The Name of the Nearest River
Stories
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- $23.99
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
Short stories set in Kentucky from a prize-winning author who “writes with generosity and understanding of rural and small town life” (Chris Offutt, author of Country Dark).
Like a room soaked in the scent of whiskey, perfume, and sweat, the atmosphere of these stories is at once intoxicating, vulnerable, and full of brawn, revealing the hidden dangers in the coyote-infested fields, rusty riverbeds, and abandoned logging trails of Kentucky.
In one story, a man spends seven days in a jon boat with his fiddle and a Polaroid camera, determined to enact vengeance on the water-logged body of a used car salesman; in another, a demolition derby enthusiast watches his two wild, burning love interests duke it out, only to determine he would rather be left alone entirely. Together, these stories present a resonant debut collection from an unexpected new voice in Southern fiction, a recipient of the Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing, the Barry Hannah Prize for Fiction, and the Eric Hoffer Award in General Fiction.
“This debut collection pulls readers into rural Kentucky and hammers them with the despair and frustration that drive his fierce, battered denizens of the Bluegrass State.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[Taylor] writes with wit, zest and skill . . . In the long queue of very good contemporary Southern writers, here’s a guy who can cut to the front.” —The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This debut collection pulls readers into rural Kentucky and hammers them with the despair and frustration that drive his fierce, battered denizens of the Bluegrass State: coal thieves, demolition derby drivers, punk teens, and tavern-brave hicks, all aiming to break off a tiny slice of the world. In the title story, two men go looking for the drowned body of a man to settle a score with the drowned man's corpse. The Evening Part of Daylight also shatters the sacred when an offended groom punches his bride in the face and then has to deal with the angry masses, while in Winter in the Blood, a pair of cattle killers embody the senselessness of murder. Taylor's command over his characters is as remarkable as his sharp, evocative prose. The bleak Kentucky landscape is drawn in grays and browns with an unforgiving yet loving eye; the descriptions of the countryside alone make Taylor's stories worth digging into, but with his characters and all of their petty grievances and desperate hopes, this first-time author inspires a mix of wonder, love, and pity for his sick, sad characters.
