From Publishers Weekly
The characters in Flynn's second short-story collection often find themselves confronting a system that has forgotten them, leaving them alone in a world of ``hyenas'' that prey on the helpless. Telling their stories with inconsistent results, Flynn (Wanderer Springs) moves from wartime Vietnam to rural Kansas, seeking out the isolated and emotionally disenfranchised. The opening tale, ``Land of the Free,'' chronicles a black father and daughter's attempt to build a life in rural Texas. Bullied on the school bus by white racists, Venetia later tells her father, ``I'm too tired to eat.... Or do homework or nothin.'' There is poignancy here, but a certain air of contrivance detracts from the story's effectiveness. All the locals are racist, for example, while the father and daughter remain consistently good-hearted. The same holds true for ``Reluctant Truth,'' which depicts a Southern girl's rivalry with her overachieving younger sister. Despite some rewarding comic touches, the story falters by relying on overly familiar Southern types-the tobacco-chewing grandpaw, the stern but loving mom-for its impact. The 14 remaining stories move in the same vein, often ending with Flynn pushing for meaning, rather than allowing it to emerge organically-though his prose, as bare and simple as truth, remains a joy to read.
Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
Robert Flynn, professor emeritus, Trinity University and a native of Chillicothe, Texas, is the author of twelve books. Seven novels: North To Yesterday; In the House of the Lord; The Sounds of Rescue, The Signs of Hope; Wanderer Springs, The Last Klick, The Devil's Tiger, co-authored with the late Dan Klepper, and Tie-Fast Country. His dramatic adaptation of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying was the United States entry at the Theater of Nations in Paris in l964 and won a Special Jury Award. He is also the author of a two-part documentary, "A Cowboy Legacy" shown on ABC-TV; a nonfiction narrative, A Personal War in Vietnam, an oral history.
Also, When I Was Just Your Age, two story collections, Seasonal Rain and Living With The Hyenas, and a collection essays, Growing Up a Sullen Baptist. He is co-editor of Paul Baker and the Integration of Abilities.
Flynn also contributes to The Door: "The World's Pretty Much Only Magazine of Religious Satire." North to Yesterday received awards from the Texas Institute of Letters and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, and was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the New York Times. Seasonal Rain, was co-winner of the Texas Literary Festival Award. Wanderer Springs received a Spur Award from Western Writers of America. Living With the Hyenas received a Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Flynn's work has been translated into German, Spanish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Malayalam, Arabic, Tamil, Hindi, Kanada, and Vietnamese. Flynn is a member of The Texas Institute of Letters, The Writers Guild of America, Marine Corps Combat Correspondents, and P.E.N. In 1998, he received the "Distinguished Achievement Award" from the Texas Institute of Letters.
Robert Flynn is a native of Chillicothe, Texas, the best known Chillicothe outside of Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, despite its size. Chillicothe is so small there's only one Baptist Church. Chillicothe is so small you have to go to Quanah to have a coincidence. Chillicothe is fairly bursting with truth and beauty and at an early age Flynn set out to find it.
His life and work could be described as 'The Search for Morals, Ethics, Religion, or at least a good story in Texas and lesser known parts of the world'.
