Book Review : The Outlaw Album

#ShortStory

#Crime

#HistoricalFiction

Book Review

The Outlaw Album

By Daniel Woodrell

This collection of short stories by the author of such well known works like Winter's Bone & Tomato Red — which won the Pen West award for fiction in 1999— is the first collection of short works for the author.

    Daniel has created a cast of characters, in this short story collection The Outlaw Album  , that have different strains of bad in them. Some of the characters come out of the past such as in Woe to Live On, while others are in the present.

What I like about Mr.Woodrell's talents is his consistent and exacting use of local vernacular.  He doesn’t miss any details in tone, inflection, and behavior in any of his characters. What I like about his stories in general is that they are written to how he wants to tell the story. Let me explain.  I recently read a short story compilation that was edited by George R R Martin. The stories were all five-thousand words in length, a standard word count requested by editors and used by authors to sell their work. I never reviewed that book because it was a terrible collection. But Mr. Woodrell doesn’t put himself in that mold.  If a story is  twelve hundred words, he doesn’t fluff it up. His writing is precise, consistent with characters, and his story lines eb and flow as needed to convey the scene or temperament of the characters.  This collection contains short stories of various lengths, all were interesting and enjoyable.  Not a surprise that the author of Winters Bone could also produce a great collection of short stories.  If you enjoy reading about intriguing characters, that represent the best and worst of humanity, you will enjoy this book.

   This Book is Five Full Sails. Excellent work, well written, add it to book shelf today.