by Lydia PeelleHarper Perennial
~ Review in Halifax Herald, September 2009
The introduction of tractors revolutionized farming methods. Life got easier and production increased. Mules were no longer needed to haul great loads of firewood, move boulders or plow the fields. The opening story of Lydia Peelle’s first book of fiction, Mule Killers, tells of the year the mules were trucked away, “sleek and fat on oats, work-shod and in their prime.” The year of the International Harvester marked the end of Orphan Lad, Willy Boy, Champ, Kate and Sue.
Sweethearts of the Rodeo is a coming of age story. The narrator and her friend spend the summer working with horses, taking chances and living wild. “Our bodies forgive us our risks,” she says, “and the ponies do, too. We have perfected the art of falling.”
“I meet the herpetologist on the bus” begins the title story, and an unlikely friendship develops between an elderly herpetologist and a young woman at a turning point in her life. It is an enchanting and prophetic tale of discovery. In the rooms behind the herpetologist’s office, heated aquariums provide homes for anoles, salamanders and gila monsters. “All these diverse adaptations, with one common goal,” says the herpetologist. “To live to see tomorrow.”
In her first collection, Peelle shows herself a master of succinctness, those few well chosen words which convey a wealth of meaning. The prose in Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing is poetic and the stories are diverse and unusual, each one leaving a lingering, pleasurable aftertaste. But eight stories are not enough - we must hope for more.
Lydia Peelle’s short stories have won several awards, including the O. Henry Award. Reasons for and Advantages of Breathing is her first book. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
