Book Review 2020-001
Buried on the Beaches by Colin Fleming
204 pages, 2019 by Tailwinds Press
Subtitled, Cape Stories for Hooked Hearts and Driftwood Souls, Colin Fleming's fourth short story collection is that and more. In eight stories, Fleming describes Cape Cod to his readers with both the sure hand of a very fine writer and the knowledge of one that fully understands the area. Tidbits are dropped throughout stories smoothly and never with a ham-handed, 'look at this', manner.
Fleming does an excellent job of touching on many various aspects of the area--those that are full timers versus what they refer to as "ham-and-eggers," trips through some of the saltier bars in the area, both young and older characters, those in love, lust, or otherwise. Those familiar with Fleming's non-fiction works will recognize the expertise of his when writing of music as he does in "Chix and Quarters," and "Anaerobic Mud," or movies/film as he does in "The Cape Patch," and "Smoked Mackerel Productions," or sports in "Potlach." These stories all dip into, or use those ideas, in a wonderful way--enough facts or ideas are shared so as to relay to the reader that there's an accuracy to what the characters are doing, or describing, while staying in the background enough to keep the focus on those characters and their lives.
And it's their lives where that sub-title comes in. Fleming masterfully dips into young love, parental worries, marital questions, and especially uses the idea of memory, or occasionally pushing that to nostalgia--there's not a story that doesn't pull the reader's emotions in one way or another. No manipulation; simply writing of situations that are familiar with a very sure hand, allowing for some humor, for some anger, some worries. While all of these situations could have happened in other locations, the fact that they're all set at the Cape ties them together and keeps this collection an excellent book, and not simply a collection of good stories. It's a collection I'll be dipping into frequently in the future.
Order this from your local indie store and keep an eye out for Fleming's other books as well as his articles or op-ed's that appear in various outlets nearly daily.
The next story collection review will be of Caitlin Hamilton Summie's To Lay to Rest Our
Ghosts, and the next non-story collection review will be of Fowzia Karimi's Above Us the Milky Way: An Illuminated Alphabet.
Comments