Scan barcode
countofpoictesme's review
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
literarily_occupied's review
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
4.0
I saw this book while browsing the shelves at my local bookstore. I noticed the author was from my home state and later learned that he briefly attended college (WVWC) in my hometown.
I tend to be drawn to the dark and tragic, so seeing that he had taken his own life so young in the blurb had me intrigued, and I found the stories and fragments portrayed some of that as well.
Through his letters to family and colleagues you get a feel of who Breece was and as they progress you are filled with a sense of foreboding.
He was a promising young writer and it's unfortunate that he chose to leave this world so soon.
If you're reading this and find yourself struggling, please don't be afraid to reach out or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
I tend to be drawn to the dark and tragic, so seeing that he had taken his own life so young in the blurb had me intrigued, and I found the stories and fragments portrayed some of that as well.
Through his letters to family and colleagues you get a feel of who Breece was and as they progress you are filled with a sense of foreboding.
He was a promising young writer and it's unfortunate that he chose to leave this world so soon.
If you're reading this and find yourself struggling, please don't be afraid to reach out or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
dycook's review
5.0
Pancake's voice is crystalline, unique, and sharp. Each sentence is a little bit off-kilter, but never unclear. The stories vary thematically and structurally, but each pokes at ethical dilemmas, some more successfully than others. I mostly picked this up for the stories, but I didn't expect the letters to be as interesting and revealing as they were. Overall an impressively put together collection.
melanieinmuenster's review
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
23149014345613's review
4.0
"When authors tells you they love Hemingway, believe them the first time." - Maya Angelou
The West Virginia setting helped keep me engaged, but this is way too much like Ernest for my tastes - hyper-masculine, insecure, abrupt, exterior, impatient, guns, etc. Furious and obscure, Pancake keeps his language switching back, rolling around and dodging expectations, hiding in mountain patois and stream-of-consciousness non sequiturs. Wrestling with it was fun for a time, but I ultimately just ended up tired. I'm not going to rate it low just for being what it is, but it didn't do what I wanted it to do for me, so just 4 stars.
The West Virginia setting helped keep me engaged, but this is way too much like Ernest for my tastes - hyper-masculine, insecure, abrupt, exterior, impatient, guns, etc. Furious and obscure, Pancake keeps his language switching back, rolling around and dodging expectations, hiding in mountain patois and stream-of-consciousness non sequiturs. Wrestling with it was fun for a time, but I ultimately just ended up tired. I'm not going to rate it low just for being what it is, but it didn't do what I wanted it to do for me, so just 4 stars.
charleslambert's review
5.0
The matter of these stories is harsh, bleak, set in an unforgiving landscape - in both a geographical and a social sense - and inhabited by people whose lives offer little chance for escape or improvement. Love is fugitive, or misplaced, friendship a chimera or a convenience. They make Annie Proulx's Wyoming Stories feel light-hearted, optimistic in comparison. So why read them? Because what lifts them from the general bleakness is the precision of the language, the tone, the attention of Pancake's gaze. He sees them from the inside, which precludes sentimentality in favour of an intimacy that gives these stories both weight and depth.
The letters, which make up the second half of this volume, represent an extraordinary counterpoint to the extraordinary stories that precede them, illuminating both the world they describe and the man who wrote them. They're chatty, affectionate, opinionated, constantly anxious about money, filled with plans for the future and the mirage (or maybe not) of success. There's self-doubt, but not about the writing, which absorbs him and to which he devotes his constant care, drafting and redrafting each story until he's satisfied (although he never is). There's a powerful sense of the love he feels for his parents, his mother in particular, and of its being reciprocated, and of a gift for friendship. What emerges from them is a man whose sensitivity is both at odds with his sense of himself as a man rooted in his time and place and unashamed of that, and the source of who he is, and his only refuge. They're a fitting corollary to the stories, and it's good to have them.
The letters, which make up the second half of this volume, represent an extraordinary counterpoint to the extraordinary stories that precede them, illuminating both the world they describe and the man who wrote them. They're chatty, affectionate, opinionated, constantly anxious about money, filled with plans for the future and the mirage (or maybe not) of success. There's self-doubt, but not about the writing, which absorbs him and to which he devotes his constant care, drafting and redrafting each story until he's satisfied (although he never is). There's a powerful sense of the love he feels for his parents, his mother in particular, and of its being reciprocated, and of a gift for friendship. What emerges from them is a man whose sensitivity is both at odds with his sense of himself as a man rooted in his time and place and unashamed of that, and the source of who he is, and his only refuge. They're a fitting corollary to the stories, and it's good to have them.
ndabholkar's review
5.0
I read this on a rainy road trip through the hills of Appalachia!
The appeal of his writing comes from that same stark place that pulls one's mind to empty, downbeat, melancholic, architecturally compromised and isolated places. I love these stories for it.
The appeal of his writing comes from that same stark place that pulls one's mind to empty, downbeat, melancholic, architecturally compromised and isolated places. I love these stories for it.
More...