Burnt House

by Lowell Mick White

Burnt House is a darkly comic, gothic exploration of a West Virginia town and the people who live there. "Tragedies," one character reports. "Screw-ups. Cruelties. Bad, bad, sad things that nobody ever forgot, things people never talked about openly but only sometimes related in whispered hinting halfstories after dark."

187 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2018

About the author

Lowell Mick White is the author of six books: novels Normal School and Burnt House and That Demon Life and Professed, and story collections Long Time Ago Good and The Messes We Make of Our Lives. His work has been published in many literary journals, including Callaloo, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Short Story. A winner of the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, awarded by the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Institute of Letters, White lived in Austin, Texas, for 25 years, at various times making his living working as a cab driver, as a shade tree salesman, and as an Internal Revenue Service bureaucrat. He is Editor of Alamo Bay Press, and has been the National Endowment for the Arts Artist-in-Residence at the federal prison in Bryan, Texas. A member of the Texas Institute of Letters, White is an Instructional Associate Professor at Texas A&M University.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny stories. Well written and the characters are very well developed.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful read

[Patricia Bjorklund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly engaging!

[Doreen Ashbrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very dark book - reminiscent of The Glass Castle. Very well written, but I did not find any characters to like.

[Kyrie Villarreal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Burnt House as research for a creative work of my own set in Northeastern West Virginia, a few counties over from the fictional town where these interconnected short stories are set.

I don't read a lot of short stories, but I loved the way these wove into one another in a longer narrative. I like the idea of sitting with the same characters for a long time, really getting to know them, and Burnt House let me do that in a way short story collections normally don't. I felt like I was reading about real people in a real place, and that's exactly what I went into this book wanting. I went into this book wanting to learn about West Virginia, the culture, the vernacular, the scenery, and Burnt House gave me easy access to all of these things.

My favorite part about this book is probably the characterization. So many different people show up throughout this narrative, and the way White managed to give every one of them individuality is remarkable. I feel like I know Jackie Stalnaker, Liza, Gran, Grammaw, Jean, Butchie, Ace, Danny Bob, all of them. White created an entire community within the folds of this book.

And beyond that, he really did illustrate something I've heard best described as "small-town ignorance," the belief that even after all the industry has left a town, the jobs, everything, an individual is owed a life there regardless. This makes me think of Burnt House and all the people just sort of stuck there, even though they don't have to be because Burnt House is sort of all there is.

If you're looking for a book that will expand your empathy, help you understand the culture of Appalachia, examine the human condition, then Burnt House is the read for you.

[Amy Ingalls · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a giveaway. This novel is written as a series of related short stories. I found parts of it funny, chuckling out loud at times, while other parts were dark and sad. The last story, GTO, was really disturbing, and the actions and choices of one of the characters really ticked me off (probably because after years of working in mental health and education, I know stuff like that really does happen). The book was well-written and I would definitely read another book (or story collection) by this author.

[G.P. Gottlieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

In these charming short stories, White creates a world of complex characters, some lazy, cranky or perfectly satisfied, others lonely and lost, but all connected by history and their shared geography. Listen to my interview with the author before (or after) you read the book! https://newbooksnetwork.com/lowell-mi...