I enjoyed the first part of the collection. The second half seemed as though it could have been a novella. After I finished the book, I wasn't sure if the stories from the first part were then related somehow to the second. There were some stories where the abrupt endings that made them feel incomplete and others that it seemed to work for. ( )

I received an ARC of this book.

I think Nick White is becoming one of my favorite contemporary authors. The way many of these interconnected stories revealed the different stages in one man's life, through different perspectives, was beautifully done. His weaving of words into lives brought tears to my eyes in a few instances. I look forward to what his future will bring. ( )

The Lovers, Gatlinburg, The Exaggerations, and Break are four vivid stories stepped in realism. “The Lovers” begins in death. A radio host named Rosemary dedicates a tribute to her late husband Arnie. She also finds his another intimate life beyond what he represented to her. This story sets the tone for the rest of the collection which delves into the bridge between image and reality.
The familiar idols: football star, story writer, story teller, weathered matriarch, and disgruntled father are common to the type of “local color” in the Deep South. In White’s case, Mississippi.
White’s writing presents his characters’ flaws but also their neuroses. “Sweet and Low”, the short story for which the collection is named, centers around a forlorn mother who wants desperately to resurrect a singing career. Her love affair with a popular country DJ sends her on adventure that stretches the bounds of her relationship with her son, Forney.
Forney and his mother discover more about their unhealed past and fight to hope for a new beginning while still holding on loosely to their mutual present. I characterize White’s collection as regional color because it feels very much like a more elaborate, more visceral catalog akin to “Rosemary’s Baby”. He writes with compassion about GLBT characters. Forney Culpepper is the picaresque star of this collection. He’s the guy trying to correct a decades old past deep in the heart of Mississippi.
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Interesting collection of short stories. ( )