Come Again

Come Again by Nate Powell, 272 pages

It's the late 1970s and a small community in the Ozarks is still clinging to the last gasps of the Love Generation. A close-knit community like Haven Station is a hard place to keep secrets, but a couple of families have managed to do so for several years and only the disappearance of a child can make that secret unravel. Fresh on the heels of winning the National Book Award (with John Lewis for March), Powell presents a twisty tale that ties together secrets, longing, community, difficult choices, and monsters that seem most real when discussed around a campfire. It's a haunting tale, beautifully told.

Winter's Bone / Daniel Woodrell 193 pp.

Ree Dolly is sixteen and has a big problem.  And it doesn't involve prom dresses.  Her father has skipped his court appearance and left the house where she lives with her mentally disabled mother and two little brothers as bond.  It's cold, there's no money and hardly any food, and they are about to become homeless.  In this desolate Ozark landscape, she is surrounded by relatives but it isn't clear that any of them can be trusted.

Woodrell depicts a culture which is so savage, violent and desperate as to be unbelievable, except that his writing is, well, believable.  I was especially intrigued by the oddities of language used by the characters, which greatly enhance the claustrophobic effect of the story.  Almost ethnographic, and almost perfect storytelling.