- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: Vintage (13 Nov 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0749395567
- ISBN-13: 978-0749395568
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 1.3 x 19.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 946,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A collection of nine short stories set in the American South, depicted as odd and idiosyncratic. Emerging from the harsh realities of difficult lives, the stories are full of the violence of love and the love of violence. The author won the 1995 Steinbeck Award for "Dogs of God".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
excellent short stories from the deep south,
By
This review is from: Town Smokes (Paperback)
A very fine example of short story writing. Very odd and eccentric tales from the american south. Fine writing and a very impressive collection.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well written short stories,
By
This review is from: Town Smokes (Paperback)
These were very well written short stories but they often just seem to tail off into pointlessness.
The set-ups are very promising and he has a fine ear for dialogue. His characters and situations are intriguing but the stories don't seem to go anywhere. They are pretty atmospheric and I really wished that they were a bit longer and actually led somewhere. They do end sounding quite samey as well. Some of the writing really is very impressive and the stories were always interesting, but I tended to have sense of disappointment when I actually finished reading each of the stories.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Damn good stuff,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Town Smokes (Paperback)
Though he might seem a bit obscure to the casual reader, Pinckney Benedict is one of the finest writers of short fiction in the country. This here is his first collection, published when he was only twenty-three, and it's really something else. Stories like "All the Dead", "Dog", "Water Witch", and "Town Smokes", in the sheer audacity of the style in witch they're written as well as the evocation of the settings and characters, help to make up one of the most enjoyable and satisfying collections of short stories that you ever will read. Highly reccomended for anyone who appreciates good short fiction.p.s.: If you're nervous about buying a book on the internet, there's usually at least one copy in the fiction section of any Barnes and Noble. 11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
good fun,
By B - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Town Smokes (Paperback)
This, Benedict's debut published when he was only 23, remains his best work to date. He seems to have lost most of his audacity, which is really the charm of this book, in his subsequent work. Still, this book's best stories have a lot of fun with language, and Benedict is undoubtedly a very talented writer. None of his work, though, approaches that of Breece Pancake, the West Virginia writer who was in many ways Pinckney Benedict's inspiration (do all West Virginians have such outrageous names?), but who committed suicide at age 26. Pancake was a genius who basically could not handle the world; Benedict is very gifted, but is not a genius. I still reccomend this book--I just don't want to see Benedict's reputation, just because he is still alive, completely overshadow Pancake's.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The rough beginnings of a great writer.,
By Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Town Smokes (Paperback)
Pinckney Benedict, Town Smokes (Ontario Review Press, 1987)
I've been a big fan of Pinckney Benedict's for some years now, thanks to his first (and, to date, only) novel, Dogs of God. Last year, I tracked down Benedict's newer collection of short stores, The Wrecking Yard, and love it. It took me till now to find his first collection, Town Smokes. And had I not found it, I would have kept looking. Sometimes knowledge is a terrible thing. Not that this is a bad collection, really. One of the pleasures of finding the first book by any writer one admires is the chance to see the potential shining through the early rough stuff. And Pinckney Benedict radiated potential in 1987. Unfortunately, he also radiated dialect-- if I never see the word "idea" represented as "idee" again, it'll be far too soon. It makes the stories, all too often, a chore more than a pleasure. Still, the things that make later Benedict so good are all here-- slice-of-life characters in situations that are just outside said slice, whether their own fault or someone else's, reacting to them with the kind of intelligent adaptability one doesn't expect from Benedict's hicks and rednecks (and you have to know that Benedict is using our own stereotypes against us there, which makes it all the better). For the most part, anyway; every once in a while, one of his characters just goes nuts instead (witness the main character in "Hackberry"). That, however, can be just as much fun to watch. In the general tradition of eighties fiction, a lot of these stories feel unfinished, without purpose; one scene is examined from a much larger picture, and you end the story wondering what happened. "Dog" is a prime example of this; there's the dog, and there's the two guys in the trailer, and there's the subtle shift in their relationship as we go through the story. Yes, I get that that shift is the focus of the story, but is it really enough? Benedict obviously thinks so. Good, but read his other stuff first. *** |
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