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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
LITERATE PEEK INTO RURAL AMERICA, October 17, 2003
By A Customer
Duane Simolke's offering of his sixteen short stories, many with overlapping characters and plot-lines, all set within or around the fictitious west-Texas small town of Acorn, provides its readers an insightful and literate look at what goes on in the hinderlands beyond the boundaries of this country's big cities.Not as salaciously rendered as was Peyton Place (which, if you remember, was a small town taken on by Grace Metalious), Simolke's Acorn, Texas, still turns out to be rife with some of the same angst-ridden problems, thereby, once again, exploding the myth that rural "out there" is actually more idyllic (even Edenesque), as compared to big-city "in here". From the who-will-have-control-of-this-relationship "dueling" of Regina Thibodeaux and Dirk Palmer in Simolke's lead-off story "Acorn", to the not-always-that-pleasant reminisces of town maven Aragon Carsons in the book's concluding "Acorn Pie", Simolke puts rural America under a microscope to unveil all of its acne, sores, scars, and festering wounds. THE ACORN STORIES isn't for any reader out to preserve his or her unrealistic nostaligic notion that rural-America is the place "to be" "to get away from it all". On the other hand, for those of us not put off by realism and always interested in a literate writer who can provide us a peek beneath the veneer, Simolke provides some very enjoyable reading moments.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A light hearted read with stories that flow smoothly and a dash of humor, November 2, 2009
I found this book to be a perfect vacation companion. Filled with stories that "packed a punch" for good reading but were also short and often had some good humor spliced into the writing.
I hadn't heard of this author before but bought the book when it was recommended to me based upon something else I purchased for my Kindle on Amazon and I saw the reviews were more glowing than most books often are. So I took the plunge.
I'm glad I did. Set in a small town in Texas called Acorn, the characters are well developed and the writing in each story matches the personality of the character telling it...for example the phrase from the character whose couch sits on bricks and has crates to complete the rest of his living room furniture ensemble: "Why would he try to swim that far? Like some Russian Olympics guy on deltoids? Most people who try to swim that distance only end up getting stung by jellybean fish, just so they can get mentioned in a book about who pulled the dumbest stunts."
While the writer could have used the correct words of "steroids" and "jellyfish" just as perfect phrases were used for other characters, that wouldn't develop this character nearly as well...because we all know that person who seems slightly less astute by utilizing words that are close to what they should say, but still miss the mark by a mile. It makes you pity them but also chuckle a little under your breath...which is exactly what you do within this particular tale.
This is just one example of the author really bringing you in to the story in ways other than just descriptive words. The author truly paints a verbal picture so you KNOW the characters but you are also entertained throughout. The characters and their tales feel real, as does the town. And the stories feel real to a small town because of the atmosphere that one becomes a part of there that would never occur in a bigger city.
So much so that, upon completing the book, I felt more as though I'd just visited Acorn Texas on vacation rather than merely read about it in short stories.
Each story is intertwined rather than just there for entertainment and each character is well-defined and the humor throughout the book makes it a pleasure and an easy and enjoyable read.
Great book and writing
Alternatives: This book reminded me of the book "Drift" which I read over the summer from Vine. Same type of intertwined short stories and well-defined characters and humor. They are equally good so I don't have a preferance but if you have read Drift, you should like this one. If you liked this one, you should like Drift...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Living in a Small Town, June 15, 2007
Simolke, Duane. "The Acorn Stories", iUniverse, 2003.
Living in a Small Town
Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
Acorn, Texas--population 21. 001 is the setting for Duane Simolke's wonderful "The Acorn Stories". The town of Acorn is full of stories and if you have lived in a small town you know exactly what I mean. Each of Simolke's stories lets us look into the lives of some of the most interesting characters I have ever read about. As you read each story, you seem to make new friends and when I closed the book I felt as if I actually knew many in the town. Just as the stories are all separate, they eventually tie together. There is just the right amount of detail to let the reader feel he knows the people of Acorn.
Even more interesting is that Simolke wrote this book in a very difficult style of writing--the stream of consciousness. This allows the reader to feel as if he is one of the characters and as the stories come together, we get a picture of Acorn, Texas in quite a unique way. The 16 stories in the book, although separate, are all related and this is not an easy way to write. As the characters merge, the imaginary (at least I think it is imaginary0 town seems to be very real.
The residents of Acorn are very real people--or so they seemed to me as I met them. And as the stores come together the town of Acorn is laid bare reminding me of what is left of a turkey after Thanksgiving dinner. As we meet the townsfolk, we dig below the outside appearance and go deep into the characters. The characters are quite a menagerie of folk all of whom have challenges and problem (just like we all do). It is the personalities and actions of the members of Acorn that make the stories live. In fact, I am not really sure that this is a collection of short stories because of the interactions between the stories and when they all come together it is like reading a novel.
Acorn is located in west Texas and there, under the Texas sun and the majestic oak trees (so unlike Texas) is a mixture of Hispanics and Anglos as well as a few Afro-Americans. Some were born in Acorn and some are hiding in Acorn. Newlyweds Becky and Kyle are very much in love and they are starting a life together. We meet the [...] art dealer and gallery owner who is being blackmailed by the [....] mayor of the town. There is also a famous writer hiding in Acorn because he stages his own fake suicide. There is the high school teacher who favors sports over academics and the young kid who is keeping a secret, a young man looking for a sugar momma to pay his rent, a widow ad her cat, Regina, an overbearing sister, a widow, Mae, who remembers how life was once and so on.
I must say that I loved this book and have reread several of the stories. It is a rare treat and one that will have you laughing, crying, commiserating and identifying. I have not had this much fun in a long time.
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