Town Smokes

This, Benedict's debut published when he was only 23, remains his best work to date. He seems to have lost most of his audacity, which is really the charm of this book, in his subsequent work. Still, this book's best stories have a lot of fun with language, and Benedict is undoubtedly a very talented writer. None of his work, though, approaches that of Breece Pancake, the West Virginia writer who was in many ways Pinckney Benedict's inspiration (do all West Virginians have such outrageous names?), but who committed suicide at age 26. Pancake was a genius who basically could not handle the world; Benedict is very gifted, but is not a genius. I still reccomend this book--I just don't want to see Benedict's reputation, just because he is still alive, completely overshadow Pancake's.

These tales of poor West Virginia mountain folk create a fictional world unlike that in any other book I have ever read--a world haunted by dark spirits, enchanting the reader even as he is appalled by the brutality of the characters and their lives. Reading "Town Smokes," you close the covers gasping for air, yet wanting desperately to return. Judging from this, his first book, Pinckney Benedict appeared to be well on his way toward becoming one of the great figures of American literature, the equal of Faulkner or Melville. Unfortunately, "The Wrecking Yard," his follow-up book, was very fine, but lacked the originality and power of "Town Smokes." I fear Benedict's M.F.A. advisors may have gotten to him!

This is, without a doubt, first-rate fiction. Benedict does a wonderful job keeping himself distanced in every story; too many writers, it seems, adopt mannered styles of "mush" sentiments: "poor me, look at my beautiful prose, feel what I feel, oh", etc. What Benedict does, then, is put most writers to shame with the psychic distance between him and his characters. Too bad Benedict is not read by the general pubic, who insist on reading morons like Nora Roberts and Danielle Steele.

Though he might seem a bit obscure to the casual reader, Pinckney Benedict is one of the finest writers of short fiction in the country. This here is his first collection, published when he was only twenty-three, and it's really something else. Stories like "All the Dead", "Dog", "Water Witch", and "Town Smokes", in the sheer audacity of the style in witch they're written as well as the evocation of the settings and characters, help to make up one of the most enjoyable and satisfying collections of short stories that you ever will read. Highly reccomended for anyone who appreciates good short fiction.p.s.: If you're nervous about buying a book on the internet, there's usually at least one copy in the fiction section of any Barnes and Noble.