Country Hardball

September 2, 2013
Ex-con Roy Alison would like to go straight, but he can’t seem to make up for past mistakes, and his only options are just more bad choices. Weddle’s debut novel is a suspenseful series of interrelated stories of tragedy, despair, and hopelessness in a rural Southern town. There is no joy here, as Weddle paints a vivid, depressing picture of a blue-collar community crushed by economic collapse and endemic substance abuse with characters, events, and dialogue that seem all too real. Roy easily drifts back into a world of violence and crime with his worthless cousin, Cleovis, but still harbors a desire to do right. As folks mourn for sons killed in Iraq and struggle with unemployment, Roy becomes involved in helping to carry out a string of crimes that gradually turn out to be connected. These are gritty stories of people facing nothing but bad options, though Roy eventually manages to make something good come from his situation. The most powerful image, however, is Weddle’s description of an old lady who keeps all her hopes in a little box—one that’s empty. Agent: Stacia Decker, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

October 1, 2013
Calling itself a "novel-in-stories," this debut collection of 20 tales takes a close, respectful look at poor folks in contemporary rural Arkansas. Members of several families recur: Dalton, Pribble, Womack, Tatum; women named Staci, MeChell and Birdie; men named Rusty, Cleo and Skinny Dennis. Many of the stories are vignettes. Together, they paint a grim picture of a community that may or may not have been prosperous once but now is not. The few who have made it out into the world play baseball, and more than a few flamed out. Some went to war, and those that returned are damaged. The victim of one of several violent episodes wanted to be a phlebotomist and was considered ambitious. Crime is endemic. The title story has the makings of a backwoods police procedural, the deputies getting a whiff of corruption they can do nothing about while keeping an eye on the lowlifes. Fine descriptions, all of people, enliven the plain writing. Here, a father looks at his sleeping son: "He looked at what was left of the boy, skin tight over points of bone. A sprawling, dull tattoo on his chest, never finished. Maybe it was supposed to have been a dragon. Or smoke." Here, a criminal sizes up a potential victim: "He was a big guy, skin tight like a child's balloon twisted into the shape of a man." Except for one Roy Alison, we don't hear much of the characters' inner lives, as if deprivation has atrophied their capacity to reflect. The final three stories examine whether or not Roy will change his ways. Dark, noirish and worth a look.

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October 1, 2013
Roy Alison, the linchpin in this novel-in-stories set in the Louisiana-Arkansas border area, has a dreadful legacy to overcome. At 16, he was high on drugs when he caused the car accident that killed his parents, starting him on a decade-long downward spiral of life in institutions, punctuated by violence in which people sometimes died. Now back home and living with his grandmother, Alison wants to be a better person. But events, generally motivated by the region's dreadful economy, are conspiring against him. Trying to counter the increase in drugs and violence, Deputy Dennis McWilliams, once a promising pitcher coached by Alison's father, has his own reasons for talking turkey and offering Alison another road. As the title suggests, baseball is an overarching subject here, as well as a possible means out of the area, and McWilliams' explanation of his pitching strategy to a teenage girl is a highlight. These skillfully wrought interconnected stories form a debut novel that is relentless in describing the lives of people who are captives not only of their environment but also of their own histories.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)