Dispatches from Kansas
by Tom Parker
Published by Book Surge
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Reviewed by Connie Anderson
Author Tom Parker and his wife left a big city and big jobs (that also were moving away) and moved to a town in Kansas with 1100 people.
There Park becomes a local newspaper columnist, albeit a very low paid one--along with a few other part-time jobs to help pay the bills.
Dispatches from Kansas is a collection of these stories--many of them about the difference between large cities and small towns, the people who inhabit them, and the unwritten rules you must learn to survive. This could be a small town in most any state.
As a farm girl who moved to the big city (home of the Mall of America) many years ago, we now have a lakeplace near a small town. So we know from what he speaks about small towns.
I liked this guy right away when early on he said that he read the comics/funnies first in the newspaper. His stories are well written, full of minute details, and are about the bread and butter people and issues of small towns.
He asks: What constitutes important news in rural areas? Their local weekly newspapers publish as he calls it, "who was naughty or nice"--the police reports. The newspaper publishes every little incidence: vehicle stops for illegal left turns; dogs on the loose; accidents; runaways, etc.
If you still live in a small town, you will love knowing your town isn't unique. If you are from one, you will love to reminisce with his help. If you have almost been envious of small-town life, read Dispatches from Kansas to live vicariously.
His descriptions of sights and sounds in the daytime were special, but his nighttime details were powerful. "We were the least of the creatures of the dark," he wrote, "in nature's night, I was inconsequential."
Each chapter is one newspaper column, which makes this a book to have with you when you have to wait for someone.
Armchair Interviews says: Well-written stories bring emotions to the surface because of his high-level observations of every day simple but awesome things. Parker takes you into the day and night of small town living of the people and of nature.