From romantic comedy to razor-sharp satire to moments of quiet reflection, Duane Simolke's award-winning tales transform a fictional West Texas town into a tapestry of human experiences.
"It was a real pleasure to read about the fictional town of Acorn, Texas, and get to meet all the different and varied people that Mr. Simolke so eloquently fleshed out."
-Mark Kendrick, author of Desert Sons
Welcome to Acorn, population 21,001, the Texas town with a little name and a big heart.
One of my favorites of all time
This book is just wonderful. I hate to say much about books here, because I hate spoilers. This one really hits home and if you have a heart you won't want to miss it!
Living in a Small Town
Simolke, Duane. "The Acorn Stories", iUniverse, 2003.
Living in a Small Town
Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
Acorn, Texas--population 21. 001 is the setting for Duane Simolke's wonderful "The Acorn Stories". The town of Acorn is full of stories and if you have lived in a small town you know exactly what I mean. Each of Simolke's stories lets us look into the lives of some of the most interesting characters I have ever read about. As you read each story, you seem to make new friends and when I closed the book I felt as if I actually knew many in the town. Just as the stories are all separate, they eventually tie together. There is just the right amount of detail to let the reader feel he knows the people of Acorn.
Even more interesting is that Simolke wrote this book in a very difficult style of writing--the stream of consciousness. This allows the reader to feel as if he is one of the characters and as the stories come together, we get a picture of Acorn, Texas in quite a unique way. The 16 stories in the book, although separate, are all related and this is not an easy way to write. As the characters merge, the imaginary (at least I think it is imaginary0 town seems to be very real.
The residents of Acorn are very real people--or so they seemed to me as I met them. And as the stores come together the town of Acorn is laid bare reminding me of what is left of a turkey after Thanksgiving dinner. As we meet the townsfolk, we dig below the outside appearance and go deep into the characters. The characters are quite a menagerie of folk all of whom have challenges and problem (just like we all do). It is the personalities and actions of the members of Acorn that make the stories live. In fact, I am not really sure that this is a collection of short stories because of the interactions between the stories and when they all come together it is like reading a novel.
Acorn is located in west Texas and there, under the Texas sun and the majestic oak trees (so unlike Texas) is a mixture of Hispanics and Anglos as well as a few Afro-Americans. Some were born in Acorn and some are hiding in Acorn. Newlyweds Becky and Kyle are very much in love and they are starting a life together. We meet the [...] art dealer and gallery owner who is being blackmailed by the [....] mayor of the town. There is also a famous writer hiding in Acorn because he stages his own fake suicide. There is the high school teacher who favors sports over academics and the young kid who is keeping a secret, a young man looking for a sugar momma to pay his rent, a widow ad her cat, Regina, an overbearing sister, a widow, Mae, who remembers how life was once and so on.
I must say that I loved this book and have reread several of the stories. It is a rare treat and one that will have you laughing, crying, commiserating and identifying. I have not had this much fun in a long time.
A very pleasant, worthwhile read...
Duane Simolke's, "The Acorn Stories," is set in the fictional West Texas town of Acorn, so named because it's the only town in the entire region that has trees, thanks to the foresight of its founders. The stories are a compilation of vignettes that give the reader a glimpse into the everyday happenings of a group of residents whose lives, we learn as the chapters unfold, interconnect in fascinating and unexpected ways. With each new story, or chapter, the reader is introduced to a new character. The stories and lives of the citizens of Acorn interweave, turning "The Acorn Stories" into what is essentially a novel...quite a feat for the author to accomplish in a relatively short book.
Simolke allows the reader peeks into the thoughts of diverse characters, from a policeman's recollection of his abusive childhood, to the befuddled thoughts of a senile old man. We see events from the points of view of a deaf man who manages to do a good job as the high school's English teacher, an esteemed best selling author desperately trying to escape life's travails, and a young couple who find love and, like it or not, become parents at a most unexpected time and place...the opening of an Art Gallery that happens to be owned by the teacher's boyfriend. A small example of how the stories go around.
"The Acorn Stories" allows the reader an understanding of the human condition. We learn what makes each individual's personality tick. Simolke's characters are male and female, young and old, black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, handicapped and gifted, happy and sad, satisfied and searching, hypocritical and fair-minded. The ability to depict such a wide cross section of humanity, including details of each character's breadth of knowledge and experience, takes a talented, insightful author, and Duane Simolke is such a writer.
I dislike giving ratings to books...they are too subjective...but The Acorn Stories deserves 5 stars as a very intelligently written book. Don't miss it.
LITERATE PEEK INTO RURAL AMERICA
Duane Simolke's offering of his sixteen short stories, many with overlapping characters and plot-lines, all set within or around the fictitious west-Texas small town of Acorn, provides its readers an insightful and literate look at what goes on in the hinderlands beyond the boundaries of this country's big cities.Not as salaciously rendered as was Peyton Place (which, if you remember, was a small town taken on by Grace Metalious), Simolke's Acorn, Texas, still turns out to be rife with some of the same angst-ridden problems, thereby, once again, exploding the myth that rural "out there" is actually more idyllic (even Edenesque), as compared to big-city "in here".
From the who-will-have-control-of-this-relationship "dueling" of Regina Thibodeaux and Dirk Palmer in Simolke's lead-off story "Acorn", to the not-always-that-pleasant reminisces of town maven Aragon Carsons in the book's concluding "Acorn Pie", Simolke puts rural America under a microscope to unveil all of its acne, sores, scars, and festering wounds.
THE ACORN STORIES isn't for any reader out to preserve his or her unrealistic nostaligic notion that rural-America is the place "to be" "to get away from it all". On the other hand, for those of us not put off by realism and always interested in a literate writer who can provide us a peek beneath the veneer, Simolke provides some very enjoyable reading moments.
Review of Acorn Stories
The Acorn Stories
Duane SimolkeReview by Mountman
Picture a small town in West Texas. Acorn. The reason it's called Acorn is that it is the only town in West Texas that has a lot of trees. Yes, Acorn is a fictional town but after reading The Acorn Stories, I wanted to visit the place, just to check it out.
" "Welcome to Acorn, population 21,001, the Texas town with a little name and a big heart" - Sign marking city limits of Acorn" (taken from the book.)
Like the branches of the Main Street Oak tree, the town has just as many histories and legends. Each story gives you a glimpse into lives of the people of Acorn. Also how their lives are intertwined.
There are stories about the founding family, newcomers, the rich, the poor and in between. When I first started reading it I felt like I was left hanging. Just then, in Simolke unique clever style, things began to connect. Growing up in a small town I could relate to some of the characters. Duane gives you just enough details that you get a feel for where each of the characters are coming from. There are people that you like, some that you can't wait to see if they get theirs. Big cheers for when they do!
Ones that really grabbed me are Survival and Dead Enough. Survival is about a gay, deaf teacher. Dead Enough is about a writer of murder mysteries. I'm not going to give you any details because you will have to find out for yourself.
Whether you are an avid short story reader, or a novel reader this is a must read! So check it out.
