Outlaw album, by Daniel Woodrell

This powerful collection of short stories is enough to put you off that float trip on the Jacks Fork forever. Some of the stories are no more than a few pages, but not a word is wasted. They are peopled by Ozark characters that the author knows well as a resident of the area, and many of the protagonists would seem like caricatures in the hands of a less skillful writer. One kills his neighbor multiple times; another does in a handicapped uncle; a third rides with Quantrill and Coleman Younger in the Civil War. Strictly speaking most of the stories deal with criminal activity, but somehow, the author makes you both understand the characters and why they acted as they did. A chilling, bleak slice of American life. 176 pp.