The Outlaw Album

by Daniel Woodrell
Little, 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

This article appears in October 21 • 2011.

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James graduated from Columbia University in 2000 and moved to Austin a year later. Ever since, he has followed the arts and video game scene in ATX, editing and writing stories for the Chronicle along the way. Over his more than 20 years with the paper he has climbed the "corporate" ladder from lowly intern to managing editor.