Bodock: Stories is a collection of stories set in fictitious Bodock, amid the actual Mid-South ice storm that devastated Mississippi in 1994, to map a history of the town and contribute to its mythos.
In the vein of Brad Watson's Last Days of the Dog-Men, the characters in Bodock here are desperate to reconcile past failures. They've committed murder or lesser acts of violence, their negligence has brought on the loss of a child or spouse, or their pride has pushed them into having an affair with a stripper, or else they have simply been cursed with general ineptitude or misfortune. These Bodockians square away their inadequacies as husbands and fathers, sons and sons-in-law, brothers to man and nature, the best way they can, all while coming to terms with their own mortality.
Robert Busby is the winner of the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize.
