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Hillisburg #1.5
Float Up, Sing Down: Stories
Laird Hunt's masterful story collection capturing one summer's day in the Indiana community where the beloved National Book Award Finalist Zorrie bloomed.
Candy Wilson has forgotten to buy the paprika. Turner Davis needs to get his zinnias in. Della Dorner told her mother she was going to the Galaxy Swirl, but that's not where she's really headed on her new Schwinn five-speed.
Float Up, Sing Down is the story of a single day. But in that day, how much teeming life! The residents of this rural town have their routines, their preferences, their joys, grudges, and regrets. Gossip is paramount. Lives are entwined. Retired sheriffs climb corn bins and muse on lost love, French teachers throw firecrackers out of barn windows, and teenagers borrow motorcycles to ride the back roads.
Each of the fourteen stories of Float Up, Sing Down follows one character's "day-in-the-life" in one of Hunt's most beloved and enduring landscapes. In the tradition of Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Elizabeth Strout, and Edward P. Jones, this is a symphony of souls, a masterful portrait of both loneliness and community by one of our great limners of American experience.
Candy Wilson has forgotten to buy the paprika. Turner Davis needs to get his zinnias in. Della Dorner told her mother she was going to the Galaxy Swirl, but that's not where she's really headed on her new Schwinn five-speed.
Float Up, Sing Down is the story of a single day. But in that day, how much teeming life! The residents of this rural town have their routines, their preferences, their joys, grudges, and regrets. Gossip is paramount. Lives are entwined. Retired sheriffs climb corn bins and muse on lost love, French teachers throw firecrackers out of barn windows, and teenagers borrow motorcycles to ride the back roads.
Each of the fourteen stories of Float Up, Sing Down follows one character's "day-in-the-life" in one of Hunt's most beloved and enduring landscapes. In the tradition of Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Elizabeth Strout, and Edward P. Jones, this is a symphony of souls, a masterful portrait of both loneliness and community by one of our great limners of American experience.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 6, 2024
63 people are currently reading
3274 people want to read
About the author
Laird Hunt
40 books515 followersLaird Hunt is an American writer, translator and academic.
Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central High School. He earned a B.A. from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. He also studied French literature at the Sorbonne. Hunt worked in the press office at the United Nations while writing his first novel. He is currently a professor in the Creative Writing program at University of Denver. Hunt lives with his wife, the poet Eleni Sikelianos, in Boulder, Colorado.
Hunt grew up in Singapore, San Francisco, The Hague, and London before moving to his grandmother's farm in rural Indiana, where he attended Clinton Central High School. He earned a B.A. from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. He also studied French literature at the Sorbonne. Hunt worked in the press office at the United Nations while writing his first novel. He is currently a professor in the Creative Writing program at University of Denver. Hunt lives with his wife, the poet Eleni Sikelianos, in Boulder, Colorado.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
March 31, 2024
3.5 stars
I loved Laird Hunt’s beautiful novel Zorrie which gave me a favorite character , and also Neverhome, which is thought provoking and moving. There are a couple of others that were just okay, but because of those two novels I thought I’d give this collection a try. I have to admit I was tempted to put it aside after reading the first few pages focusing on how Candy forgot to buy the paprika for the deviled eggs and how much she enjoyed dollioping the mayonnaise. But then the townspeople began to come to life and there’s more than just forgetting the paprika going on . It’s not an in your face telling, but a more subtle one like when we quietly learn what happened to her friend Irma .
It’s a day in the life of the people of this small town in Indiana, connected to each other as is the case in many small towns. While Candy is stressing over her paprika, Turner is stressing over not having his zinnias in . But there’s more that this retired custodian is interested in than his flowers. It was sweet. Gladys has had it with her husband and seeks solace by hiding in the cornfields. There are a total of 14 stories told from the points of view of 14 of the town’s residents, some of whom are part of each other’s narrative. I loved that Zorrie makes an appearance.
I can’t say that I connected with all of the characters, but still think it was worth reading. I’m hoping that Hunt writes more characters like Zorrie or Ash in Neverhome .
I received a copy of this book from the Bloomsbury through Edelweiss.
I loved Laird Hunt’s beautiful novel Zorrie which gave me a favorite character , and also Neverhome, which is thought provoking and moving. There are a couple of others that were just okay, but because of those two novels I thought I’d give this collection a try. I have to admit I was tempted to put it aside after reading the first few pages focusing on how Candy forgot to buy the paprika for the deviled eggs and how much she enjoyed dollioping the mayonnaise. But then the townspeople began to come to life and there’s more than just forgetting the paprika going on . It’s not an in your face telling, but a more subtle one like when we quietly learn what happened to her friend Irma .
It’s a day in the life of the people of this small town in Indiana, connected to each other as is the case in many small towns. While Candy is stressing over her paprika, Turner is stressing over not having his zinnias in . But there’s more that this retired custodian is interested in than his flowers. It was sweet. Gladys has had it with her husband and seeks solace by hiding in the cornfields. There are a total of 14 stories told from the points of view of 14 of the town’s residents, some of whom are part of each other’s narrative. I loved that Zorrie makes an appearance.
