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Writers on the Storm: Stories, Observations, and Essays

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Writers on the Storm: Stories, Observations, and Essays
by Tim Peeler, Carter Monroe, and Robert Canipe

One of my favorite living authors, Carter Monroe, has several stories in this collection. Monroe catches the flavor and humor of small town Southern living. Being from the provinces myself, I can vouch that his characters are true to life. The American short story is in good hands with Peeler, Monroe and Canipe.

In WRITERS ON THE STORM, the reader encounters three very different voices/perspectives that are nevertheless headed in the same general direction. The book begins with the realistic and often rowdy short fiction of Robert Canipe. Canipe breathes life into blue collar protagonists that include a convenience store robber, a failed son, and a paroled convict. It is almost scary to realize the depth of his understanding of these characters.

Carter Monroe follows with several lengthy essays in which he reflects on provincial life in Eastern North Carolina. The analytical quality of this work is outstanding and the tongue-in-cheek humor a reward for the reader.

The book concludes with a number of short essays by Tim Peeler, the majority of which study the idea of experiential education. This is accomplished as he recounts his version of local history in a Western NC county.

It is remarkable how well these diverse genres and styles mesh. You know these characters; you may be them.

What makes Writers On The storm a significant tribute to Modern
literature is not so much the inventive and expressive prose
style of all three contributing Authors, though is indeed present. Rather it is the fact that amid a confusing and often baffling array of hypertextual nonsense, on the one hand, and 'pop' sensationalism as it proports to some 'Avante Gaurde'
and exhibitionist approach to literary fashion, on the other,
which are the modern standard in so many published works these days...That as apposed to the ways and means a kind of hyperbolic fashion which has become the norm, this book in general and in particular with regaurd the last author Tim Peeler, has reasserted the need for a the kind of 'thoughtful
creative calm' present only in the form of the Essay Proper.

Whereas it is true that individual works of nonfiction in this book take on a more narrative charecter, build themselves in
in their concept and thematic appropriation in what tends to be
a highly anecdotal manner, they still reassert those 'classical'
and thorough going aspects appropriate to what one considers
as apposed to NON FICTION PERSE...the Essay Proper. In an age
as intellectually divorced from serious literary thought of course, there are quite a few people capable of only a more
direct and visceral and entertaining assessment of human values
and human existence. This is a failure of the Age which we live in and not at all one of this wonderful collection.

One has to read very closely the five stories, five observations, and several essays to understand what these men are doing with this delightful book.
Robert Canipe is playing with narratives employing several styles from first person with immediate sequencing to omniscient narrator with flashback. His writing is a fine example of the Southern Oral Tradition that peppers the southeast and into Texas. Canipe's characters are real people--warts, curse-words, and all--and their problems are real problems from robbers whose intended store is robbed before he can finish the job to men who get out of jail and search for an identity that is lost to them while in prison. The tales are tightly written and suspenseful and the character's voices are real.
Carter Monroe represents the curmudgeon of the Southern Tradition who likes what he likes because he likes it and that is all there is to it! From his comedic trip to the eye doctor for new glasses to his tale of buying a stereo with cash, Monroe shines as the philosophical old buzzard who refuses to give in to Life's constant nudge to evolve into something alien. From his front porch perch, cigarette in hand, Monroe preaches Southern life with an authority. Here is to Life in the Provinces!!
Tim Peeler writes of education outside the classroom and in the world of the working man. He relates tales of old men who flip the bird to convention. They learned in the school of hard knocks and do not care who knows it. Peeler's prose is poetical with a lilt of southern charm missing in today's "Southern" writers.
This collection is far better than I thought it would be. These men will be heard from again.