Down Along the Piney: Ozarks Stories (Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction) - Hardcover

Mort, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0268104050 ISBN 13: 9780268104054

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2018

Synopsis

Down Along the Piney is John Mort's fourth short-story collection and winner of the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction. With settings in Florida, California, Mexico, Chicago, the Texas Panhandle, and, of course, the Ozarks themselves, these thirteen stories portray the unsung, amusing, brutal, forever hopeful lives of ordinary people. Mort chronicles the struggles of "flyover" people who live not just in the Midwest, but anywhere you can find a farm, small town, or river winding through forested hills. Mort, whose earlier stories have appeared in the New Yorker, GQ, and The Chicago Tribune, is the author of the award-winning Vietnam War novel Soldier in Paradise, as well as Goat Boy of the Ozarks and The Illegal. These ironic, unflaggingly honest stories will remind the reader of Jim Harrison, Sherwood Anderson, and Shirley Jackson.

About this title

Review

"In the Ozarks of this book, there are few jobs. Industrial farming killed all the family farms, meth addiction has destroyed communities, and many people are ready to succumb to any savior they can afford, whether it be God, drugs, alcohol, or books. . . . Honest and sometimes hopeless, these stories offer haunting perspectives on poverty, post-military life, and American masculinity" --Foreword Reviews

"In his return to the short form, Vietnam veteran John Mort delivers 13 stories about everyday Americans looking for love, acceptance, and a place to call home. . . . Mort's understated, funny, and deeply moving collection illustrates the entangled decisions behind escaping or embracing small-town life in the South--a world of guns, big storms, and living off the land." --Booklist

About the Author

John Mort's first novel, Soldier in Paradise, won the W. Y. Boyd Award for best military fiction. He has published seven other books, including the story collections Tanks, The Walnut King, and Dont Mean Nothin: Vietnam War Stories. John Mort served in Vietnam with the First Cavalry and afterwards attended the University of Iowa, receiving MFA and MLS degrees. He is a member of the Western Writers of America and in 2013 won a Spur Award for his short story, "The Hog Whisperer," included in this volume. He lives in southern Missouri where he raises vegetables and fruit.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0268104050
• ISBN 13: 9780268104054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 212