The stories in this collection nearly all take place in and around the mountain hollows of West Virginia: a world of cock-fighting, coal-mining, deer-stalking, sex, depression, drinking and death. 'It would be easy to allow his one collection of stories to be buried under the landslide of books published every year. But itâe(tm)s worth doing a little excavating to dig it up. The past few years have seen late-in-the-day and posthumous revivals of interest in writers such ... John Williams. Get out your pickaxes' New Yorker Breece Dâe(tm)J Pancake left behind an astonishing achievement. He was a master of a distinctly American vernacular, which he used to remind us of all the ways that fiction could teach us about ourselves. These stories are absolutely essential reading - Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds
Reviews with the most likes.
I don't doubt that those critics hailing the author as “essential” and “authentic” are right, because I can recognise his unique and bold storytelling voice. However, that doesn't mean I like it. I can look at a beautifully rendered painting and not feel moved by it.
And many of these stories left me baffled, or just disinterested in the squalid lives he was describing. “Time and Again” stands out with a clever narrative, but the rest are unmemorable.
Perhaps most damning is the fact it took me 5 months to get through the book, as I could never manage more than two stories at a time, and never felt inclined to pick it up for a while afterwards....