I can’t say that I connected with all of the characters, but still think it was worth reading. I’m hoping that Hunt writes more characters like Zorrie or Ash in Neverhome .
I received a copy of this book from the Bloomsbury through Edelweiss.
March 22, 2024
Laird Hunt 's Float Up, Sing down is a masterful, touching collection of fourteen slice of life stories, each focusing on one character. There aren't many secrets in a small town where everybody has known each other since they were kids.
There's Turner Davis, a zinnia loving retired school janitor with a secret passion for ballroom dancing. Horace Allen reminds us of the power of scent to raise memories. Gladys Bacon, tired of her husband Vernon literally hiding in the closet, finds wandering the corn fields as good a medicine as any pill. And my favorite, Hank Dunn, the retired sheriff, pushing 90, still able to climb to the top of the corn silo to enjoy the view and let his memories percolate.
Laird Hunt's stories about ordinary people are anything but ordinary. The richness of her writing reminds me of Richard Russo. That's high praise indeed!
There's Turner Davis, a zinnia loving retired school janitor with a secret passion for ballroom dancing. Horace Allen reminds us of the power of scent to raise memories. Gladys Bacon, tired of her husband Vernon literally hiding in the closet, finds wandering the corn fields as good a medicine as any pill. And my favorite, Hank Dunn, the retired sheriff, pushing 90, still able to climb to the top of the corn silo to enjoy the view and let his memories percolate.
Laird Hunt's stories about ordinary people are anything but ordinary. The richness of her writing reminds me of Richard Russo. That's high praise indeed!
January 15, 2024
3.5
I think after I'd read the blurb on this novel that the stories might coalesce in some way bit apart from the odd intersection here and there they don't really.
The writing is okay and the stories are okay but mainly they just tell small town stories of small town people. There are love affairs, deaths, the odd mystery, young love, old love etc. I guess it would be the same if you stopped in any roadside diner anywhere in the world and could see into the lives of all the people who sat there with you.
There's nothing particularly thrilling. This is a very gentle book where there are a few surprises and could really be a collection of short stories.
It wasn't really to my taste as I kept expecting some event to bring the stories together. But if you like a slice of life in small town America then this is a book for you.
Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for the advance review copy.
I think after I'd read the blurb on this novel that the stories might coalesce in some way bit apart from the odd intersection here and there they don't really.
The writing is okay and the stories are okay but mainly they just tell small town stories of small town people. There are love affairs, deaths, the odd mystery, young love, old love etc. I guess it would be the same if you stopped in any roadside diner anywhere in the world and could see into the lives of all the people who sat there with you.
There's nothing particularly thrilling. This is a very gentle book where there are a few surprises and could really be a collection of short stories.
It wasn't really to my taste as I kept expecting some event to bring the stories together. But if you like a slice of life in small town America then this is a book for you.
Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for the advance review copy.
February 2, 2024
God’s country. Or God’s cousin’s country anyway. Maybe God’s nephew. No need to get grandiose.
I picked this one up as I remember the author having a critically acclaimed novel a couple of years previously, a National Book Award finalist.
But it was only when a peripheral character called Zorrie popped up in the first chapter than I remembered I had actually read that 2021 work... and wasn't a huge fan.
Float Up, Sing Down consists of a series of stories centred around several characters in the Indiana town Hillisburg where the eponymous Zorrie settled, set in one day in 1982. One of my favourite Twitter literary critics subjects books to the page 1 test, and this sets out its modest stall on with one of the least interesting first pages I can recall:
Candy Wilson had forgotten to buy the paprika. She had thought about it more than once that morning in town as she pushed her cart down shiny aisle after shiny aisle at the Marsh. Now it was clear to her that this thinking—this seeing of her hand scooping up the little red and white paprika tin, the way it actually scooped up eggs and orange Jell-O and pineapple and carrots and real butter and a fresh jar of Hellmann’s and every single other thing on her list—had taken the place of getting it done. Meaning she had a problem. Club was set to start in just a few hours. Some of the members liked her pigs in a blanket, some her caramel corn, and Alma Dunn and Lois Burton always took seconds and sometimes even thirds of her sunshine salad, but to a rosy-red carapace every member of the Bright Creek Girls Gaming Club loved her deviled eggs. Paprika was the recipe’s sine qua non, and Candy, whose turn it was, couldn’t host the monthly meeting without it.
The stories are connected in the sense that the same characters reoccur as background to other stories, indeed at times the narrative baton is passed as one character passes another and then we see their perspective. But in practice, and rather artificially, each story, told from a close third-person perspective, gives us larger elements of the character's life history as they seemingly all reflect existentially on their lives while shopping for Jell-O.
