Name: The stories of Breece D'J Pancake
ISBN: 0316715972

Breece D'J Pancake

The stories of Breece D'J Pancake

Jennifer

I’m not gonna lie—I didn’t understand a lot of this book. Some of it was the vernacular but also the point of some of the stories. Again, I’m not a book short story person so a lot of the art of short stories is lost on me. Of the stories I did understand, I liked it. The rest I’m pretty ambivalent about. I can appreciate the creativity of the stories. I’m just not going to sit here and pretend I got them all. <br /><br />What I did understand was that this collection of stories is a day in the life of people in West Virginia. It really shed light on the lifestyle of people there and how they act, think, and talk. <br /><br />Long story short, if you’re a fan of Faulkner, you’ll probably like this. I’m not a fan of Faulkner, so I feel meh about this. 

Will Vunderink

These are some very impressive stories coming from a man in his twenties. On the cover J.C.O. compares this to Hemingway's debut, and in some ways this is spot-on: these are not the typical writings of a depressed twenty-something, but rather the writings of someone who has so-called "real-world" experience under his belt and an eye for capturing the details of said experience. The wisdom of the adage "write what you know" shines through. Whether or not Mr. Pancake spent time driving a snow plow, as a deckhand on a boat, going to cockfights, etc., he captures the possible lives of these people in the mountain hollows of West Virginia. (I'm tempted to say that Pancake's male characters lack the bravado of Hemingway's, but, come to think of it, In Our Time isn't much for bravado anyway. It rather points out its characters' insecurities and weaknesses.) Lesser short story writers who would like to be considered descendants of Hemingway seem to think that abrupt, vivid violence alone is enough to motivate a story or capture the reader; in Pancake's stories, such violence does not come out of left field, but is believably a part of the characters' lives.

While Pancake excels at vivifying mealy-mouthed backwoods characters, he does not have a knack for endings. Pancake reaches for what I'll call The O. Henry Effect, but his looser plots lack the intricate mechanics of O. Henry's, so tidy endings feel forced. I found myself wishing that these stories had been stitched together into a sprawling novel. (Had Pancake lived longer he probably could have produced a great novel of rural life in the vein of John Gardner and Richard Russo.)

Nathan Griffin

Exceptional group of stories but, man, they're not for those wanting a sunny view of life. It's hard to separate the gritty bleakness of Pancake's writing with the tragic story of his life. 

The real strength of these stories is how completely dialed in to the heartbeat of rural West Virginia Pancake is. There's always seems to be a standard set of ideals that accompany the songs and stories of Appalachia: the geography, moving away, coming back, the comfort of family, the pain of family, the people you grew up with, the woes of blue collar work, etc. All of these themes run through these stories, creating characters and settings that are honest and captivating.

Shea Newton

These are stories of deeply frightening bleak and ugly existence. And they written magnificently.

The stories of Breece D'J Pancake

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