The Unicorn Woman

Buddy Ray Guy cooked and fixed tractors in the army, where his friends called him Budweiser, and he comes home from World War II not to glory but to the segregated South. Moving between his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, and Memphis, Tennessee, he tries to make a living from what he learned in the service. At a carnival near home he sees the Unicorn Woman, exhibited with a spiraled horn on her forehead, and she haunts his dreams; his sometime girlfriend Esta thinks he is seeking freedom more than any unicorn. A self-taught thinker in search of faith, meaning and love, Buddy remembers romances in France after the war and meets sideshow men, hedge sculptors, landladies full of advice, early feminists and bigots along the way.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

United States, early 1950s

First published

2024

Author's age

75 when first published

ISBN

9780807030035 (Beacon Press, United States)

9780807019627 (Beacon Press, United States)

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