Printed by Permission of Punkin House Press
Photography by Alex Taylor
The Literary Journal, The Prick of the Spindle, reviewed Tornado and Other Seasons in June 2010. Reviewed by Sarah Rae, novelist and Fiction Editor of the journal:
"Gail Taylor's collection of short stories Tornado and Other Seasons sends the heart racing by wielding images like an axe. She captures the raw power of nature and unreal survival we might never consider if not faced with it:
The grass, washed of dust and grit, offered the scent of a Monday morning washday, while the driveway, stripped bare of gravel, was a pond of clay with the gloss of pudding. In the yard, nuggets of ice bunched in strange little piles like bits of broken glass. Surreal signs of winter in the middle of summer. Time was upside down.
" 'Tornado' isn't just the story of Anne Stiles and the storm that will change the course of her life forever, but of a town that clings to its rural simplicity while being rocked by tragedy. The grasslands are the perfect example of the frailty of human life. For all the charm of farm life, strength, self-reliance, and uprightness with a tinge of the evangelical, it can so easily be ripped from under one's feet. But it's also a trap:
'Caravan' and 'The Turning' not only show us the pitfalls of the simple life but the danger in trying to leave it behind. The simplicity that makes life reliable, stable, and comforting is also close-minded, restrictive, and even violent. The fact that Taylor manages to set her pen on each of these, lands these stories in good company with Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find. . . "
New Review November 2011. Three Stars.
Published by the literary blog Short Story Reader