From Publishers Weekly
Nebraska inaugurates its new Flyover Fiction series, edited by Ron Hansen, with this slim, elegiac collection by the author of
Secrets of the Tsil Café. "Nothing ever happens out nowhere, at the edge of Moscow, Kansas," reads the first story's closing line—but of course the preceding pages belie that, as Moscow births more than its share of preternaturally gifted musicians and witnesses a few accompanying dramas. "Shopping" is a quick, devastating look at the thorny relationship between a middle-aged gay man and his crotchety father, a connection that shifts over the course of a trip to the grocery store; "Midlin, Kansas, Jump Shot" is a short, poignant investigation of the effects that grief and guilt have on a high school basketball player. In "The Bocce Brothers," orphaned 12-year-old twins wager on a game of bocce with a priest—if they win, he must reveal the name of their father—while in the poignant "Topeka Underground," a young boy forms an almost wordless bond with his strange, elderly neighbors. In all these stories, Averill illuminates the magical in the mundane: just because the rest of the world flies right over Kansas doesn't mean they're not missing out.
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Review
"Plainspoken, sharply observed collection from O. Henry Award-winner Averill (The Slow Air of Ewan Macpherson), first in a new series focused on the nation''s heartland. . . . [Averill] creates a landscape at once realistic and fantastic, inhabited by characters whose eccentricities make them fully human."—Kirkus Reviews
(
Kirkus Reviews 20050726)
"Averill, like the best midwestern writers, transcends social commentary to reach into deeper strata. Like Willa Cather and William Stafford, he understands that human habitation of the Great Plains is a small portion of the land''s mythos. His characters speak and act like human beings, but ultimately they unmask and reveal themselves as cosmic elements. This remarkable range in Ordinary Genius is the gift of Averill''s writings."—Bloomsbury Review
(Denise Low
Bloomsbury Review 20060531)
"Explores the transcendent and magical qualities that transform even the most mundane life in Midwestern Kansas, capturing the unique and extraordinary world of a boy hunting for a runaway horse, a couple ostracized in their small town, a grieving basketball star, and the other colorful characters."—Forecast
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Forecast 20050901)
"In Thomas Fox Averill''s fictional world, average people have the darndest adventures. . . . Averil''s book, balancing magical moments with lush, descriptive writing that captures the grit and beauty of Kansas landscapes, knocks the notion of the Great Dull Middle flat on its can."—Kansas Alumni Magazine
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Kansas Alumni Magazine 20050228)
"Nebraska inaugurates its new Flyover Fiction series, edited by Ron Hansen, with this slim, elegiac collection. . . . In all these stories, Averill illuminates the magical in the mundane: just because the rest of the world flies right over Kansas doesn’t mean they’re not missing out."—Publishers Weekly
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Publishers Weekly )
