Author Ed Davis stopped by the Bunker South (aka, our Birmingham studio) to talk about his latest book, The Last Professional. But he and Brad had so much more than just the book to discuss.
They talked about Skywalker Ranch and George Lucas, jumping trains, the joy of traveling, a love of working with their hands (even if Brad is terrible at that), and how writing became a way to both chronicle and make sense of living life outside the box.
About Ed Davis
Whether it is racing to catch a speeding freight train, trekking the remotest reaches of the Andes, reporting on a presidential inauguration, or working the back wards of the country’s largest State Hospital, Davis’s writing always puts you right in the thick of it.
With a unique style, often compared to John Steinbeck and Jack London, that Kirkus Review calls “. . . powerful; beautifully written, well-observed and effective.” Davis invites you on adventures, real and fictional, that will stay with you long after the last page is turned.
Ed began his writing career over forty years ago, pausing in boxcars, under streetlamps, and in hobo jungles to record the beats and rhythms of the road as he caught freight trains and vagabonded around the Pacific Northwest and Canada. Road Stories, his dispatches from locals near and far, are guaranteed to stir your wanderlust and set your gaze to far horizons.
Plunged into the hidden world of State Homes for the physically and mentally disabled, In All Things, Ed’s compassionate, unblinking account of his training year at Sonoma State Hospital, serves not just as a reminder of how things used to be, but as a testament to the extraordinary strength of the human spirit.
Treading the same wards and grounds that Jack London brought to life fifty years earlier in Told in the Drooling Ward, Davis has captured a piece of history and humanity you will not soon forget.
What if you had just 24 hours to tell the story of the last 24 hours of a condemned man’s life – one chapter per hour?
That is the challenge Davis took on, and A Matter of Time is the extraordinary, one-of-a-kind result. A cautionary tale written not long after 9/11, this relentless, page-turning look at a near future where our country has traded security for freedom, will keep you on the edge of your seat as the hero, and the writer, try to beat the clock.
