PEKOLAH STORIES

An isolated, rural town has a population that’s small in number but has big stories to tell in Bales’ debut set of tales.

In this short story collection, Bales connects the story of people who live or happen to find themselves in the small town of Pekolah, Oklahoma. First, there’s Kendal Jensen, a lesbian who’s never had much love in her life but who’s found the beginning of it with Ruth Brinlee, who’s gone missing. With Kendal, readers encounter her best friend, Ephraim Moore; Deb, who works at the local bar The Alibi; and a dead body in the woods. Another story tells how the corpse ended up there, and another is about how the person who once possessed that body ended up in Pekolah. Ephraim and his brother lose their mother to a tragedy and must face a town that never cared for them suddenly pretending to do so. Readers later meet Deb’s unnamed friend, who suddenly reconnects with her former best friend, Becca-Jean, a wealthy woman with a dark nature whose husband, Gary, keeps a number of rabbits; before long, the story circles back to Ruth. Bales ends the collection with her own story of hard times and tragedy. The collection begins in the 1980s and ends in the era of President Donald Trump, and these are not stories of perfect people—far from it, as one focuses on the actions of a homophobic father—but Bales doesn’t shy away from the grim realities of their imperfections. The short stories are interspersed with poems, and the format reveals the lives of characters whose narratives are most effectively told from a different angle. No story is too small, and no character is seen as undeserving of having their story told. The writing style is conversational and evocative of stories that might be told at the local bar while still being excellently crafted.

A raw collection of stories that’s not to be overlooked.