Chris Offutt: Kentucky Straight. 

I search for fiction by reading syllibi that I find on-line.  I wish I were still enrolled in a university.  Since I can’t convince anyone that they should pay my bills and tuition, I read about and find classes I wish I could take, and then I read the books and form my opinions.  Sometimes it’s a miss.  This was a hit.  This is one of the best collections of short stories I’ve ever read.  This will make me a fan for life.  I am now an Offutt-evangelist.  Buy this book, please.  It will do you good.  I’m about to buy everything he’s written over at Powell’s.

And unless your heart is made of stone, it will upset you.  Kentucky Straight is a collection of stories set in a nameless section of the Kentucky Appalachians.  The book oozes depression, addiction, illness, cultural collapse.  It’s a downer, but a really delicious one.  The best mountain lyrics live in its spine. 

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