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A review by pking90
That Old Country Music: Stories by Kevin Barry
4.0
Standouts are The Coast of Leitrim, Ox Mountain Death Song, Old Stock, Who’s-Dead McCarthy, and That Old Country Music
A master of setting and place, but also of character. He has a certain consistent (circadian) rhythm in these stories. There’s redolent witch hazel (lots of witches in general), plentiful forests and trees, and there’s a seasonal bloom or decay present in most stories. The nights are endless. Characters skirt the edges of town, follow roads that stretch onward. There is history to be reckoned with, there is a separateness that is not unwelcome. These stories are waiting on the promise of a changing season, the Februarys and Mays. Color and weather are intertwined in these stories. Nature and animals stand starkly apart from towns and humans.
The best stories are beautiful little microcosms that play upon these themes in their endless varieties.
A master of setting and place, but also of character. He has a certain consistent (circadian) rhythm in these stories. There’s redolent witch hazel (lots of witches in general), plentiful forests and trees, and there’s a seasonal bloom or decay present in most stories. The nights are endless. Characters skirt the edges of town, follow roads that stretch onward. There is history to be reckoned with, there is a separateness that is not unwelcome. These stories are waiting on the promise of a changing season, the Februarys and Mays. Color and weather are intertwined in these stories. Nature and animals stand starkly apart from towns and humans.
The best stories are beautiful little microcosms that play upon these themes in their endless varieties.