My review of Zorrie concluded:
Similar criticisms could be made here, although this is more an (inferior) version of a novel like Reservoir 13 or David Mitchell's Black Swan Green than a Williams/Robinson detailed character study due to the multiple characters and picture of a community.
There are hints at diversity - a former schoolteacher who concealed her homosexuality, but the locals had her as a wrong'un anyway as she teaches French, and another who speaks Spanish (and doesn't for some reason warrant her own chapter):
He stopped along the way to admire the cleome and to measure the snapdragons, which were already up to his waist. People who bought their plants at Emerald’s joked that either she put radium in her products or she was casting spells on them.
Jodi said it was easy to make jokes like that when the person you were looking for laughs about had an accent, even as incidental a one as Emerald—who had been born Esmeralda Sylvestro in Guadalajara, Mexico—had.
But this is very much a picture of quaint small-town early-1980s isolated homogeneous "Morning in-"America, and I had to check the copyright pages as to whether this was a re-issue from that time, but no, it's been first published in the UK, as well as he US, 2024. Why I'm less clear.
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC, but not for me.
I picked this one up as I remember the author having a critically acclaimed novel a couple of years previously, a National Book Award finalist.
But it was only when a peripheral character called Zorrie popped up in the first chapter than I remembered I had actually read that 2021 work... and wasn't a huge fan.
Float Up, Sing Down consists of a series of stories centred around several characters in the Indiana town Hillisburg where the eponymous Zorrie settled, set in one day in 1982. One of my favourite Twitter literary critics subjects books to the page 1 test, and this sets out its modest stall on with one of the least interesting first pages I can recall:
Candy Wilson had forgotten to buy the paprika. She had thought about it more than once that morning in town as she pushed her cart down shiny aisle after shiny aisle at the Marsh. Now it was clear to her that this thinking—this seeing of her hand scooping up the little red and white paprika tin, the way it actually scooped up eggs and orange Jell-O and pineapple and carrots and real butter and a fresh jar of Hellmann’s and every single other thing on her list—had taken the place of getting it done. Meaning she had a problem. Club was set to start in just a few hours. Some of the members liked her pigs in a blanket, some her caramel corn, and Alma Dunn and Lois Burton always took seconds and sometimes even thirds of her sunshine salad, but to a rosy-red carapace every member of the Bright Creek Girls Gaming Club loved her deviled eggs. Paprika was the recipe’s sine qua non, and Candy, whose turn it was, couldn’t host the monthly meeting without it.
The stories are connected in the sense that the same characters reoccur as background to other stories, indeed at times the narrative baton is passed as one character passes another and then we see their perspective. But in practice, and rather artificially, each story, told from a close third-person perspective, gives us larger elements of the character's life history as they seemingly all reflect existentially on their lives while shopping for Jell-O.
My review of Zorrie concluded:
This is fishing in similarly territory to the (re-issued) Stoner and Marilynne Robinson's novels, of purposeful lives lived quietly, but doesn't really live up to the comparison. And I was left a little bemused at the critical success it enjoyed in 2021 when there is so much more interesting, and diverse, writing to choose from and so many more interesting and timely topics to discuss.
To be blunter, in 2021, I find it almost unfathomable (being polite) that a book can be promoted as being about an “ordinary” life when that life is white, English-speaking, heterosexual, Christian, cis-gender, mid-west American, albeit that is largely the fault of the publisher and not the author.
Similar criticisms could be made here, although this is more an (inferior) version of a novel like Reservoir 13 or David Mitchell's Black Swan Green than a Williams/Robinson detailed character study due to the multiple characters and picture of a community.
There are hints at diversity - a former schoolteacher who concealed her homosexuality, but the locals had her as a wrong'un anyway as she teaches French, and another who speaks Spanish (and doesn't for some reason warrant her own chapter):
He stopped along the way to admire the cleome and to measure the snapdragons, which were already up to his waist. People who bought their plants at Emerald’s joked that either she put radium in her products or she was casting spells on them.
Jodi said it was easy to make jokes like that when the person you were looking for laughs about had an accent, even as incidental a one as Emerald—who had been born Esmeralda Sylvestro in Guadalajara, Mexico—had.
But this is very much a picture of quaint small-town early-1980s isolated homogeneous "Morning in-"America, and I had to check the copyright pages as to whether this was a re-issue from that time, but no, it's been first published in the UK, as well as he US, 2024. Why I'm less clear.
Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC, but not for me.
October 5, 2023
Fourteen stories shared from the perspective of many different people from the author of ’Zorrie’, this story takes place in the same community, and while Zorrie does make an appearance, this isn’t focused on her.
For the most part, these stories reminded me of a mix between real life, and the lives of those who - fictionally - lived in Mayberry R.F.D. - home of the Andy Griffith show. This community, like Mayberry, is an old-fashioned community where everyone knows everyone else, and pretty much everything they do - especially those who are caught doing something their parents wouldn’t approve of.
As with most short story collections, some will appeal more to some than to others, but all are worth reading.
