Letting Loose the Hounds: Stories

Usually I don't like very much short stories. But this book has something new in it: each story is what is called in French a "slice of life" :) B Udall sends us in the very core of an ordinary life, in which appear both the uniqueness of our own small lifes and an immense tenderness for the human struggle for finding a meaning to them. Stories are of Southern ordinary Americans, with their own small dramas, loves, fears and hopes. Progressively the reader ends deeply "attached" to the life of each of the character, and understands what keeps them together in a single book, which appears in the end as a great novel. Udall is young and could become one of the outsanding writers of these times. So much talent so young, and a creation made up with ordinary things the kind of which everyone sees everyday. You'll be jealous...

The only problem with Brady Udall's stories is that he hasn't written more of them. Hurry up, Udall, will ya?

This book is a collection of touching, amusing and extremely insightful life experiences. The author has a soulful, optomistic outlook tempered by stark reality. Hope there will be many more to follow!

One of the best story collections I've read. All the pieces fit--though some of them have been scattered quite far, Udall has confidently traipsed out to the edges and brought them back.

The best book of short stories I have ever read. If you like Thom Jones, Denis Johnson or T.C. Boyle, then give this book a shot.