The Name of the Nearest River
Stories
Published on 19. February 2010
256 pages
978-1-936747-43-6 (ISBN)
Description
Short stories set in Kentucky from a prize-winning author who "writes with generosity and understanding of rural and small town life" (Chris Offutt, author of Country Dark).
Like a room soaked in the scent of whiskey, perfume, and sweat, the atmosphere of these stories is at once intoxicating, vulnerable, and full of brawn, revealing the hidden dangers in the coyote-infested fields, rusty riverbeds, and abandoned logging trails of Kentucky.
In one story, a man spends seven days in a jon boat with his fiddle and a Polaroid camera, determined to enact vengeance on the water-logged body of a used car salesman; in another, a demolition derby enthusiast watches his two wild, burning love interests duke it out, only to determine he would rather be left alone entirely. Together, these stories present a resonant debut collection from an unexpected new voice in Southern fiction, a recipient of the Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing, the Barry Hannah Prize for Fiction, and the Eric Hoffer Award in General Fiction.
"This debut collection pulls readers into rural Kentucky and hammers them with the despair and frustration that drive his fierce, battered denizens of the Bluegrass State." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[Taylor] writes with wit, zest and skill . . . In the long queue of very good contemporary Southern writers, here's a guy who can cut to the front." -The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Like a room soaked in the scent of whiskey, perfume, and sweat, the atmosphere of these stories is at once intoxicating, vulnerable, and full of brawn, revealing the hidden dangers in the coyote-infested fields, rusty riverbeds, and abandoned logging trails of Kentucky.
In one story, a man spends seven days in a jon boat with his fiddle and a Polaroid camera, determined to enact vengeance on the water-logged body of a used car salesman; in another, a demolition derby enthusiast watches his two wild, burning love interests duke it out, only to determine he would rather be left alone entirely. Together, these stories present a resonant debut collection from an unexpected new voice in Southern fiction, a recipient of the Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing, the Barry Hannah Prize for Fiction, and the Eric Hoffer Award in General Fiction.
"This debut collection pulls readers into rural Kentucky and hammers them with the despair and frustration that drive his fierce, battered denizens of the Bluegrass State." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[Taylor] writes with wit, zest and skill . . . In the long queue of very good contemporary Southern writers, here's a guy who can cut to the front." -The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2010
Sarabande Books, Incorporated
€16.50
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Person
Alex Taylor has worked as a day laborer on tobacco farms, as a car detailer at a used automotive lot, as a sorghum peddler, as a tender of suburban lawns, at various fast food chains, and at a cigarette lighter factory. He holds an MFA from the University of Mississippi and now teaches at Western Kentucky University. He lives in Rosine, Kentucky.
Content
- Intro
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgments
- The Name of the Nearest River
- Things Both Right and Needed
- The Coal Thief
- Equator Joe's Famous Nuclear Meltdown Chili
- This Device Must Start on Zero
- At Late or Early Hour
- The Evening Part of Daylight
- We Were Men and the Fire Made Us
- A Lakeside Penitence
- A Courier Among Green Trees
- Winter in the Blood
- About the Author
