Book Review
Skunk Hollow Times

Breaks, K.G. (2006)  The Skunk Hollow Times. (2006) (editor: Audrey Owen) First Choice Books: Victoria, BC ISBN 0-9780676-0-6 (243 pages) softcover.

Imagine stumbling upon the back issues of a regional newspaper and reading them in chronological order.

Ken Breaks imagined just that. As Harlan LeGran, he has published clippings from The Skunk Hollow Times collected and preserved by Becky McDougal.

If you've ever lived in a small community, you will identify with many of the characters and the situations they find themselves in. And if you've never lived in a small community, you will still identify with the humanity of the characters who find themselves mentioned in the local paper because no matter where we live, we all live in a community -- a community with saints and sinners and just ordinary folk getting by.

Since most of the clips are less than one page long, this is a great book to pick up at odd moments. A story develops, which makes the book more than just a random collection of clippings, but the individual clips often stand well alone.

Writing in the voices of a variety of characters is a challenge Breaks handles well, especially as The Skunk Hollow Times gained a reading throughout the English-speaking world and includes letters to the editor from other countries.

Breaks has wit and skill with a pen.

You can buy his book directly from him at ksbreaks AT shaw.ca. (The email address above is written as it is to foil SPAMbots. Replace the AT with the @ symbol to reach the author without subjecting him to SPAM.)