Harley Mercadal

Many have already pointed out the defining characteristics of this collection, and while I wholeheartedly agree with the wonderful sense of Appalachia and Cody's good-sense creation of realistic characters, a thriving now-ghost town, and the interconnectedness between, there were two smaller things that I found myself focusing on while I read. 1) Cody has a knack for the small moments where he turns something we frequently overlook in our own lives into something deep and rich and celebratory. (He also does in this debut novel GABRIEL'S SONGBOOK, which I also highly recommend.) For some non-spoilered examples, "The Wine of Astonishment", shows us a deep moment of everyday intimacy at the beginning, and "The Loves of Misty Sprinkle" remind us of all those things--small and large alike--that we hold close. Many of these snapshots have celebratory elements of life, though, especially of the Appalachian slice. The culture is poignant in these stories. 2) Cody also has this surprisingly great sense of horror and tension. I didn't expect to read things that gave me a deep sense of unease and the occasional hair-rise on the arms, but I think Cody gives us a really good sense of the fear that comes from both emotional and physical bits of ourselves. I'd say the most notable stories with this kind of tension is the latter half of cold sweat in "The Wine of Astonishment", the undercurrents of violence in "A Fiddler and a Twilight Reel", and the realistic boiling-over of "Grist for the Mill." Overall, it's a really solid collection, and I think the snapshots feel a bit like turning the pages of a family album. I highly recommend sitting down and spending some time on the front porch with these stories. :)