Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts By Nick Rees Gardner
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Site_link post a commentWhen you re trapped in a Rust Belt town time passes or it doesn t The people of Westinghouse Ohio know this better than most In DELINQUENTS their personal worlds expand and collapse in on themselves as they battle addictions build scrap metal rocket ships and tether themselves to plans that will either get them out of dodge or blow up in their faces A former Deadhead seeks sobriety in his hometown though his decades old childhood trauma has been exhumed and now awaits him A sometimes recovering addict asks his younger sister to put him up as he repairs cars in their yard and she scrabbles to keep her own sanity A woman intending to follow her boyfriend out of town wonders why a newcomer in Westinghouse has captured her latent interest Nick Rees Gardner s linked stories portray people as they are alternately hilarious desperate resilient broken For the characters contained in DELINQUENTS the crux is determining which they ll be when the music stops Delinquents and Other Escape AttemptsDELINQUENTS AND OTHER ESCAPE ATTEMPTS by Nick Rees Gardner is an honest darkly humorous and raw collection of linked stories that explores the harsh realities of life in Westinghouse a fictional Rust Belt town during the opioid crisis In interconnected vignettes and stories which reminded me of Sherwood Anderson s Winesburg Ohio story cycle Gardner captures the alienation and isolation of these townspeople They struggle with unemployment family crises addiction and rampant drug access in a chaotic minefield of parties rehabs recovery and relapses In Westinghouse lives consist of attempts to escape from building a rocket ship of metal scrap to cross country drug runs or trading pills for the next high or striving for sobriety Gardner s visceral prose immerses readers in experience of becoming trapped in cycles of self destruction There s an astonishing sequence of 24 vignettes titled Spit Backs with an endless series of subtitles like Recovery Withdrawal Recovery Relapse Recovery Relapse Recovery Overdose Recovery and on and on and on The characters relentless quest for release survival and escape is profoundly human and devastating DELINQUENTS is a melancholic wry pessimistic yet ultimately uplifting ode to the fragile bonds that tie the people of Westinghouse together and the searing pain that pulses beneath the surface of small town life not just in Ohio or the Rust Belt This book made me see addiction in a new light and really feel how small town life has been forever changed by the opioid crisis It left me both deeply sad for our country and hopeful for the resilience of the human spirit to recover against all odds. PDF Delinquents and Other Escape attempts meaning Many thanks to Madrona Books a small PNW publisher for sending me a galley Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts This is linked fiction flexing its muscles The stories here carry the power of the form and together create the spine of the human condition into which this book reaches Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts was the perfect book to follow Joshua Mohr s Saint the Terrifying The drug addiction and personal redemption theme was especially strong with this one Instead of the LA punk scene in these interconnected stories Nick s characters were just spinning their wheels in a small Rust Belt town surviving day by day through a series of parties rehabs recoveries and relapses They get their hands on a blueprint of a rocket ship and try to build one of their own to escape their addictions They trade pills to seek better highs or decide enough s enough and try to get clean They couch crash broke and penniless or they 9 5 it for as long as they can and try to keep what s left of their sanity They attempt to leave their hometown only to find themselves pulled back in Time passes or it doesn t. Kindle Delinquents and Other Escape attempts meaning Nick writes with such authenticity and familiarity we all knew people like this Or maybe we were people like this Broken people sad people fucked up in the head people people who wanted from the world from their town from their lives Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts Ambitious sprawling empathic and somehow also a photo realistic panorama of a town that does not exist these linked stories are the clear result of an accomplished and singular creative vision Gardner blends the grittiness of dirty realism with an almost Dickensian flair for characters and scenes Additionally the book itself is a solid product which is not a guarantee in indie releases Favorite stories Sever the Head and Digging A beautiful collection inside and out Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts Delinquents immediately gripped me with its lively prose and questing characters All that wanting and not knowing and yearning seeped under my skin and with each successive story I felt closer to the action both internal and lived through Gardner takes hold of a certain place and time small town Ohio in the early 21st century and hits the reader in the face with it Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts
| Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts By Nick Rees Gardner |
| 196059303X |
| 9781960593030 |
| English |
| 182 |
| Paperback |
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