Rick Bass is by far one of my favorite writers, and his special talent lies in short stories. Each one here is a gem. Some were ones to revisit or discover as a lost treasure not having been able to get copies of all of his collections. Best of all were the new stories. Do yourself a favor and consume this book slowly and with relish. Each bite and morsel will bring pleasure. Guaranteed. ( )

This was a good body of work to read chronologically because you could really see Bass's style grow and breathe as the collection progressed. I felt at first that it was leaning a bit heavily on the atmospheric, nothing-really-happens framework, but that wasn't really it—atmospheric definitely, in a big way, but the arc of each story is there. You just have to be quiet and watch for it. And I do think that Bass got more adept at building the bones of the story as he kept working—I found them increasingly more satisfying as I read. But to pick out a standout mid-book, "The Hermit's Story" is just crazy out-there and not to be missed.

I read this one slowly and I'm glad I did. ( )

Bass gives us a series of charming short stories focused around people who are as much a part of the landscapes they inhabit as they are characters in the stories. A boxer, his trainer, and his trainer's family driving by night through the small towns of rural Mississippi, fighting anyone who will challenge him. The inhabitants of an isolated Montana valley and the people who come into and go out of their lives there. A young couple, the few aged lifelong residents, and the pigs who are the only residents of a once-thriving Louisiana town abandoned when the river shifted course, leaving it deprived of its lifeblood. The lone, jovial strongman who befriends and falls in love with the various children of a family on the New York-Vermont border. These are touching, intimate portraits of small, rural places across the USA and the people who inhabit them. ( )