Round Mountain by Castle Freeman Junior is a collection of twelve short stories all set in the backwoods of Round Mountain, Vermont and connected to each other by the reoccurring character, Homer Patch. Homer is a local boy, born and raised in Round Mountain, grows up to become the second county constable and eventually retires and is a genial, helpful good ol’ boy who hangs out with his cronies.

The stories are spread over decades, and each one covers an incident in Homer’s life. In this small rural community, the stories become significant as we learn about the people of the area, their fears, disappointments and hopes for the future. The author writes beautifully and even the most mundane moments come alive. Like fading snapshots the author has captured Homer and many other characters as they live their sometimes difficult lives. This is an author that knows his territory and captures the ebb and flow effortlessly.

Round Mountain is a wonderful collection and while I first fell in love with this author’s writing when I read “All That I Have”, this set of stories only adds to my admiration. His prose is sparse, but each word is chosen perfectly and captures the feeling of rural New England. ( )

Castle Freeman Jr. offers some interesting characters and situations that are certainly believable. Even so, I didn't feel a connection to the stories or the people so much beyond recognizing the locales he talked about and recognizing the people (or at least being familiar with people who are just like the characters). I'm not sure if this book would be of interest to people living outside of Vermont or at least familiar with Vermont, but it does offer accurate portrayals even if the situations - a lost young man, ladies of ill repute, a robbery of sorts - give some weight to the tales.

I should add that the book was free - it was created to raise money for Hurricane Irene relief (although it was Tropical Storm Irene by the time it hit Vermont and caused horrendous flood damage). ( )

An odd book. Short stories connected by character & place. Little episodes or, in many cases, non-episodes. I enjoyed reading it, though he's not a writer of the first order. The best one is The Gift of Loneliness. When I got the end I thought I'd turned over two pages by mistake. "Eh?" I said , and then I cast my mind back and there's a throw away comment earlier on that makes the whole thing oh so deliciously clever. There're lots of little connections throughout the whole book but none as good as that one. It's designed to be read from beginning to end, like a novel. ( )

This collection of interconnected short stories is set in rural Vermont, but the people and places described so beautifully by the author could have been lifted intact from my childhood in Northeastern Pennsylvania. In fact, while reading one of the stories I felt I was walking around inside a house I knew very well as a kid. I'd say Freeman has created an incredibly real world, except that I know he didn't make any of this stuff up. Maybe the stories came from his imagination, but the settings are tangible, and the people aren't "characters"...they exist too. The first couple stories seem almost unfinished, but as you read further you realize that they belong to the collection, and each subsequent story adds another piece to the whole. Some of them stand alone very well, while others need to be read in context of their companions to reveal their full impact. ( )

Wow and wow again. Loved these stories. Whatever ways rural life in Vermont is the same or different from other places, you can find out here. At times the hair on the back of my neck prickled because it sounded so much like my own village, complete to the silent boy on the rocker. I've been in old Holiday's house, too, although not in Vermont but in a little town in rural Western New York State. The stories are loosely intertwined, Homer Patch is in all of them, sometimes a boy, sometimes a man pushing on elderly. He's the can-do man of the area, steady and reliable, a man who can set aside anger and seek a non-violent solution to most conflict but also, in his own way mysterious (even to himself) marrying a much younger woman and doing nothing when she sleeps around relentlessly. Strong stuff, but not without humor and a marvelous wise tenderness. ***** ( )