I read a magazine article recently in which Tom Waits was
asked to name his favourite ten books. There were the usual choices that you
would expect Tom to make such as Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski and William
Burroughs, but the book Tom put at number one was The Stories Of Breece D’J
Pancake. I respect what Tom has to say, but I had never heard of this
person. I thought it was some kind of a joke. What writer would really have a
name like Pancake? When I looked him up on Wikipedia, I found he really existed.
I ordered the book and it arrived a few days ago.
Firstly, to get the name Pancake out of the way. It is of
German origin and must be quite a well-known name in West Virginia because
Wikipedia lists three famous Pancakes from that state. The D’J part of his name
came about from a typo error when Atlantic Monthly published a short
story by him and Breece found that amusing and decided to leave it as it was. The book I received
consists of twelve short stories with a foreword and an afterword. It is the
only book by Breece D’J Pancake and was published after his death. He committed
suicide in 1979 at the age of only 26. The reasons for his suicide are unclear
because he was on the brink of a great career and his work was admired by many
great authors such as Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates and Kurt Vonnegut. The
stories were compared to Hemingway, Faulkner, and Dubliners by James Joyce.
I found the stories fascinating. They are all set in West
Virginia and he vividly brings to life people who are poor and downtrodden and
leading empty sad lonely lives. There are farms about to be sold, coal mining,
fighting, casual killing of wildlife, abuse of women, car crashes, cheap hotels,
drunkenness, death and coal dust. The characters have names like Colly, Corey, Reva
and Skeevy. They are described so vividly that you think they are real people. If you like animals there are dogs, deer, turtles,
snakes, squirrels, raccoons, foxes, bobcats and hogs in abundance. Most of them come
to a grim end. The stories do not
explain themselves. What the narrator does not say is as important as what he
does say. The reader must interpret the stories for themselves. I found one
story called Time And Again particularly disturbing. It concerns a snow
plough driver. As the story develops you begin to realise that he is a serial
killer. When you begin to wonder what he did with his victims, it is even more harrowing.
I can see why Tom Waits would find these stories inspirational. The characters
are like nighthawks at the diner. The alienation of the people reminds you of
paintings by Edward Hopper. A Room Forever perfectly portrays the despair
and emptiness of the two protagonists, a mate on a river boat and a teenage
prostitute. I do not think there is an element of autobiography in these
stories, but just to have the vivid imagination to think up these stories and
create the characters gives a hint of the inner turmoil that might have been going
on in the authors psyche to lead to his suicide. You sense that the author was
not a happy person. There doesn't seem to be much hope of redemption for the people in his stories. Maybe that's how he himself viewed life.
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| Breece D'J Pancake. |
One thing I like about Tom Waits is that there is humour in
his work. Tom would not have found much humour here. It makes grim reading at
times, but I enjoyed reading these twelve stories. You are left with a feeling
of regret that the author died so young. Even so, I think his reputation will
continue to grow as more readers discover the work of Breece D’J Pancake.
