestrer busily preparing for the annual daffodil is a good imitation of Dante’s hell.
Nathan lives above the funeral parlor in which he works. That, as much else (including the orgies), is subtly reflective of the realities Cosby is very good at forcing upon his readers. Nathan, despite being an outcast due to his skin color, violent past, and inclination for brawling, is part and parcel of the Gloucester ambience. He is a violent man, build of anger and cynicism. He explodes into long fights on several occasions,.
He’s as self-divided a hero as any in novels by Cain, Chandler, or Goodis. Cosby has Nathan recognize that living above a funeral home is not nearly the closest he is to deaths for which he is responsible. It is a fine way to get to a denouement. With the recognition that paranoia, resentment, and grief frozen into hate and fear have enervated his spirit, he must face the final adventure with a new awareness: “When did we become the arbiter of who lives and who dies?” It’s seat-edge suspense entertainment and also country noir that “allows for a balance of hope and fate,” as fellow country noir writer David Joy stated.