Pub Date: 06 Feb 2024
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Bloomsbury USA, Bloomsbury Publishing
July 21, 2024
A novel in stories that movingly portrays one day in the lives of a small Indiana farming town. Many of the lives intersect, of course, and the details in one story will shed light on another in sometimes surprising ways. Lyrical prose and deep insight into his characters, as Hunt revisits the locale of his novel Zorrie (and Zorrie herself makes an appearance again here).
August 2, 2024
i really enjoyed this one! this is a collection of short stories about different members of a small town over the course of a single, lazy, summer day. there is no grand, big meaning to it; we're really just hanging out with these folks, getting to know them. and that's a big part of its charm.
it's also really impressive how each person sounds so different from one another! i think i enjoyed being with the older ladies the most. but really, the whole thing was pretty delightful.
** i received an arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **
edit: ok apparently one of the characters has a full blown novel of her own! (Zorrie) so i WILL be checking that out.
it's also really impressive how each person sounds so different from one another! i think i enjoyed being with the older ladies the most. but really, the whole thing was pretty delightful.
** i received an arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **
edit: ok apparently one of the characters has a full blown novel of her own! (Zorrie) so i WILL be checking that out.
May 11, 2024
Def. a slow burn. But lots of payoffs and rewards for readers of Zorrie!
May 25, 2025
This is a linked collection of 14 stories, with each story following one character on one single summer day. Set in July 1982 in rural Indiana, this collection is like a sampling of the entire community. The separate stories are connected subtly, with loneliness, secrets, and a town that sometimes seems too confining. There is more clarity the further you read and there is a depth to each story, if you think about what is happening behind the scenes. Rounded up from a 3.5.
October 20, 2023
Thank you to @bloomsburypublishing and @netgalley for the early access.
I recently read 𝘡𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦 (same author) because @chelseyreads listed it as “𝟻 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 ‘𝘛𝘰𝘮 𝘓𝘢𝘬𝘦’” She was spot on with the comp. She then made me aware of this forthcoming collection of connected stories that take place in a small Indiana community over the course of one summer's day.
This slim novel was quiet, introspective, and full of simple pleasures. It was a slice-of-life story about very ordinary yet poignantly beautiful lives. While the aforementioned Zorrie makes an appearance, it isn’t focused on her. Each story features one of 14 characters, of all ages. I had a deeper affinity with the older characters yet felt a nostalgic pull towards the younger generation as well. While I only allowed myself to read one story per evening, I found myself thinking about these characters during the intervening hours.
If you enjoy interwoven stories about everyday lives in an everyday town- add this to your TBR.
I recently read 𝘡𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦 (same author) because @chelseyreads listed it as “𝟻 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 ‘𝘛𝘰𝘮 𝘓𝘢𝘬𝘦’” She was spot on with the comp. She then made me aware of this forthcoming collection of connected stories that take place in a small Indiana community over the course of one summer's day.
This slim novel was quiet, introspective, and full of simple pleasures. It was a slice-of-life story about very ordinary yet poignantly beautiful lives. While the aforementioned Zorrie makes an appearance, it isn’t focused on her. Each story features one of 14 characters, of all ages. I had a deeper affinity with the older characters yet felt a nostalgic pull towards the younger generation as well. While I only allowed myself to read one story per evening, I found myself thinking about these characters during the intervening hours.
If you enjoy interwoven stories about everyday lives in an everyday town- add this to your TBR.
September 3, 2024
I'll start by saying, as I think I always do, short story collections are so hard to rate. I say that because I'd probably give each of the stories slightly different stars on their own. None of them were bad. I enjoyed them all to a degree and found the characters interesting. I also liked the concept of it being one day in the same town and semi overlapping. That being said some stories really moved me and pulled me in, and others I felt an impulse to skip over but worried I'd miss some connecting detail that overlapped with other stories. This was usually just a matter of not connecting with me or holding my personal interest and not a criticism as they were still well written. Some felt like full stories and some didn't which also was a bit odd. I also wondered if I missed things by not reading the book Zorrie that's connected to this. In any case, I do like the slice of life style, found the characters mostly interesting and overall enjoyed it.
May 29, 2024
Almost nothing but it is just everyday life.
December 28, 2023
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Float Up, Sing Down is a collection of 14 stories capturing one day of life in a rural Indiana town circa 1983. Each chapter is narrated by a different resident, and all are interconnected.
The first chapter introduces us to Candy Wilson, who has forgotten to buy paprika. The Bright Creek Girls Gaming Club is meeting at her house, and paprika is an essential ingredient for garnishing her famous deviled eggs. While she runs to the store, we are privy to her innermost thoughts about life in a small town, love, friendship and cooking (well, cooking in the 1980’s).
