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#TBT

Great short story collection. Time and Again, in particular, is one of my favorites. If I were editing a collection of best short stories, it would be there. Very unsettling. Only 6 pages long, but I think about it (and reread it) often. The first time I read it my reaction was “Oh my, did I just read what I think I read?” You‘ll see what I mean if you give it a go.

Ran errands today and stepped in the used bookstore 😉! Their pickings have been slim (for me) lately, since they started running price specials more often.

Still pleased with my haul, especially the middle one after seeing that it‘s a @shawnmooney pick! I had eyed the ER Book when we visited the FDR presidential library, but didn‘t want to spend full price then. And now I can take LESS off the library holds — I was like 52nd in line for it.

Pancake killed himself at 26 in 1979. These, his only stories, roil with the secret histories, fossils, Indian bones, and of course coal embedded in West Virginia The seismic disturbances compel utterly, but I couldn't get past the whore-madonna simplification of his female characters, or the animal cruelty in almost every story. How tragic that this gifted young writer didn‘t live long enough to burst free of such cultural gunk.

No doubt many of you already knew this – I sure didn't – but a "ridge runner" is a mountain farmer in the American South.

Oooh, and the New Yorker profiled him in 2014, too! (35 years after his suicide…)

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/unearthing-breece-dj-pancake

Hell's bells! My dad sometimes says this, or at least he used to. He's an 80-year-old farmer – no, not at all retired - in Saskatchewan, Canada. These stories are set in West Virginia. I don't think I've ever seen this expression in print before. 😂😂

This is from the second story, "Hollow".

More about this author. I'm feeling slightly obsessive about him, based on reading only one story!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/08/breece-pancake-trilobites-baffled-...

It was a post by @rebuketodali that first brought these stories to my attention quite a while ago. Now that I've read the first one, I must say I'm bewitched bothered and bewildered! ❤️❤️

I'm not sure I have one single favorite collection of short stories, but this sure is a great one (and my entry for @Liberty #READSTHONSTORIES giveaway!)

I'm immensely grateful that Litsy turned me on to the dark, jagged mystery of these short stories. Most take place in the hills of W. Virginia, chock full of broken characters and stream of consciousness narration. Breece died at age 27, and this collection has some filler, but the first 3 stories are as good as anything I've read in a long long time.

So...this writing is amazing. Thanks to @brooklynreads for bringing this to my attention. Can't believe I'd never heard of him.