Press Release for The Pleasure Was Mine

"Novelist Hays beautifully captures a husband's grief as he watches his beloved wife slip into Alzheimer's. Colloquial in tone, braced by its narrator's stoic, plainspoken candor, Hays's latest outing feels timely and true. An intimate, loving portrait of a dreaded disease's devastating effects."
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The Pleasure Was Mine is enriched by a depth of lightly-worn wisdom and unexpected wit as it surveys the grave problems that can face enduring marriages and can complicate the relations of children with their aging parents… I learned more than most novels tell me; and I was profoundly moved."
— Reynolds Price, author of A Whole New Life

Now Available in Paperback
THE PLEASURE WAS MINE
By Tommy Hays

Prate Marshbanks proposed to his future wife on a muggy July night at Pete's Drive-In back in '52. "She said yes to me between bites of a slaw burger all-the-way." A college graduate and daughter of a prominent lawyer, Irene was an unlikely match for Prate, a high school drop out. He lived his married life aware of the question on people's minds: "How in the world did a tall, thin, fair-skinned beauty and one of the most respected high school English teachers in all of Greenville County, in all of South Carolina for that matter, wind up married to a short, dark, fat-faced, jug-eared house painter?" That their marriage not only survived for fifty years, but flourished, is a source of constant wonder to Prate. Now he faces his greatest challenge with Irene.

With his novel, THE PLEASURE WAS MINE (St. Martin's Griffin; March 3rd, 2006), Tommy Hays offers a touching, hopeful, and even comic testimonial about the power of love, commitment and family. THE PLEASURE WAS MINE is the story of three men — Prate, his grown son Newell, and his nine-year-old grandson Jackson — coming to terms with Irene, heart and center of the family, who they are losing to Alzheimer's. Forced to admit Irene to a nursing home, Prate faithfully visits her every day. The real disturbance comes when Newell leaves Jackson, a moody, bookish, too quiet boy, with Prate for the summer. Prate finds himself in the irritatingly uncomfortable position of having to get to know his grandson and reconnecting with his son.

THE PLEASURE WAS MINE demonstrates Prate's resurrection as both a man and a father. The depth of Prate's love for his wife is revealed in a series of flashbacks to their early romance and long life together. Hays pulls off an extraordinary literary feat, extracting an uplifting story of love and resiliency, touched with wit and humor from the saddest of circumstances.

Adding to the poignancy of this story is the fact that Tommy Hays lost his father to Alzheimer's. His family's experiences in dealing with the illness provide an honest and informed portrait of an ordinary family dealing with Alzheimer's with delicacy and sensitivity. Likewise, THE PLEASURE WAS MINE illustrates how the memory of love can endure and replenish, even in the wake of a devastating loss.

"Hays's elegiac, penetrating description of Prate's marriage frames the landscape of this brilliant novel about love, loss, marriage and family."
— Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"Captivating, wise and even romantic. … This deceptively simple story aptly reminds us that love and family can endure and carry people through difficult times. … Read this novel; the pleasure will be yours."
— Linda Brinson, The Winston-Salem Journal

"Once in a blessed while, in this era of edgy, postmodern fiction, you come across a novel that is old-fashioned in the best sense. … The Pleasure Was Mine is just that sort of novel — charming, unpretentious, easy to read but deeply engaging. … It's a tender, affecting story, simply but powerfully told."
— Polly Paddock, The Charlotte Observer

"A folksy, heartfelt paean to the deep love of a long marriage."
— Sara Isaac, The Orlando Sentinel

"Tommy Hays writes beautifully. Better yet, he is heart-true… His subject matter, his sense of the South and Southerners, his ability to reflect on the deep in the ordinary are reminiscent of James Agee's "A Death in the Family" and Eudora Welty's "Delta Wedding."
— Claudia Smith Brinson, The State

"Most notable of all is the love with which Hays weaves his tale. Many of his characters create art to find affirmation of life in the face of devastating pain. Hays, who has lost a loved one to Alzheimer's himself, has surely done the same with this lovely novel."
— Frank Reiss, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"The Pleasure Was Mine serves to remind us that what we often perceive as the end of something can be the beginning of something else… Prate begins his story thinking that his own story is at its end…yet throughout the story we witness him awakening again to life, finding strength in his memories of his earlier life with Irene, discovering an unexpected source of deep affection in his regard for his sad little grandson, and arriving at a better understanding of his son."
— Jeff Minick, Smoky Mountain News

ABOUT TOMMY HAYS

Tommy Hays' latest novel, The Pleasure Was Mine, has been chosen for the 2008 One City, One Book program in Greensboro, NC. It was also chosen for the Amazing Read — Greenville, SC's first community-wide reading of a single book, which took place earlier this year. The Pleasure Was Mine was read on National Public Radio's "Radio Reader" hosted by Dick Estell and South Carolina ETV-Radio's "Southern Read" hosted by Walter Edgar. It was also a Finalist for the SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) 2006 Fiction Award. Tommy has written two other novels — Sam's Crossing and In the Family Way, a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and winner of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. He is Executive Director of the Great Smokies Writing Program and a Lecturer in the Master of Liberal Arts Program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. A member of the National Book Critics Circle, he received his BA in English from Furman University and graduated from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. He lives in Asheville with his wife Connie and his two children Max and Ruth.

THE PLEASURE WAS MINE
By Tommy Hays
St. Martin's Griffin
Price: $12.95
Paperback Publication Date: March 3rd, 2006
ISBN: 0-312-33933-X