Book Review: New in Print: Texas Book Festival Authors
TBF capsule reviews: 'The Outlaw Album'
Reviewed by James Renovitch, Fri., Oct. 21, 2011
The Outlaw Album
by Daniel WoodrellLittle, Brown and Company, 176 pp., $24.99
Following the movie adaptation of his 2006 novel, Winter's Bone, Woodrell has become identified with two things: setting his books in the Missouri Ozarks (where the author grew up) and populating his stories with uniquely disturbed individuals. This new collection is no exception, with tales of rural folks who, on the surface, seem to suffer from some manner of post-traumatic stress disorder, even if the stressors remain largely elusive. Some of the characters in the shortest yarns can be a bit flat, but the inability to get to the root of the trouble imbues the fleeting pages with a lingering psychic bite.
Tough Guys: Sunday, Oct. 23, 4-5pm, Capitol Auditorium Rm. E1.004