Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strong Women, Weak Preachers and Brave Marines, June 23, 2008
In the short story collection, WALKING WOUNDED, Harris wastes neither time nor adjectives in marching the reader into the heart of his tales:
"Blind girls' eyes make tears just like normal girls." ("Dark Dancing")
and the core of his characters:
"Mahalie stood below the entrance to the rolling store, her natural pallor mottled by late July sunburn, her thin figure clad in a hand-me-down dress the Christian Women's Fellowship had dropped off three Christmases back, trying to peer past the storekeeper into the dark interior." ("Rolling Salvation")
Stand at attention--one of these individuals could marry your sorority sister or buy the modular home next door. On the battle lines of the home front, you might glimpse these maimed hearts and minds on the freeway ("Malfunction Junction"), on your job ("Strip Pit"), in a parade ("Hot and Sunny on the Fourth"), in your grandparents' memories ("The Righteous Hammer of Jehovah"), or your own mirror ("Fatback").
Sometimes, the illumination within these stories emerges from gunfire or flares, at other moments, from the flash of indomitable civilian eyes. In the war of life, even temporary escapes count as victories. The walking wounded are--above all else--survivors.
If you enjoy Tom Franklin's and Marlin Barton's work half as much as I do, you'll love Jimmy Carl Harris's award-winning stories, including his newest collection, WOUNDS THAT BIND, delivered in prose as crisp as a snapped salute.
|
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deep Wounds And Personal Disaster, June 27, 2009
Wounded VietNam vets treated horribly. Abused wives. Intolerant churches. Tyrannical fathers. An alcoholic professor having an affair with a student. A man married to a blind ballerina. Well-known characters, mostly, but twisted in unexpected ways, coming to unexpectedly bad ends. In this collection of twelve hard-hitting stories, nothing ever works out for the best. No one ever learns anything, at least not in time. You read on, watching helplessly.
Author Jimmy Carl Harris takes no prisoners. He delights in the shock ending, the unforeseen disaster. The writing is excellent, so you keep reading through the darkness, one misadventure at a time. Author Harris grabs the reader by the shirt-front and never lets go. Fortunately, there's something in there to redeem the mayhem--a subtle sense of humor, a liking for people despite their flaws.
A great short story collection, and I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
|
|
|
|
