Why read The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake?

Book cover of The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake

Book description

A collection of short stories that memorably capture American life in rural Appalachia by Breece D'J Pancake, the brilliant writer praised by Joyce Carol Oates as "a young writer of such extraordinary gifts that one is tempted to compare his debut to Hemingway's."

Breece D'J Pancake cut short a promising…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Wes Blake

Author

The characters and stories in this book carved out a permanent place in my inner life. It took me a long time to read the book because I wanted to savor each sentence. I have rarely found a book that combined such an emotional impact, compulsive readability, and such striking, polished sentences.

Every story has the raw, ringing truth of felt experience, and this experience worked its way into my consciousness like a dream or memory. There is a universal quality of aloneness and separateness among all of Pancake’s characters. The Appalachian settings in this book are as symbolic, arresting,…

From Wes' list on The best books that capture how it feels to be an outsider.