Winesburg, Indiana A Fork River Anthology [Paperback]

In the mythical town of Winesburg, Indiana, there lives a cleaning lady who can conjure up the ghost of Billy Sunday, a lascivious holy man with an unusual fetish and a burgeoning flock, a park custodian who collects the scat left by aliens, and a night janitor learning to live with lifes mysteries, including the zombies in the cafeteria. Winesburg, Indiana, is a town full of stories of plans made and destroyed, of births and unexpected deaths, of remembered pasts and unexplored presents told to the reader by as interesting a cast of characters as one is likely to find in small town America. Brought to life by a lively group of Indiana writers, Winesburg, Indiana, is a place to discover something of what it means to be alive in our hyperactive century from stories that are deeply human, sometimes melancholy, and often damned funny.

'Virginal' reconstructions, alien scat collectors, manchildren and toenail-eating reverends. Winesburg, Indiana reads like a lung--it expands and holds the big emotions of its many lives; each exhale is an inhabitant, inhabiting. It exists. It will continue to exist, cease and desist demand be damned.Winesburg, Indiana may, or may not, speak with a forked tongue, or, at least, a tongue planted firmly in a cheek, but this compelling compendium also accomplishes the necessary task of surprising readers with an alternate Indiana. Here you will find thirty of Indianas most articulate observers and writers full of sass and humor as they take on a host of contemporary stereotypes, spinning them on their heads and leaving any reader dizzy with admiration.The concept behind Winesburg, Indiana seems almost impossible to pull off: asking an all-star roster of small and major press writers to contribute work to a fabulist linked story collection. . . .The collection makes the argument that Indiananot to mention the greater Midwestis more than just flyover country.Thirty writers create the characters in what Martone calls 'a sad town populalž