Bearskin to Holly Fork -- Stories from Appalachia (Paperback)

~ (Author), Lee Smith (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Public Radio commentator Bob Sloan's debut collection of short stories. With an introduction by novelist Lee Smith.

From the Inside Flap

The whole Appalachian community of Midland, Kentucky, comes to life in this fine debut collection of tough, true stories, each one hard and dark as a lump of coal. Bob Sloan's straight, plain prose style is perfectly suited for his characters and their lives. . . . Whether things work out for his characters or not, realist Bob Sloan makes us care about them all, writing in plain honest prose without a trace of sentimentality. --Lee Smith

Bob Sloan is a downright fine storyteller and his collection "Bearskin to Holly Fork: Stories from Appalachia" finds him at his best. Resplendent with the smell and taste and sight and sound of Appalachia, the book is also brimming with humanity. This is kick-ass good work. --Robert Olen Butler

We write about what we know. Bob Sloan knows as much about his characters as anyone writing today. These are wistful, comical, straight-ahead stories that fall from the pen the way leaves fall from trees; some cosmic force helping them find their place. --Tom T. Hall

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Wind Publications (June 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893239217
• ISBN-13: 978-1893239210
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #490,640 in Books (See Bestsellers 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 Bob Sloan gets it right, April 13, 2004

By A Customer

Anyone who loves both literature and Appalachia knows this for a fact: it's a hard place to write about well. Only a few writers these days are able to pull it off, but Bob Sloan is high on the list.

The stories that make up "Bearskin to Holly Fork" show a real understanding and appreciation of the landscape, the cultural and historical and economic forces, the language, and most of all the people of this corner of the world. Most of all, they do what the best stories do--they tell a little piece of our human experience in a way that both conveys and transcends a particular time and place.

His gifts are our gain. It's a wonderful book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly sophisticated "Blue Collar" fiction, September 21, 2004

By	[e-mail] "Editor" (California) - See all my reviews

"Bearskin to Holly Fork: Stories from Appalachia" is a collection of gritty stories populated by tough people, and author Bob Sloan exposes their faults and failures as well as sharing with us their merits and accomplishments. Murderers, bootleggers, pot-growers, crippled war veterans, ex-cons and drunks rub elbows with sheriffs, waitresses, clerks, farmers, carpenters and the like. Sometimes it is difficult to tell who is who, as they are quite often one and the same.

This meticulously edited medley is not only an enjoyable read but should be considered a textbook for writers. Throughout, the author has sprinkled his wonderful imagery in carefully worded and structured sentences and paragraphs. Bob Sloan paints with his words.

My favorite story in this anthology of fifteen tales is "A Ride Across Open Water" in which a man and a woman who have suffered a grave loss attempt to put their empty lives back together. In this seemingly simple paragraph, the author reveals volumes:

"Twice in the week before she left, he came home to find his wife sleeping on the sofa, an empty glass that smelled of bourbon on the floor. Both times a pink and blue baby book, purchased the afternoon a doctor confirmed Bea's pregnancy, was on her lap. Paul's memory still held whole paragraphs from pamphlets and articles about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome."

In the author's own words about his writing: "My wife gave me the phrase `blue collar fiction.' It suits me better than any other label. I write stories about Appalachian working class people, the `working poor,' because they're the people who raised me, the people I live with, the people who matter to me."

Don't be fooled by the author's modesty. This is some of the most sophisticated and carefully crafted fiction you will ever read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars editorial review: Kentucky Monthly, June 6, 2004

By A Customer

Good short stories are hard to write. Those that resonate are coordinated combinations of authenticity, good dialogue that moves stories along, and an almost gifted ability to trust readers enough not to tell them everything -- only what they need to know. Bob Sloan, who is also a frequent contributor to National Public radio and lives near Morehead, is a master at the craft.

Sloan doles out 15 previously published stories over 135 pages and gives us a clinic in what good short stories are. One can get all senses activated -- can hear the sound of tires rolling on gravel, see Harlan Carter wheel himself up a redwood ramp built for elderly or disabled tourists, taste the freely flowing bourbon, touch Don Reynolds' partner "Troop" (whom others see as a ghost), and figuratively smell a rat when Bide goes for his commodities during the Great Depression.

The stories, often depressing and mostly laced with potent alcohol, nevertheless are told straight and with little contrived sentiment.
- Steve Flairty