{"id":465,"date":"2018-08-01T16:04:31","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T21:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jessicamannion.com\/?p=465"},"modified":"2019-01-30T11:32:01","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T16:32:01","slug":"book-review-for-dixie-luck-by-andy-plattner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jessicamannion.com\/?p=465","title":{"rendered":"Book Review for Dixie Luck by Andy Plattner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dixie Luck Andy Plattner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Andy Plattner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collection, Dixie Luck<\/em>, is a stirring read right out of the gate, full of finely crafted short stories, as well as the novella Terminal<\/em>, winner of the Faulkner Society\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2016 Gold Medal for Best Novella. Plattner \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a former horse-racing journalist \u00e2\u20ac\u201c also teaches English and creative writing at universities throughout the south, including Emory College of Arts and Sciences and the University of Southern Mississippi. Plattner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work has won multiple awards. His novel Offerings from a Rust Belt Jockey <\/em>(2014), won the Castleton-Lyons Book Award as well as Dzanc Books\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Mid-Career Novel Award. His first short story collection Winter Money<\/em>(1996) was awarded the University of Georgia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Flannery O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Connor Award.<\/p>\n

Dixie Luck<\/em> is full of movement, both literal and figurative. Its characters are nomadic,\u00c2\u00a0 yearning for and running from change. They search for understanding in the unreliable, for meaning in an oblique glance, and for hope in that next bet they place. Many of these tales are set in the world of horse-racing that the author knows so well. Plattner pulls heavily from both personal and journalistic experience, introducing us to people one might not otherwise meet had they not been part of the racing world themselves. Dixie Luck<\/em> brims with tales of flawed, sometimes fragile people, the people who live outside the spotlight: gamblers, grooms, and jockeys.<\/p>\n

Plattner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characters are quiet and thoughtful, albeit somewhat lost. There are men struggling to find or reclaim identities, men who have loved and lost, men who have become estranged from their families and are trying to make their own way in the world. Plattner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s women are equally adrift, searching just as hard in their own ways to find peace or resolution in their relationships and their place in the world. The tragedy is that none of these characters ever seem to attain their heart\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire, but the charm is that they all keep moving, keep hoping for that next big break.<\/p>\n

Some stories follow a traditional arc. A protagonist is faced with a challenge or issue, they deal with it as best they can, and the reader follows this journey, piecing together the picture of a fractured life and the attempts of the protagonist to fix things or to hold things together at any cost.<\/p>\n

In \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hot Springs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a man named Ace runs into an old flame who once stole three thousand dollars from him \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0 winnings from a particularly successful bet. This chance meeting sets him off balance and he starts to question everything, from his wandering life, to his new girl Denice whom he knows \u00e2\u20ac\u0153just well enough,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the motel rooms in which he chooses to live that cover all his basic needs, yet \u00e2\u20ac\u0153when it was time to go, there wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a lot to hold you there.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Until this point he had thought himself content, comfortable with the status quo, but now he must come to terms with the person his drifting has allowed him to become, and whether the price of a little ambition will pay off in the long run.<\/p>\n

Other stories are much more brief, a quick, intimate glance into decidedly un-simple lives. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Prodigy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a beautifully heartbreaking example of this latter style. It tells the story of a lonely man whose much younger girlfriend has just left him. An item she has left behind \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an audio player from a tour they took at Graceland that she forgot to return \u00e2\u20ac\u201c holds more significance to him than an actual goodbye letter. He remembers what he so cavalierly said about Elvis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s old home, that it was an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153American-style celebration of loneliness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d His reminiscences eventually lead him to recall another important relationship in his life, and in a few short paragraphs it is revealed exactly from whom he learned to relate to other people, and just how well he learned.<\/p>\n

The novella Terminal<\/em> completes the collection. This lovely, well-paced work follows Leo and Karen, ex husband and wife, who have reunited in order to take advantage of some insider information Karen has about a very important race. Terminal<\/em> offers the same thrills and intrigue one finds in the best heist stories: the intricate planning, the sense of urgency and fear, and the longing for things one can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t or shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have: in this case, both the prize and their lost relationship. In between the planning and strategizing sessions come sweet interludes where Karen shows Leo around her new city of New Orleans. She takes him to her favorite lunch spots, they ride the trolley and enjoy the views. They are very comfortable together, which is why Karen trusted Leo enough to bring him in on this opportunity.<\/p>\n

The characters in Plattner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stories are marvelously complex, and in that complexity they are relatable. Life for these characters is not easy, and they have no simple solutions to the ongoing turmoils of their lives. But his characters do learn and grow, not always in the most healthy directions, but they evolve, which makes following their journeys incredibly satisfying.<\/p>\n

Read at The Literary Review<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andy Plattner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collection, Dixie Luck, is a stirring read right out of the gate, full of finely crafted short stories, as well as the novella Terminal, winner of the Faulkner Society\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2016 Gold Medal for Best Novella. Plattner \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a former horse-racing journalist \u00e2\u20ac\u201c also teaches English and creative writing at universities throughout the south, … Continue reading Book Review for Dixie Luck by Andy Plattner<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,103],"tags":[118,121,117,119,109,120],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9TvP3-7v","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":602,"url":"https:\/\/www.jessicamannion.com\/?p=602","url_meta":{"origin":465,"position":0},"title":"Book Review for Life During Wartime by Katie Rogin","date":"September 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"(Winston-Salem, NC: Mastodon Publishing, 2018) Katie Rogin is an award-winning writer with a diverse oeuvre. 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