★ 《暴政之王》（Lord of Misrule）榮獲2010年第61屆美國國家書卷獎的文學小說獎！
★ 美國國際筆會／福克納獎的「小說類」決選入圍。
★2012年柑橘獎的初選小說！


《暴政之王》是作者Jaimy Gordon的第四部長篇小說，描述1970年代西維吉尼亞洲賽馬的故事。這位美國國家書卷獎的新科得主的過去作品都是交給小獨立出版社出版，印量有限，在文壇上不怎麼出名。當晚頒獎典禮得知自己獲獎時，Jaimy Gordon 有點暈眩又難以置信地發表獲獎感言：「我一點也沒準備，太意外了。」這本小說在11月15日全美出版，但自入圍美國國家書卷獎後，美國亞馬遜網路書店讀者給予5顆星評價。現在獲獎後，銷量更是水漲船高，本周爬升到暢銷小說排行榜No.62。

A novel of luck, pluck, farce and above all horse racing not at tony and elegant sites like Churchill Downs and Ascot but rather at a rinky-dink racetrack in Indian Mound Downs, W.Va.

Gordon (Bogeywoman, 1999, etc.) clearly loves the subculture of grifters and ne er-do-wells whose lives center on a venue that obviously has never and will never bring them success. Her lowlifes have names like Two-Tie, Medicine Ed, Kidstuff and Deucey, and they re capable of speaking a kind of racetrack patois occasionally reminiscent of Damon Runyon characters: 'So I want you should write me a race, well, not me personally, fellow from Nebraska, kid I used to know back when actually I used to know his mother...She was very good to me. Alas, I fear I did not return the favor like I should have.' At the center of the novel is Tommy Hansel, a horse trainer with a get-rich-quick scheme that he feels cannot fail. He plans to enter sure-fire winners in claiming races, benefit from the long odds, then get out of town quickly. Nothing, of course, goes according to plan, especially since everyone seems on to his scheme, and the horses aren t as cooperative as Tommy would like them to be. Complicating the issue is the quirky, intelligent Maggie Koderer, new to the horse-race business but nonetheless Tommy's love. Maggie is college-educated but is drawn to the seamy underbelly of the track and the broken-down beauty of the horses. Gordon structures the narrative around the four horses, the last best hope being Lord of Misrule, and she seamlessly moves the reader from one narrative consciousness to another without being manipulative or intrusive. The writing about the races themselves is a tour de force of energy and esprit. By the end of the novel none of the characters quite have what they want, but most of them get what they deserve.

Exceptional writing and idiosyncratic characters make this an engaging read." --Kirkus Reviews

With marvelous poetic authority, Jaimy Gordon takes us deep into the underbelly of the racetrack. There are no roses or mint juleps here. This is the down-and-dirty world of claiming races, and everything is hazed with the gritty patina of desperation. Thyrough her considerable gifts, Gordon fully inhabits this seldom-seen world of trainers, dreamers, gamblers, and grifters. At turns comic, heartbreaking, and lyrical, Lord of Misrule is a brilliant achievement."--Don Lee, author of Wrack and Ruin

"In Lord of Misrule, Jaimy Gordon creates nothing less than her own American idiom, as her unerring eye and ear capture the rhythms of the racetrack, serving up more poetry, comedy and mystery than you could imagine. Maggie is a heroine every bit as irresistible as her sister Ursie in Bogeywoman, and Lord of Misrule exhibits the same exuberant linguistic genius that makes Jaimy Gordon a true American original."--Mary Caponegro, author of All Fall Down

"There are certain books whose richness makes it seem as though the writer had material to burn, and Lord of Misrule is one of them. Jaimy Gordon writes with a wonderfully profligate quality. As if a compelling story, an authentic sense of place, and a colorful cast of hustlers, losers, and memorable petty crooks weren't enough, Gordon adds a style at once deeply interior and vividly cinematic."--Stuart Dybek, author of The Coast of Chicago --Lord of Misrule book jacket