On the River Styx, and Other Stories

This book publishes ten short stories, mostly set in the United States, written over the span of his career.
There is an overall theme of darkness and violence, spilling into race (those who prefer not to read stories in which a high proportion of characters are referred to as nigger, should probably veer away from this). There is beauty in the bleakness, there is power in the writing, however, as is often the case in short story collections, there is an element of hit and miss.
Personally with short stories I have less tolerance for a story that doesn't strike a chord for me, than with a full novel. In some cases I perhaps lose the thread of the story, and I don't struggle too hard to pick it up again - perhaps this is the reduced investment in a short story.
From the few reviews of this book I looked over, it seems everyone has a favourite story in this collection, and they are all different. Some readers chose the stories I didn't enjoy.

There were a couple that stood out for me. One was ‘Travelin Man', the story of an escaped convict trying to survive in a wilderness area, where he crosses paths with, and becomes the prey of a hunter. It is a cat & mouse type tale, with both trying to outwit each other, and lay a trap to outsmart their opponent.

The other was ‘Midnight Turning Gray', a story in a mental asylum, where an occupational therapist befriends one of the inmates, and takes up a fight to seek his freedom, considering that he didn't belong in there. This story runs the line of inconvenience of the few to protect the many and a bit of not worth the risk of freeing him.

As well as these two stories, which where over 4 star, there were 4 more which were good, at 3 stars, and the balance were just ok, or I didn't pick up the point of.

Overall balances out at 3 stars.