Local Music
by Walter Cummins
Published by Hopewell Publications
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Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart
Usually it’s not hard to review a collection of short stories. There are some I like; some I don’t. However, with Walter Cummins’ third anthology, Local Music, I find myself with a difficult task: picking out the ones I like the best.
All the stories in Local Music deal with characters that “are unsettled in their own homes, their lives dissonant and discordant.” These are the type of stories I write, and I feel drawn to them. I’m also impressed that in all seventeen stories, Cummins manages to create an unexpected twist that is compelling and, upon consideration, the only real way the story could end.
My favorite story was the title story, “Local Music.” It invoked images and sounds of James Baldwin’s classic “Sonny’s Blues” combined with a tad of “Frankie and Johnnie.” These were the stories that came to mind as I read this powerful story of a once-famous sax player, Bobo, and Philip, a guys who hang in the club because it used to be ‘their’ place.
Another favorite is the end story, “Little Old Man.” This is the story of an old man who has had enough of medical problems, dialysis, and everything that goes wrong with the human body during the aging process. Warren wants to end it all, but there is his wife, Julia. Who would take care of her? Their son Richard and his wife Bonnie can’t/won’t. She’s too much of a burden. Yet Warren can’t stand his own pain any longer. “Little Old Man” is a story so many Americans are dealing with: elderly parents who need constant care. But Warren doesn’t depend on Richard and Bonnie to share the burden. In a fit of selfishness, he tells Richard to send her to a nursing home and waits for uremia poisoning to kill him, but Julia has a plan of her own.
Sandwiched between these two tales are stories told with surprises, compassion, intrigue, and cacophony. A couple of other favorites I want to point out are “Homemaking,” the loser best friend who does become a success and gives his friend a rather strange gift, and “Pleasure,” a story that has more packed into it than the average novel.
Armchair Interviews says: The stories of Local Music drift through the mind like a old-fashioned love song—rich and meaningful.
Author’s Web site: http://www.WalterCummins.com