The book goes on to introduce other residents, their stories and the connection to the town. There are some interesting characters, but I found their stories to be bleak and dreary. Written as a stream of consciousness, it was sometimes hard to read as thoughts don’t always follow a linear pattern. Themes touch on a suicide that occurred, PTSD, unhappy marriages, unrequited loves, grudges and loneliness, though none are discussed in depth. There wasn’t an underlying expectation of better things. For instance, one character believes that if he can master wushu, he can conquer the world.
It left me sad.
https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/
Float Up, Sing Down is a collection of 14 stories capturing one day of life in a rural Indiana town circa 1983. Each chapter is narrated by a different resident, and all are interconnected.
The first chapter introduces us to Candy Wilson, who has forgotten to buy paprika. The Bright Creek Girls Gaming Club is meeting at her house, and paprika is an essential ingredient for garnishing her famous deviled eggs. While she runs to the store, we are privy to her innermost thoughts about life in a small town, love, friendship and cooking (well, cooking in the 1980’s).
The book goes on to introduce other residents, their stories and the connection to the town. There are some interesting characters, but I found their stories to be bleak and dreary. Written as a stream of consciousness, it was sometimes hard to read as thoughts don’t always follow a linear pattern. Themes touch on a suicide that occurred, PTSD, unhappy marriages, unrequited loves, grudges and loneliness, though none are discussed in depth. There wasn’t an underlying expectation of better things. For instance, one character believes that if he can master wushu, he can conquer the world.
It left me sad.
https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/
December 26, 2023
Float Up, Sing Down is a quiet collection of short stories set in Indiana in the 1980's. Every story is told from the perspective of someone else living in this small town on the same day. Every story is introspective, reflective, and soft touching on themes of being lonely while still being very much so part of a thriving community.
I loved some of these stories, while others were a bit too slow moving for me. I recommend reading in the spring and summer months. I think it would really fit the mood!
I loved some of these stories, while others were a bit too slow moving for me. I recommend reading in the spring and summer months. I think it would really fit the mood!
November 18, 2023
Nicely done. I live in Indiana, so that made this a little more interesting for me. Nonetheless, I think most readers that like well written short stories will like this collection. Hunt has a lot of talent.
I really appreciate the free copy for review!!
I really appreciate the free copy for review!!
July 14, 2024
Follows the footsteps of Sherwood Anderson’s modernist classic Winesburg, Ohio in portraying a small town Midwestern community through a series of interrelated short stories, each focusing on a different character, that take place in the course of a single day. While this is not the template for novels said to exist in the tradition of the Great American Novel, I think of it as belonging to a particular, more humble, subgenre of great American novels, which includes the likes of Willa Cather, whom I greatly like; Elizabeth Strout, who for some reason hasn’t worked for me so well; and Marilynne Robinson, who I really need to get around to.
These books can be said to be “quieter”, more interior, less plot-based, more constrained than their flashier and busier cousins who dominate the discussion about Great American Novels. Less overtly reeking of the author’s powerful ambition. They are small town middle America, flyover country, sitting on the porch waving at your neighbors driving by. They are not the energy, possibilities, and diversity of New York, Boston, or Los Angeles.
Hunt’s latest is set in Indiana, near the Kentucky border it seems like, the same place apparently as Zorrie, which I’ve not yet read (Zorrie herself is seen in the distance occasionally here). It reflects both the appeal of small town life in flyover land where it “smells like corn and chicory flower and drying dirt and woods” and where “everyone knows everyone’s names around here”, and its shortcomings, particularly for anyone seen as “different”. Particularly in 1982, forty years ago, when this is set.
One of the main threads running through the book is the story of Irma Ray, who was fired from teaching French at the public school after being outed as a lesbian. Thereafter she was politely shunned by most of the townspeople it seems, with two exceptions, her good friend Candy and Hank, the retired sheriff. He drives around town with an old copy of Moby Dick in his car’s glovebox that Irma Ray gave him, which has a connection to her apparent suicide one year ago to the day of the novel. The opening story finds Candy leaving a just purchased jar of paprika on top of Irma Ray’s headstone, an unexpected gesture that should lead the reader to be awake to unexpected developments in the successive stories.
These books can be said to be “quieter”, more interior, less plot-based, more constrained than their flashier and busier cousins who dominate the discussion about Great American Novels. Less overtly reeking of the author’s powerful ambition. They are small town middle America, flyover country, sitting on the porch waving at your neighbors driving by. They are not the energy, possibilities, and diversity of New York, Boston, or Los Angeles.
Hunt’s latest is set in Indiana, near the Kentucky border it seems like, the same place apparently as Zorrie, which I’ve not yet read (Zorrie herself is seen in the distance occasionally here). It reflects both the appeal of small town life in flyover land where it “smells like corn and chicory flower and drying dirt and woods” and where “everyone knows everyone’s names around here”, and its shortcomings, particularly for anyone seen as “different”. Particularly in 1982, forty years ago, when this is set.
