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Bag O'Goodies by Jolly Walker Bittick (view source)
Revision as of 15:49, 16 May 2022
, 15:49, 16 May 2022no edit summary
We start with some delightful, smile-inducing verse: ''Cherry Popped Book'' gives you an idea of precisely what you're going to get. The mood changes more than a little with ''Calvert Country Detention'', where a trip out after a gruelling, hot day makes drinking more than a few boilermakers seem inevitable. The fun starts when the older folks are still in the bar and ends exactly where the title suggests. Jail time, it seems, is unavoidable too - and not unexpected. ''Old Man Digby'' shows that some neighbours don't just have a scary reputation: the reality can be even worse.
And then I cried, when I read ''A Child's Joy'':
''Worse than the extremity of Mother Nature's changing seasons''<br>
There's some poignant, surprising writing - including 'A Short Poem', which must be the shortest poem I've ever read and made me laugh out loud.
For me, the backbone of the book is the three-part story ''Blue Ridge Riders'' about motor cycle motorcycle chapters and the ''intertangled social fabric'' of those we meet. It isn't a subject which I would have thought to find interesting but I was glued to the pages. Doozy's the newcomer, meeting the characters for the first time. Indie's the glue that holds the people together in surprising ways. I was even interested in the guns and found myself reading up about tannerite!
My favourite story is ''On Sequim Bay'' as a man takes a walk along a trail which he's known for a long time and which evokes memories from his childhood - digging for clams with his father - of a romantic interlude with his wife - of a punishment he earned. Most poignant is the point at which he so nearly committed suicide, only to find that love matters most. There's the salient advice on a deer-hunting trip with his father which applies to many areas of life: ''Never shoot at what you can't see. Never''. But the boy sums up his - and everybody's lives - when he asks his Grandpa ''why is there a high and a low tide?''.
''Bag O'Goodies'' was a relatively quick read but it was thought-provoking and insightful. A good way to spend an afternoon. I'd like to thank the publishers for sendong sending a copy to the Bookbag.
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