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Tax-exempt? Learn more about the author at www.ericshade.net | Eyesores In the title story, a group of unskilled laborers rerun memories of youth as they race against the dark to demolish the town's drive-in theater. A chain restaurant will take its place. Naomi dumps Dwight at the altar in "Hoops, Wires, and Plugs," but then Dwight fritters away the shamed agitation that could have propelled him beyond Windfall's stunting gravitational pull. In the final story, "Souvenirs," small-time hoods Paxson and Gus do what so many in Windfall can't: get out of town. They're off to Pittsburgh and a contract killing they hope will kick off a more rewarding life of crime. In hands less able than Eric Shade's, Windfall's men would be caricatures, screw-ups with all-too-easy access to the makings of tragedy: pills, booze, fast cars, guns, chain saws. Instead their stories give us new ways to ponder change and its consequences. Windfall stakes out a gritty quarter of the literary map shared by Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg and Thornton Wilder's Grover's Corners. Eric Shade, who was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, currently lives in Houston, Texas. Shade's stories have appeared in such journals as Indiana Review, Greensboro Review, and River Styx. He is a recipient of a James Michener Fellowship, a writing award given in honor of Donald Barthelme. March 2003 ISBN 0820324329 cloth • $24.95 216 pp. • 5 1/4 x 8 in.A volume in the seriesThe Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction "These gritty stories set in run-down Windfall, Pennsylvania, are, nevertheless, full of love of character and profound affection for place. 'Eyesores,' 'The Heart Hankers,' 'The Last Night of the County Fair'-every story shines with mystery and truth. Eric Shade is a writer to watch." —Lee K. Abbott, author of Wet Places at Noon"The people Shade writes about in 11 interrelated stories are mechanics, roofers, carpenters, and house painters. Acutely tuned into their lives in the small town of Windfall, PA, Shade records their big losses and small triumphs with clear-eyed compassion and humor." —Marcia Tager, Library Journal"Shade has the voice down-his people dream of futures that involve UFOs and time machines. They know of other places but ultimately, it seems, are stuck and fated. When one person says to another, 'We could leave Windfall,' the response is: 'I think Windfall's about left us, Gus.' A tough, unforgiving portrait of shallow small-town folk who have heard only the gossip on nobility." —Kirkus Reviews"In his remarkable, Flannery O'Connor Award-winning collection, Shade takes us to Windfall, Pennsylvania, and gets the details exactly right. . . . Shade captures perfectly the way in which it's hard to leave your mistakes behind when you're surrounded by people who remember when you made them. Throughout the book, different characters throw garbage, outgrown toys, or stolen goods off a bridge into old railcars in acts of boredom, anger, or embarrassment; in a coda, when the train finally pulls away, they realize they'd like some of the stuff back. It's surprising yet believable action that sets up a moving metaphor, and short fiction doesn't get much better than that."-Keir Graff, Booklist (starred review) "Taken individually, these stories are brilliantly human and startlingly true to some primal aspect of the postindustrial rustbelt heart."-William M. Bush, Rain Taxi "Shade demonstrates a sure touch . . . Admitting weakness is difficult for Shade's characters. They live in a world ruled by aggression, strength and the ability to use these feelings in completing hard manual work. At the same time, Shade's characters are often the sensitive types wrapped in tough clothing. For this reason, a reader is apt to feel protective toward Shade's disillusioned young men. We don't want them to grow up too fast; we don't want them to feel stuck in Windfall forever."-John Freeman, Houston Chronicle"Windfall, Pa., is the estranged sister city to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. . . . After a few stories we too become fascinated with the stuck lives of Windfall. By the end, we're like Shade and his characters in the way we feel about our own hometown. We both renounce it and fall in love with it forever."-Richard Newman, St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Eleven economical, well-told stories . . . [An] homage to the not-so-quiet desperation of working-class anti-heroes. Mr. Shade tells their stories with sharp, profane and lean language. . . . Eyesores is stirring and haunting tales about a no-place few would want to visit and none wold care to live."-Dan R. Barber, Dallas Morning News "[An] impressive new collection."-Jere Real, Richmond Times-Dispatch |
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