One of the main threads running through the book is the story of Irma Ray, who was fired from teaching French at the public school after being outed as a lesbian. Thereafter she was politely shunned by most of the townspeople it seems, with two exceptions, her good friend Candy and Hank, the retired sheriff. He drives around town with an old copy of Moby Dick in his car’s glovebox that Irma Ray gave him, which has a connection to her apparent suicide one year ago to the day of the novel. The opening story finds Candy leaving a just purchased jar of paprika on top of Irma Ray’s headstone, an unexpected gesture that should lead the reader to be awake to unexpected developments in the successive stories.
February 22, 2024
I read a review of FLOAT UP, SING DOWN in the Sunday paper. It sounded a lot like one of my favorite books, WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson.
Like WINESBURG it’s about a specific town, Bright Creek, Indiana, in this case, and the people in it. Laird Hunt, the author selects a woman’s club and their relatives as his principal target.
Most of his “stories” sound more like character sketches than anything else. Most left me scratching my head, thinking “What the heck was that about?” but several of the women stood out.
I really liked Myrtle who loved to laugh. She gave her elementary teacher an orange, which Myrtle later found in the trash. As a result she refused to turn in her final assignment. Many years later, Myrtle learned her teacher was a resident in a nearby nursing home. She went to see her, bringing along the delinquent assignment which she still had. The old lady sneered, saying, “I give it an F!” Rather than strangle her, Myrtle let out an uproarious laugh. More people should be more like Myrtle. Myrtle also had a friend named Gladys whose husband is suffering from PTS or shell shock from his time in Vietnam. Gladys deals with it by working through the corn; she spends hours in there, targeting an old bridge. Myrtle, of course, agrees to pick her up after she reaches the bridge.
Two other characters, Sugar (as in Sugar Ray Leonard) and Greg are in love with the same girl, Della, who works at the Galaxy Swirl with Greg. Sugar gets caught making out with Della. This solicits a visit from Hank Dunn, the former sheriff, her grandfather. Shudder.
Laird Hunt was a finalist for the National Book of the Year award, but not for this book. I’d give it a pass. Read WINESBURG instead.
Like WINESBURG it’s about a specific town, Bright Creek, Indiana, in this case, and the people in it. Laird Hunt, the author selects a woman’s club and their relatives as his principal target.
Most of his “stories” sound more like character sketches than anything else. Most left me scratching my head, thinking “What the heck was that about?” but several of the women stood out.
I really liked Myrtle who loved to laugh. She gave her elementary teacher an orange, which Myrtle later found in the trash. As a result she refused to turn in her final assignment. Many years later, Myrtle learned her teacher was a resident in a nearby nursing home. She went to see her, bringing along the delinquent assignment which she still had. The old lady sneered, saying, “I give it an F!” Rather than strangle her, Myrtle let out an uproarious laugh. More people should be more like Myrtle. Myrtle also had a friend named Gladys whose husband is suffering from PTS or shell shock from his time in Vietnam. Gladys deals with it by working through the corn; she spends hours in there, targeting an old bridge. Myrtle, of course, agrees to pick her up after she reaches the bridge.
Two other characters, Sugar (as in Sugar Ray Leonard) and Greg are in love with the same girl, Della, who works at the Galaxy Swirl with Greg. Sugar gets caught making out with Della. This solicits a visit from Hank Dunn, the former sheriff, her grandfather. Shudder.
Laird Hunt was a finalist for the National Book of the Year award, but not for this book. I’d give it a pass. Read WINESBURG instead.
October 5, 2023
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4
My first introduction to Laird Hunt was through his civil war tale Neverhome, which I enjoyed tremendously. I was also very taken with Zorrie, which I read last year. So when the opportunity came to get an advance copy of short stories set in the same small Indiana town that Zorrie inhabits, I jumped at the chance.
Short stories rarely hold my interest the way novels do, but I stayed with this collection because all the characters were interwoven. Laird's writing style captures the internal lives of his characters. This means that spending time with these characters felt a bit disjointed, but that seems to be intentional. I gravitated more towards the older characters, and moved through the younger (more shattered interiors) of the young, to fill in the gaps.
All in all, I enjoyed the read and would recommend this to anyone who likes interwoven stories and the inner, everyday lives of characters.
Publishing date for this is 2/6/24.
Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest, unbiased review.
My first introduction to Laird Hunt was through his civil war tale Neverhome, which I enjoyed tremendously. I was also very taken with Zorrie, which I read last year. So when the opportunity came to get an advance copy of short stories set in the same small Indiana town that Zorrie inhabits, I jumped at the chance.
Short stories rarely hold my interest the way novels do, but I stayed with this collection because all the characters were interwoven. Laird's writing style captures the internal lives of his characters. This means that spending time with these characters felt a bit disjointed, but that seems to be intentional. I gravitated more towards the older characters, and moved through the younger (more shattered interiors) of the young, to fill in the gaps.
All in all, I enjoyed the read and would recommend this to anyone who likes interwoven stories and the inner, everyday lives of characters.
Publishing date for this is 2/6/24.
Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest, unbiased review.
