Yesteryear Tales: A Review

Last summer, I complained about being spammed by a promotion for a book I’d never heard of. Not long after, the author sent me an ARC of his book. Recently, I finally got around to reading the book and found it quite enjoyable.

The Yesteryear Tales (ISBN 978-1606530009, High Hill Press, July 2008, 212 pages, $14.95), by David Lee Kirkland, is a collection of Appalachian short stories, many of which use repeating characters and rural/small town locations. A few stories are a bit gritty; others are charming. Many characters are likable and are not without their human flaws. For the most part, the writing is pretty good and demonstrates a definite voice and a strong sense of place.

One of the book’s grittier±and darker—stories, "Jack and Jester," is here. It could serve as a textbook example of how to write an effective short story: showing instead of telling, authentic dialogue, active verbs, no extraneous words, interesting characters, a well-crafted plot. Read it and see what you think.

I found a few minor problems with the book:

1. Title. “Yesteryear” and “tales” both suggest a children’s book. It certainly isn’t.
2. Diction: At least twice, the author describes a horse moving with a “fox-trotting pace.” I have a Tennessee walker who fox-trots. She doesn’t pace. A pace is a two-beat lateral gait. A fox-trot is a four-beat gait that tends a bit toward the diagonal. (The trot is a two-beat diagonal gait.) A horse couldn’t simultaneously fox-trot and pace. Most people wouldn’t notice this error. But I did. I think the author meant “fox-trotting gait.”

See? I told you they were minor.

The Yesteryear Tales is a good, set-a-spell down-home read. For more information, check out this interview with the author.

~