Briar Patch Books

Tag: short stories

  • New stories illuminate Old Crimes

    Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer OLD CRIMES. By Jill McCorkle. Algonquin Press. 241 pages, $27. Any reader of literary fiction will relish the stories in Jill McCorkle’s latest collection. Once again, this North Carolina writer demonstrates the same sense of detail, depth of perception, and artful composition that have marked her ouevre over the years.…

  • Genius in the making

    Bob Moyer finds much to interest him in a collection of early Tennessee Williams stories. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE CATERPILLAR DOGS AND OTHER EARLY STORIES. By Tennessee Williams. New Directions. $14.95, paperback. There are pleasures aplenty in the youthful writing of what will become genius. This slim volume of Tennessee Williams’ writings exhibits…

  • Walter Mosley, the short version

    Years ago, a review by Bob Moyer introduced me to the works of Walter Mosley. Since then, I have read many of Mosley’s outstanding  and evocative mysteries, including many  of the early ones I had missed.  Now I’ll have to add this book of stories to my reading list. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE…

  • Not your fun-filled Florida

    Bob Moyer finds that there’s much lurking below the surface in Lauren Groff’s view of Florida – and most of it is menacing. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer FLORIDA. By Lauren Groff. Riverhead Books. 275 pages. $27. Florida’s gonna get you. According to Laura Groff, that is. Her Florida is not the glowing, fun-filled home…

  • America’s actor, America’s stories

    Bob Moyer takes a look at a book from last fall, short stories from someone we think of primarily as a very good movie actor. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer UNCOMMON TYPE. By Tom Hanks. Knopf. 405 pages. $26.95. Tom Hanks is America’s actor. By dint of good choices, good fortune and great talent, he…

  • A fresh perspective: Stephen King’s latest

    Reviewed by Victor James Lewis

  • A literary master

    Bob Moyer left from the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C., for a month in England and Germany a couple of hours after I left from the same airport on the same August day for a week in Italy. We were flying on different airlines, but before I left, I used my boarding pass…