March 17, 2024
In a small Indiana town on a summer's day in the early 1980's this happened, and that happened, and then that. Fourteen people, fourteen stories: Candy forgets the paprika for the deviled eggs she'll serve at the card party. Turner helps a long-time buddy before he plants the zinnias. Della, her boyfriend Sugar, and their friend Greg each come closer to finding their places in the world. Toby picks up his Ronald Reagan placard and greets all passers-by. Meanwhile Gladys loses herself in the cornfields. After the card party Myrtle goes to visit her former schoolteacher in the nursing home. The sheriff recalls his kindness to a young troublemaker. Cubby takes in two strangers from out of town. Irma is remembered by many. And at the periphery, but never far away, are Zorrie and Noah, the central characters of previous stories.
"There's life a lurk behind us," Myrtle remembers her grandfather saying to explain why a gift wasn't acknowledged. (156) "The more you learned about a person the more you wanted to learn," Cubby realizes. (176)
Laird Hunt's beautiful prose reminds us that no one is an island. Like Wendell Berry's Port William Fellowship, there are infinite connections among the townspeople in their past and present, and surely in their future.
"There's life a lurk behind us," Myrtle remembers her grandfather saying to explain why a gift wasn't acknowledged. (156) "The more you learned about a person the more you wanted to learn," Cubby realizes. (176)
Laird Hunt's beautiful prose reminds us that no one is an island. Like Wendell Berry's Port William Fellowship, there are infinite connections among the townspeople in their past and present, and surely in their future.
May 6, 2025
Thank you to the publisher for a copy.
As usual, Laird Hunt delivers a quintessential Hoosier story, this time as a short story collection set in the same town as Zorrie. These stories all take place in one day and each one follows one person.
This small town is the quintessential small, Indiana town and each person reminds me of people I’ve come across around the state. However, some of the stories came across as caricatures of Midwestern. Hunt may be from Indiana, but some characters came across as if they were written by someone making fun of Indiana (which I know is easy).
Admittedly the dream sequence at the end really lost me. While it made sense as the ending to the collection, it was a little too out there for me.
Additionally, it would’ve been nice to hear from Zorrie as well.
Overall I’d recommend this to anyone that enjoyed Zorrie, but don’t read it if you haven’t read Zorrie.
As usual, Laird Hunt delivers a quintessential Hoosier story, this time as a short story collection set in the same town as Zorrie. These stories all take place in one day and each one follows one person.
This small town is the quintessential small, Indiana town and each person reminds me of people I’ve come across around the state. However, some of the stories came across as caricatures of Midwestern. Hunt may be from Indiana, but some characters came across as if they were written by someone making fun of Indiana (which I know is easy).
Admittedly the dream sequence at the end really lost me. While it made sense as the ending to the collection, it was a little too out there for me.
Additionally, it would’ve been nice to hear from Zorrie as well.
Overall I’d recommend this to anyone that enjoyed Zorrie, but don’t read it if you haven’t read Zorrie.
February 5, 2024
I absolutely fell in love with Hunt’s writing when I read Zorrie a while ago, so I was overjoyed to see he had a new book out - and even more excited when I realised it was a short story collection following some of the wonderful characters who live in Zorrie’s world!
Whilst this didn’t get me in quite the same emotional way as Zorrie, I still loved the gorgeous simplicity of Hunt’s writing, and delving into the rich inner lives of these ordinary folks. Each story and history was so different, but I loved the way they subtly wove together so you got this clear picture of the community and their relationships to one another. Hunt feels a bit like the US equivalent of a Claire Keegan, saying so much in so few pages, and diving right into what it is to be human. Definitely an auto-buy author for me now.
Whilst this didn’t get me in quite the same emotional way as Zorrie, I still loved the gorgeous simplicity of Hunt’s writing, and delving into the rich inner lives of these ordinary folks. Each story and history was so different, but I loved the way they subtly wove together so you got this clear picture of the community and their relationships to one another. Hunt feels a bit like the US equivalent of a Claire Keegan, saying so much in so few pages, and diving right into what it is to be human. Definitely an auto-buy author for me now.
February 25, 2024
read Zorrie by this author a couple of months ago and I was so pleased to see her again in this collection of short stories . I loved Zorrie and this is a very warm compilation of stories about the people who live in a rural town in Indiana. Each story is about a particular character but all are set on the same summer day. The stories are full of life and like most rural communities everyone is connected in some way. Everyone knows each other’s business . You get the feeling of such warmth and love .There are happy stories and there are sad times. The older ones reminisce about days gone by, and the younger ones learn by their mistakes . I loved Myrtle and Hank ,and of course Zorrie . I loved the gossip and the descriptions of food. I would definitely read more of this author.
