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The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake | 
 enlarge | Authors: Breece D'j Pancake, John Casey, Andre Dubus Iii
Creator: James Alan Mcpherson
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.99
Buy New: $5.58
You Save: $8.41 (60%)
New (36) Used (30) Collectible (2) from $3.31
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 48734
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0316715972
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316715973
ASIN: 0316715972
Publication Date: July 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: NEW. NO remainder markings. Brand new book perfect inside and out. Purchase and help a youth pastor with three daughters.
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Product Description
Breece D'J Pancake cut short a remarkably promising career when he took his own life in 1979 at the age of 26. In 1983 Little, Brown and Company's posthumous publication of this book-a collection of stories that depict, with astonishing power and grace, the world of Pancake's native rural West Virginia-electrified the literary world with a force that still resounds across two decades. The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake has remained continuously in print, and Back Bay Books takes pride in now making the collection available in this new trade paperback edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
Astonishing. November 2, 2008
David Hutton (Bedford, NH USA)
I am going on six decades, and over that period have read a handful of collections of stories in the same class as these stories. Although this troubled man only wrote this one book, he accomplished more than most writers do in a career. If you love great writing this book will not disappoint you. Other reviewers have described the content well, so I will not repeat it, but will agree heartily with the five star reviews. I only wish we had more from this incredibly talented man.
A Modern Classic September 26, 2007
Carla T. Mcclure (St. Albans, WV)
Writing instructors looking for a story that illustrates the "show, don't tell" principle will be pleased with Pancake. For example, there's a line in "Trilobites" in which the story's narrator recalls seeing the shadow of an airplane pass over the mountains in which he lives and thinking, for a split second, that it was ("I swear to God") the shadow of a pterodactyl. No thick blocks of exposition about how the land of his birth seemed to lie at the intersection of the ancient and the modern--Pancake gets it across in one sentence. I return to this book every few years, and I gain new insights and see new things to appreciate each time. It's hard to believe that the author was so young (in his twenties) when he wrote these stories.
Write what you know June 14, 2007
L. Benjamin (Savannah, GA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I must have first seen this collection shortly after it came out in 1983. It was impossible not to be struck by the author's name, which seemed to me at the time to embody a uniquely American authenticity (it turns out to have been a typo that he decided to retain). Despite the hyperbolic praise heaped on it even then, I heard nothing of Mr. Pancake or his work until I came across a mention of it recently in another book. Perhaps too close to the author's age upon my first encounter, and unfortunately, too far from his level of maturity at the time, it was better to wait nearly a quarter of a century before reading him.
What impressed me the most was the author's command of his medium: not one superfluous word, and most remarkable in someone so young, the utter lack of artifice, of "cleverness," of the desperate attempt to impress the reader with the writer's erudition. Pancake clearly wrote about what he knew, and like Tolstoy, chose those details of environment and character that by their precision and descriptive power best evoked the whole.
Stylistically, the stories vary between first and third person, and except for "The Salvation of Me," take place in very short periods of time. In the temporal as well as the descriptive, the carefully chosen part succeeds in standing in for the whole.
The foreword by James Alan McPherson, and the afterword by John Casey, both who knew Pancake well, augment the stories by illuminating the man who wrote them. I am baffled by the inclusion of "A New Afterword" by Andre Dubus III, who never met Pancake, but like many people, was strongly affected by his writing. Pancake made his living as a teacher; I would have much preferred a reminiscence by one of his students, and if possible, by "the girl who had allowed him to kiss her cheek after several dates."
What comes through in each story is Pancake's genuine affection, and even more, respect for his characters. He is willing to allow them to be themselves, unlike many writers who use their characters simply as a means to make a point, to elucidate an argument, to convince us of their contempt. Pancake has no desire to prove anything, except the gentle observation of ordinary people limited by their circumstances. There is no blame, no "other" responsible for his protagonists' conditions, aside from the inherent limitation of life itself, of being human in a not entirely indifferent universe.
Unlike Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, and other writers who killed themselves, Pancake died too soon to realize a measure of success, and based on his popularity at this juncture, probably never will. Had he lived, even if he had never "matured," any additional work (dare we imagine, a novel or two?) would have assured his place among the great American writers of the last century. Sadly, the paucity of his production, despite its quality, can only render him a curiosity.
 Collected Stories of a Work in Progress January 6, 2007
Grey Wolffe (North Waltham, MA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Most of these stories, set in West Virginia, were written in the late 70's and early 80s. At that time the people of the hollows of WV were suffering through a period of recession comparable to the Great Depression. Mining which had been the backbone of the WV economy for over a hundred years, was dying or dead. Ecological and environmental concerns, as well as the growth of the use of oil to fire electric plants, had diminished the need for appalachian coal (also replace by the hugh open pit mines of Colorado and Arizona).
By the beginning of the 80s, towns were literally closing down and people were on the road like Oakies in the thirties. It was at this time that Pancake, having graduated from Marshall University, was beginning his writing career. He saw stories all around him, and his eye for detail is uncanny. Having lived the part, he has little trouble evoking the effect of poverty and hopelessness in his characters.
The problem I have with his stories is that many of them are plaintive narratives, without a beginning or end. They bring forth well defined problems and characters, but that's as far as they go. But maybe that's the way that Pancake wanted them to read.
Knowing that one day he put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, you can see his pain in the words of many of his characters. What was the cause of this pain? All are assumptions, only he knew the real reasons. But I'll say, having been there, his seems to me to have been an uncontrolled malaise (maybe a chemical imbalance or alcohol induced ennui)
that was never treated. On the other hand, maybe he was just bored. Either way, you have to take his stories from his standpoint and go on from there.
Reality in Fiction September 7, 2006
Doug Pearl (Washington, USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The skillful rendering of characters rather than caricatures distinguishes Breece D'J Pancake's one and only book from many other works of contemporary fiction. The stories are set primarily in the hills, small towns, and hollows of West Virginia. The stories illustrate the hardscrabble lives and emotional struggles of characters on the periphery of many things: society (in "A Room Forever"), love (in "Trilobites" and "Hollow"), depravity (in "Fox Hunters"), acceptance (in "The Scrapper"), success (in "The Salvation of Me"), and a sense of self (in "First Day of Winter"). The fact that Pancake wrote these stories in his twenties gives them a certain kind of patina, a sadness of unfulfilled possibility, his characters would understand. In tight phrases, apt description, and with an ear for the cadence of speech, Pancake draws the fortunate reader in to be shocked, amazed, horrified, and altered by the slice of reality he has recorded.
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