Redgunk Tales: Apocalypse and Kudzu from Redgunk, Mississippi [Paperback]

William R. Eakin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001

Set in the town of Redgunk, Mississippi-with a population of 400 people, a dog with black, smelly lips, and a mummy-these interwoven stories owe as much to Sophocles as they do to Flannery O'Connor, exploring the human condition against a background of swamp gas and lawnmower fumes. Redgunk is a place where Otis Zebrowsky, cable repairman, can suddenly be sucked into a mythic world older than ancient Greece; and where intelligent women like Mina Thorton can find absolute happiness in the guise of a made-to-order alien mate. In these stories of ghosts, alien abductions, and genetic experiments gone awry, immersed in a setting singing with cicadas, crawling with kudzu, and as redneck as any in the South, characters live and breathe with genuine hearts.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In William R. Eakin's poetic and unusual : Apocalypse and Kudzu from Redgunk, Mississippi, the predictable lives of the smothering backwater's residents are touched by shadowy supernatural events. A lonely shop clerk is unwittingly adored by a sentient yet immobile curiosity-shop exhibit in "The Secret of the Mummy's Brain."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Many of these 13 stories are award winners. All are set in Redgunk, Mississippi, from which Eakin soon transports readers into his metaphysical, mythic speculations. The good old boys in them are caricatures. One, in "Lawnmower Moe," is a worthless boozer come back from the dead to mow his 40 acres to satisfy unnamed demons. In "Encounter in Redgunk," Orange Decker is transported to a UFO in which the mere push of a button produces candy bars and Playboy pinups. In "Unicorn Stew," a tender story that could have been written by Peter Beagle, because of their mother's bargain with a unicorn, a girl and boy escape the bleak childhood their father would have imposed on them. In "A God for Delphi," Eakin leans on Greek mythology to redeem yet another of his hicks. Entertaining, not as funny as he means to be, and sometimes touching, Eakin is a postmodernist, feminist, "literary" writer, whom some genre readers will find off-putting and obscure. John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: Invisible Cities Press (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967968348
• ISBN-13: 978-0967968346
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,016,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories!, August 3, 2001

By 

Jeff Turner (Fort Worth, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redgunk Tales: Apocalypse and Kudzu from Redgunk, Mississippi (Paperback)

Redgunk Tales is quickly becoming one of my favorite short story collections. The stories combine the best of fantasy and horror writing with a humorous, philosophical style. I've only had the book for two weeks but I'm already enjoying some of the stories a second time.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories!, August 3, 2001

By 

Jeff Turner (Fort Worth, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redgunk Tales: Apocalypse and Kudzu from Redgunk, Mississippi (Paperback)

Redgunk Tales is quickly becoming one of my favorite short story collections. The stories combine the best of fantasy and horror writing with a humorous, philosophical style. I've only had the book for two weeks but I'm already enjoying some of the stories a second time.