num_pages: 136
description: THE ACTS OF LIFE (Tom T. Hall's Tales) Tom T. Hall writes about life out of rich, personal experience and the kind of observation that sees to the bone. The characters who walk the landscapes of his imagination and his memory are drawn with sensitivity, humor, irony, and deep understanding. Some remind us of people we know—a sister writing letters to her brother in the service; a traveler in a small hotel cafe, waiting out a winter storm; a landlady’s lonely daughter. Others—the young men trying to hire a new town whore; the cellmates playing a card game called Mexican Sweat — may remind us of nobody we have known, but we are not likely to forget them. The details of these deceptively simple stories take on the importance of details in our own world. It matters that the day Jimmy killed the rabbit there were no TV sets in rural southern Missouri, that Wet Stump knew how to tie a monoﬁlament line to a short shank ﬁshhook so it would stay, that Hank hugged his guitar while he slept. - From 'Hank in Nashville' : Dear Ralph, old Hank here, this is a Monday. l got to Nashville okay. God, what a town. I had trouble getting my guitar on the bus. They wanted to put it down in the bin with the luggage. I slept with the neck down between my legs and hugged the body in my arms. So far l ain’t seen nothing but T-shirts and stuff with Music City on them. I found out there’s a lot goes on here besides music. I rode beside a big black lady who had a bag of apples. Apples can make you homesick mighty quick. It smelled just like Ohio in the fall. . . .
language: English
title: The Acts of Life
titlecomplete: The Acts of Life
ratings_count: 11
publisher: Univ of Arkansas Pr