Last fall I tore through several books during a "happy reading day". (My favourite days!)
This was one of them.
Like the cover says, the author is Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone. I loved Winter's Bone, so I came into this intrigued and with somewhat high expectations.
In 1929 there is an explosion and fire at the local dance hall, and Alma DeGeer Dunahew's little sister is one of 42 killed in the blast and the flames. But who is responsible? Mobsters? Gypsies? The local preacher? Or is it one big accident?
Alma, a mother of three boys and a local maid, thinks she knows, and bit by bit, as she unravels the story that casts her aside from the rest of the small town, she finds solace and peace in the knowledge of what happened to her sister. Finally, she tells it all to her grandson, and tells him to "go on and tell it".
First things first; this is quite a short book. I read it in less than two hours I think. It is an unraveling focused on character stories; these are realistic characters in this small-town Missouri world, and while some stories are heard and others not, some stories are developed and others are not, they are the centrepiece of the tale.
It is a vivid, crisp story told with sincerity and care and heart and heartbreak. The characters are authentic; the town itself is treated as a central character as well, and the author lays bare all the drama and secrets inherent in small-town life. For that alone, it gets a recommendation.
When I read this book, I loved it. But later, when I went to write this review, I didn't remember much. I had to look up basic plot points. So there is something missing in the lasting core of this story for me. Years later, I can recall Winter's Bone. But this one, not so much. And that's the place - the only place - where this falls short for me.
Do you prefer high-action stories filled with intensity, or, like me, are you more appreciative of the "slow burn" development?
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