Books
This beautiful book collects twenty radio essays as heard on WNIJ FM, DeKalb, Illinois. It explores quiet moments in nature and with family in a classic Midwestern style, featuring spiders, trains, dogs, geese, ducks, chipmunks, mulberries and more. All illustrated with simple line drawings by John Porcellino. Lovingly printed on soft white paper with French flaps. Nice, pocket-sized 102-page paperback, black and white.
From the outside looking in, Odette County might seem like a place where not much happens, but what Chris Fink reminds the reader is that, while the landscape might be unremarkable, the people who live there are not. Much like the stories in this fine collection, they are complex, multicolored, and not to be overlooked.
The Los Angeles Review
Represents everything I love about great writing. Rooted in place, these stories are genuine and often heartbreaking. Fink is confident and cosmopolitan enough to range wherever he damn well pleases, and certainly far afield from the collection’s magnetic center—the American Midwest. The result is a collection rich with a diversity of voices, perspectives, and stories. This memorable, humorous, and poignant collection will stick with me for a long time.
Nickolas Butler