Day Fifty-Eight

5/28

The Book: The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake

ISBN: 0-316-71597-2

Suggested By: Bob Lopez

Where: Home

When: 11- 11:30P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 142-186 (55)

The Lead In: Carlsberg beer is delicious to drink while reading. I heartily recommend it.

The 411 on the 55: 

“The Salvation of Me” - Two boys grow up together, one leaves town and disappears out into the world. The other sticks around town. After many years the wayward boy returns to town and ignores the kid who stayed. 

“In the Dry” - Long before there was an accident, one man escapes, the other is left a vegetable in a wheelchair. The man returns to town after many years to find that the family with the wreck of a man is exactly the same. While he is tempted to stay, and nail the woman he left behind, he decides he cannot abide in the stagnation and leaves.

“The First Day of Winter” - A man stays with his mom and dad on their failing farm, their sanity and bodies are shot, but he lingers to help them get by. He asks his brother to help, but he suggests they get put in a state home. The son considers smothering them in their sleep, but ignores the thought. He falls asleep in the end, with no resolution.

The 20/20: Pancake’s book of stories is fantastic. I think his true talent as an author is to blend the past and present, memory and experience. It’s an impressive skill. Also, he is a writer directly tied to his home state and draws from that location in his writing. I have never been to West Virginia, but visited it in the writing of Breece D’J Pancake. Well-done work, well-crafted thoughts, well-lived life (though short).

Line of the Day: “Nothing much happens here. Lots happens to you with all our shifting around. Don’t that ever bother you?” pg 153

The Fact on the Fiction: I think it appropriate to give the location of his grave as the last entry to this book. His work was sobering (borderline depressing) and impressive. Visit this site, take a look at the picture and his gravestone. Of course, he is buried in WV. FindAGrave