Captain Maximus

One of the best and most beloved late twentieth-century writers from the American South, for the first time in Penguin Classics

In the eight stories collected in Captain Maximus, Barry Hannah explores the lives of everymen and eccentrics alike in a showcase of his acerbic wit, dark humour, and stylistic flare. Hannah’s unorthodox prose, characterized by unusual wordplay mixed with hints of Faulkner and Hemingway, captured the post-1970s malaise of American life, endeared him to literary circles, and left a lasting influence on the craft of countless authors. Featuring some of Hannah’s finest work, from the fever dream ‘Ride, Fly, Penetrate, Loiter’ to his film treatment for Robert Altman ‘Power and Light’, Captain Maximus is the perfect introduction to Barry Hannah.