Repairable Men: Stories
A lonely man calls his brother home to kill the family dog. A father’s dream of success inspires his son to enact elaborate lies. A college professor’s grief becomes a practical joke he plays on his wife. Tracking disease in dead birds becomes more than a new job for a man trying to find his feet. The stories in Repairable Men look at the small towns and rural farms where families stay for generations and newcomers never quite feel at home. Whether trapped by dead-end work, hostile relatives, or the troubling legacies of their forebears, John Carr Walker’s characters are seeking escape, forgiveness, and redemption in the dusty corners of the new American West.
“The stories in Repairable Men are sharp and terse, stories from an expert teller of tales that cut close to the bone and leave us wanting the next, and the next, and, yes, please, the next.”
“Clear, distinct settings and characters who are almost lifelike.”
“Whether he’s writing about a raisin farmer wondering what it is he’s truly inherited, or a father and son trying to understand not only each other, but themselves, he is writing about all of us.”
“Small collection that packs a punch right to the nose of toxic masculinity.”
“Walker’s vision illustrates how hard it is to fix the messes of anyone’s life.”
“He carries a rich geography in his blood and bones, and the talent to make it burn fiercely on the page.”