Dancing by the River

by Marlin Barton

"Dancing by the River" is a superb collection of stories about the fascinating complexities of life in a small community.

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[Rhonda Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know a story collection is special when you laugh out loud one minute and feel your chest seize with heartbreak the next. This is that kind of collection. From the first lines, you’re invested in each of these stories: “First thing I heard was somebody say, ‘He’s dead.’ Then somebody else said, ‘Dead as hell.’” You know these people. You’ve lived near them, maybe lived with them, heard them talk, watched them kiss, fight and make up. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself in these pages.

All are powerful stories full of complicated relationships, recognizable characters, honest emotions and Southern grace. I especially liked “Falling,” the story of a relationship whose fated demise takes place at the Belmont Chicken Drop. “Another Story for Catherine” examines a May-December romance with such honesty you’ll feel you’ve looked into a mirror. “Errands” is a compassionate study in judgment, when a young boy and an ailing, addicted doctor teach each other lessons in forgiveness.

The writing in this collection is sharp. The prose is lyrical, but not overblown. Barton pulls off with ease literary tricks that are difficult to accomplish, such as the passage of time in “Another Story for Catherine,” which many times jumps forward by weeks, months and seasons (unusual in short stories) so seamlessly you’ll never regret the missed days. This story, like some of the others, makes excellent use of theme and metaphor, as the first-person narrator (whose name we never learn, and don’t need to, because just maybe he is us) subtly refers to objects and seasons and memories that highlight the sixteen-year age difference between his love-interest and him. “We courted on a merry-go-round,” the story begins. Powerful stuff.

If you enjoy the stories of Ron Rash or William Gay, it’s time you started reading Marlin Barton.
Highly recommended.

[C.D. Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bart Barton is a little known southern writer who deserves to be spoken of in the same breath with any writer who hhas ever written about the hot, humid summer days or the bigoted, ignorant ways of southern inhabitants. Read his books--all of them!

[Dave Marsland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now here's a thing, if you are lucky enough to have read Children of Dust will really love this short story collection. Acting as a companion volume to the novel, along with The Dry Well, most of the stories centre around generations of the Anderson family. Set in the fictious town of Riverside, South Alabama, the author goes some way to creating his own version of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha. Twelve beautifully crafted stories written with humanity and a real sense of time and place.
Two of the stories that don’t pertain to the Andersons, the magnificently titled Meaning Business and Fallen are narrated by a man trying to save a marriage that is hollowed out and foredoomed. These stories are compassionate, comical and pitch perfect.
The ten other stories choreograph the Andersons, the earliest going back to a young Rafe Anderson as a Confederate soldier in the final, desperate days of the War Between the States. Marlin Barton is a master at understanding the nature of the human heart and what makes it beat. The language is melodic and infused with wisdom.
Beneath a Dark Window, Slow Waltz, Domestic Relations and Errands centre around the store that family own in Riverside. It doesn’t take too much effort to noodle out the interweaving of the stories. The first of these stories is a about a man on his death bed reflecting on decisions he made in life, and the tragic consequences that they brought about. Forgiveness and understanding are never far from the surface.
These books may be difficult to access, but I cannot praise them enough. Marlin Barton writes about the South with eloquence, but he speaks to all of us with compassion and grace.

[Sue Whitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

collection of short stories set over three generations