Sailing right along in this engrossing story of a desolate town and its people. Very character-driven, and we are given good insight into them by their interaction with each other. It is a rough life, all on about the same social status level and yet very anxious to gossip and claw at each other while drinking their troubles into something more manageable.
Diamant has opened with a body on the floor of a local and the others coming in for a nip and a say before his family arrives to take him away. As has been done before in literature, Diamant well uses this opportunity of a death and the gathering afterward as a perfect time to get to know some of the characters. We get a certain feel about Judy Rhines just by the others’ reaction to her. We get some information about young Oliver and his coarse and rather mean Aunt Tammi. We see the openheartedness of our hostess, Easter, as she greets guests and we meet some of the minor characters of the story. Diamant introduces us to quite a few folk, which can often be mishandled as an info dump, but she handles it well by providing an interesting scene that offers a tidbit of each that is emphasized by repetition in some manner by the plotting structure of this single event.
For example, we hear briefly about Cornelius Finson, just enough to know who he is, what he does, and how some of the others feel about him. Then when we find him at Judy Rhimes’ house waiting for her and they go to bed together, it’s not a separate story. Diamant has control of all the members of the team.
There is humor in the story, as Diamant manages to find that moment in all things that human nature clings to in order to bring things back into alignment.
The writing is smooth and sparse but precise in painting an image of the town, the people, the individuals, and the types of lives they are living.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology