Remarkable

by Dinah Cox

Set within the resilient Great Plains, these stories are marked by the region's people and landscape, and the distinctive way it is both regressive in its politics yet also stumbling toward something better. While not all stories are explicitly set in Oklahoma, the state is almost a character that is neither protagonist nor antagonist, but instead the weird next-door-neighbor you're perhaps too ashamed of to take anywhere. Who is the embarrassing one—you or Oklahoma?

Dinah Cox lives in her hometown of Stillwater, Oklahoma, where she teaches in the English department at Oklahoma State University and is an associate editor at Cimarron Review .

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2016

Reviews

[Marvin]

Collection of stories centered in small-town Oklahoma. At its best in the several triptychs scattered throughout that offer up brief slices of the world drawn close together. Other highlights: a girl finds solace from her home- and school-life in the strange sounds of an old telephone museum in "Adolescence In B Flat"; in "Old West Night" an aging gay western-movie actor recalls his brief time and regrets with a local woman while filming years earlier in Oklahoma; and in "The Dot" a twin sister reflects on the diverging lives of her and her dentist brother.

[Superstition Review · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dinah Cox interweaves eccentricities into each tale in Remarkable, creating a piece of humor and sharp wit. Using the landscape of Oklahoma as a common theme in many of the short stories, she creates a peaceful backdrop that contrasts with the unconventional personalities of her characters. She captures well the restlessness felt by many of the individuals and the desperation that surrounds many of their stories. Especially through her use of dialogue, her characters evolve into real people on the page. Her stories then become small glimpses of people who exist and the life they live. It's a testament that not every life is suspenseful and cinematic, but it's the little moments where we find the truth about humanity.

Review by Dennise Garcia