Customer Reviews

Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work: Stories

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It would be tough to write a better collection of short stories than Brown's first, Driving The Heart, but, damn, he did it. I swear on my best dog's grave that Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work is one of the best books of fiction I've read in a couple of years. If you love short stories as much as I do, you'd be nuts not to buy this book. Forget that bestseller trash, and buy something worth the money.

When I bought this book at the Brookline Booksmith here in Boston, the girl at the counter said "this is a great book". I had bought it based on a short New Yorker review, and also, let's face it, because of its great title.

The 11 short stories are set in and around the fictional town of Vaughn, Maine. The characters go to Portland, take a train up north towards Quebec, talk about trips to Boston, all of which roots Vaughn into the real Maine. Indeed, the book opens with a map of Vaughn showing it on the (real) Kennebec river.

The book has a historic sweep, referencing actual history (the Plains of Abraham where the British General James Wolfe fought the French in the Battle of Quebec) as well as the history of the book characters and of Vaughn itself. One story starts "I belonged to a large family that had lived in the same town in Maine for over two hundred years". Reading the stories, many about traumatic events such as a drowning, you know that the protagonists will still be living together, in the same place in Maine, for the rest of their lives. You get the feeling that the place itself has a long memory.

The writing moves from matter-of-fact prose ("A hockey game started near shore, mostly fathers and sons and brothers in plaid jackets and blue caps, choosing sides according to size"), to Maine logging jargon ("Nothing in the river but sinkers and bark cake and raw waste from sixteen towns coating the bottom, methane bubbling up through the water and pulp and booms waiting for a freshet"), to beauty ("He turned around and looked up, as if at a mountain peak or a descending plane, but there was nothing above except a line of high white clouds pulling up over the valley like a cold sheet").

Highly recommended. I pass on the recommendation from the Brookline Booksmith counter assistant.

As a passionate reader of short stories, I'm always looking for that next great collection to read. I read reviews, recommendations and alot of "best of" lists. Their are always those few story collections that pop up over and over again, "Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work" is one of those!

Jason Brown's writing is highly regarded and his short story collections well known for quality.

This collection includes eleven stories, ranging from 25-30 pages in length. The recurring theme is the outdoors (lakes, rivers, trees & forests), with a dark tone to the majority of the stories.

The first two stories "She" and "Trees" left me wondering whether or not this book was right for me, but the third story "The Plains of Abraham" was proof that it was definitely was.

GOOD:

"The Plains of Abraham"
"Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work"
"Dark Room"
"River Runner"

GREAT (highly recommended):

"The Lake"
"A Fair Chance"
"Life During Peacetime"
"North"
"Afternoon of the Sassanoa"

These stories are as good as anything you'll find, I highly recommended them to any short story fan.

Other short story collections definitely worth reading are - Driving the Heart and Other Stories by Jason Brown, Poachers: Stories by Tom Franklin, Controlled Burn: Stories by Scott Wolven, Refresh, Refresh: Stories by Benjamin Percy & Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories by Kevin Wilson!

Enjoy~

Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work: Stories

This is a fantastic collection. Read Brown's "Trees," in which the woods stand as a watchful, powerful central character. All of Brown's stories are like those woods: deep, dark, and full of secrets, a place you're drawn to again and again.

Jason Brown writes wonderful short stories. In this collection, he is able to capture perfectly and insightfully the nuances of adolescent experience. BUY THIS BOOK!

Full Disclosure: I attended Bowdoin College with Jason Brown, and we had an acquaintance or two in common. I read a profile in the Bowdoin Magazine and then bought his first book, which I loved.

This collection of short stories was dynamite. Dark and powerful, all its stories revolve around the fictional town of Vaughn on the Kennebec River. I would almost call it a novel about Vaughn told from all sorts of angles, from the aging widow to the neglected children. I was particularly impressed with a story about a logger on the last pulp run down the Kennebec.

These are stories that stay with you. I read the entire collection on the train between Boston and Lawrence -- after each story, I would stare out the window looking at the double-deckers in Malden or the stark outlines of abandoned mills.

I look forward to his novel.

Just for kicks, compare the map of Vaugn in the collection to Jason Brown's hometown of Hallowell, Maine.

Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work: Stories

Although all of the stories in Jason Brown's second collection are set in and around the fictional town of Vaughn, Maine, the emotional territory of the stories is far-reaching. Many of his characters are moving through life in quiet turmoil--enduring, defiant, proud, foolish. Brown's deep compassion for these flawed characters makes each of their struggles palpable and affecting. We feel the stories viscerally, which is how Brown seems to write them. This is writing from the gut. The best book of stories I've read in years.