The Acts of Life

About this book

THE ACTS OF LIFE (Tom T. Halls 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 knowa sister writing letters to her brother in the service; a traveler in a small hotel cafe waiting out a winter storm; a landladys lonely daughter. Othersthe 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 monolament line to a short shank shhook 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 aint seen nothing but T-shirts and stuff with Music City on them. I found out theres 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. . . .