"The Half-Mammals of Dixie" by George Singleton

I picked up this book of short stories after looking into the Writers at Work conference, where Singleton will be a part of this summer's faculty.

The stories all take place in the fictional South Carolina town of Forty-Five. The first three stories are told by first-person male narrators recounting an event in their childhood and are simply beautiful. Characters in this collection recur in multiple stories, and by the end of the book one feels as though they've spent some quality time in a very specific locale. Although if you do read the book straight through, you might feel--as I did--that there is one too many flea markets. Although it did make me want to head to a fairgrounds some Saturday morning, and see what I can find.