Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock: ‘‘Everybody Dies Famous in a Small Town.’’ Published by Wendy Lamb Books (Random House), 2021. 208 pages, $17.99 (hardback).
Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, former Sitkan, made a splash and won praise at the national level for her 2016 book, ‘‘The Smell of Other People’s Houses.’’ This year, with ‘‘Everybody Dies Famous in a Small Town,’’ a collection of linked short stories about children and teenagers, she proves that she’s no one-hit wonder.
“There are secrets in life that people have a hard time even telling themselves,” states one of the characters. Here teenagers and their loved ones, as in real life, hide the trauma that stems from experiences ranging from bitter disappointments to sexual abuse. Across the stories, those secrets build the tension, sending the protagonists across the great landscapes and small towns of the American West. Learning a new job, starting or ending a romantic relationship, losing loved ones, and moving to a new state would be hard for anyone, and we often forget how often teenagers do all those things for the same time, almost all at once. These teens are camp counselors in Alaska, refugees from a wildfire in the Rockies, or in love with someone who they do not truly know. None of this is easy, but their love and loyalty to each other sustain them even across great distances.
Writing for and about teenagers is particularly challenging, and here Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock has hit the mark. She brings her characters to life in their full awkward, earnest, bungling humanity in a way that will age well because it isn’t anchored in a particular moment in time. Their joys and plights will be easy to relate to whether your experience of childhood and teen years involves muscle cars or Snapchat.
The stories themselves are interlinked in a delightful way: in each story a former background character comes out to the forefront and helps flesh out a previously quaint, now deeply human detail. The overall effect is that of a perfectly choreographed contra dance: every participant gets a chance to spin out front as the others recede temporarily. With sure footed grammar and solid narrative balance, the author navigates notorious writing pitfalls (past perfect, inner dialogue, flashbacks) and makes it all look easy.
‘‘Everybody Dies Famous in a Small Town’’ is a straightforward read, but not simple in either style or content. The result is one of those rare books that are recommended reading for both teenagers and adults.
–Paul Norwood
Longtime Visitor Greeters
