Aaron Schmid’s Reviews > A Bended Circuity > Status Update

Maybe I'm reading this at the wrong hour - or maybe it's because the book is often a bad sermon, in multiple ways at once - but there are sections that put me right to sleep. It goes on and on quite a bit. It's funny and clever at times, and it makes me want to read more from the author, just to see how he is outside of this southern context. But it's a slow read. I think Stickley is probably very smart. That's fine.

I think this is the first time I've ever read a story that seems so mythological about America's south. The bit with the tar-baby felt like I was reading about a leprechaun or a cryptid. The parts about Russia and the Mexicans seem just as colorful and imaginatively outlandish. I often feel the urge to read this out loud because the language is so thick with southern accents, but man, do those southern boys drawl on.

This book is Southern, in that its language is abundantly loquacious. Read it in a Foghorn Leghorn/Bonoit Blanc voice, a molasses drawl, it feels absolutely appropriate. Stickley seems simply virtuosic, definitely maximalist (to say it could be shorter is an understatement) but the pacing fluctuates quite a bit. Sometimes it's very fast reading. Mostly not. I like when his wit bends into comedy, but it feels angry.