April 8, 2024
I loved this collection of linked short stories, or vignettes, about a small rural community in Indiana in the 1980s, a beautifully written and tender description of the various characters who live and work there, ordinary people leading ordinary lives. Well, ordinary on the surface maybe, as no life is ordinary to the person living it. One woman worries that she’s forgotten the paprika for her signature dish and her guests are on their way, someone else worries about his zinnias, someone else is facing the demons of PTSD, young people are learning about their sexuality. All of life is here, the minutiae, the tragedies, the losses, the secrets, the joys. Gentle and understated, the writing takes us not the heart of the community and I was very happy to visit.
April 24, 2024
|| FLOAT UP SING DOWN ||
#gifted @bloomsburypublishing
"The corn swallowed Gladys Bacon. It gobbles her up. One minute she was outside on the grass by the road and the next she had vanished into the green."
This collection has an interesting structure, a day in the life of a small rural community seen through it's residents. About ordinary people that are anything but ordinary. These characters are full of loneliness, regret, longing, lust, joy and gossip. They weave through each others stories giving the full spectrum of small town living. It was funny and heartbreaking. It reminded me a lot of Alice Monroe and Elizabeth's Strouts style of storytelling.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
#gifted @bloomsburypublishing
"The corn swallowed Gladys Bacon. It gobbles her up. One minute she was outside on the grass by the road and the next she had vanished into the green."
This collection has an interesting structure, a day in the life of a small rural community seen through it's residents. About ordinary people that are anything but ordinary. These characters are full of loneliness, regret, longing, lust, joy and gossip. They weave through each others stories giving the full spectrum of small town living. It was funny and heartbreaking. It reminded me a lot of Alice Monroe and Elizabeth's Strouts style of storytelling.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
February 26, 2024
Interconnected short stories are my bookish catnip, and having read and enjoyed Zorrie a few years ago, I knew I had to pick this one up. Told from the POV of 14 different characters in a small Indiana town, this is a quiet, slice of life collection. Imagine if you could get inside 14 different people's heads, all on the same day, all in the same town, and how many different concurrent experiences, thoughts, feelings, and memories would occur. That's this book. My favorite thing about interconnected short stories is picking up on the little Easter eggs in each story that call back to a previous one. I recommend this if you enjoyed the Olive books by Elizabeth Strout.
March 20, 2024
Strangely, I liked this book more than my rating reflects but it is neither a novel nor a book of short stories, it's a set of loosely connected, unfinished character sketches.
It's great beach or snowy day reading. He found a quirk or two in some mid-western people and described them well, if just on the kindly edge of condescension.
Things do happen and there are significant events but they occurred in the past, or are alluded to but not described. I have this odd image of the reader being back stage at a play--you can see sdramatic shadows and hear muffled emotion but what's in front of you is off stage characters and stage hands discussing the details of their daily lives.
It's great beach or snowy day reading. He found a quirk or two in some mid-western people and described them well, if just on the kindly edge of condescension.
Things do happen and there are significant events but they occurred in the past, or are alluded to but not described. I have this odd image of the reader being back stage at a play--you can see sdramatic shadows and hear muffled emotion but what's in front of you is off stage characters and stage hands discussing the details of their daily lives.
April 8, 2024
I recommend this collection of stories about the people of a small Indiana town in the 1980s, although I enjoyed a few of the stories quite a bit more than the others. It was fun to flash back to that time period, with references to drinking Tab, voting for Carter or Reagan, and listening to Rick Springfield and the J. Geils Band. A few parts were actually laugh-out-loud funny, including when the character Myrtle confronts a teacher about a project she never turned in fifty-some years ago. I would read more by this author!
September 8, 2024
This is a collection of fourteen short stories that cover one day in a small town near Frankfort, Indiana, with each chapter told from the perspective of a different character. It is not action packed, which I like (though there is certainly drama). There is some rumination, some flashback, plenty of altruism, even some weirdness here and there. Hunt takes some getting used to (how important could a few servings of paprika really be?), but he's well worth the time.
The rural Indiana setting is a nice bonus, as well!
The rural Indiana setting is a nice bonus, as well!
February 8, 2024
This is my first read for this author. I enjoy a day in the life style story so this book grabbed my interest right away. Simplicity and complexity flip flop throughout the stories. I feel I enjoyed the book. Yet I don't think I quite understood it. I'm left a bit confused at the end. I wonder if this is a book one needs to read more than one or with a book club or both.
You read it and let me know.
You read it and let me know.
February 8, 2024
When I first started reading Float Up, Sing Down, I didn't think it was a worthwhile book, therefore I was disappointed. After reading a few short pieces, I saw subtle motifs that were expertly hidden.
With love, growing older, dementia, passing away, memories, friendships, communities and wisdom.
When the Japanese War veteran saw a Datsun automobile there was a poignant moment realizing time had moved on.
An independent review for NetGalley / Bloomsbury Publishing
With love, growing older, dementia, passing away, memories, friendships, communities and wisdom.
When the Japanese War veteran saw a Datsun automobile there was a poignant moment realizing time had moved on.
An independent review for NetGalley / Bloomsbury Publishing
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