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Kentucky Voices
Nothing Like an Ocean: Stories
Jim Tomlinson's previous book of short stories, Things Kept, Things Left Behind, won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction Award and received enthusiastic reviews. The New York Times compared the strong sense of place in Tomlinson's writing to that found in the works of Flannery O'Connor and Alice Munro. The stories in his new collection, Nothing Like An Ocean, also reflect Tomlinson's awareness of place, revisiting the fictional town of Spivey, a community in rural Appalachia wh
- GenresFiction
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Jim Tomlinson
3 books42 followersJim Tomlinson grew up in a small northern Illinois town and lived for many years in a small New England town. He lives now in rural Kentucky with his wife, fiber artist Gin Petty.
Jim's stories have appeared in Five Points, Shenandoah, Bellevue Literary Review, New Stories From The South and elsewhere. His fiction has been shortlisted for both Best American Short Stories and Best American Mystery Stories. Along with the Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, Jim is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship to Sewanee Writers Conference.
His most recent book of stories, Nothing Like An Ocean, is the follow-up to his debut collection, Things Kept, Things Left Behind, which won the 2006 Iowa Short Fiction Award.
Jim's stories have appeared in Five Points, Shenandoah, Bellevue Literary Review, New Stories From The South and elsewhere. His fiction has been shortlisted for both Best American Short Stories and Best American Mystery Stories. Along with the Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, Jim is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship to Sewanee Writers Conference.
His most recent book of stories, Nothing Like An Ocean, is the follow-up to his debut collection, Things Kept, Things Left Behind, which won the 2006 Iowa Short Fiction Award.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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January 12, 2009I love this book, but then I did write it. So maybe I really shouldn't give it stars.
Edited to add cover review by Chris Offutt:
"Jim Tomlinson writes with direct language about people who have lost direction in their lives. He knows the pressures of life in a small community, the love of land, the cost of loyalty to family, and the confines of geography. With a vast scope including wars in Vietnam and Iraq, car dealers and high school teachers, this book never wavers from its profound embrace of humanity. There is no judgment here, never a shred of remorse or blame, but an honest depiction of frailty, yearning, and loss. The prose is compassionate and wise, the understanding deep. The people are real, and we all know them."
~ ~ Chris Offutt, author of Kentucky Straight
Edited to add cover review by Chris Offutt:
"Jim Tomlinson writes with direct language about people who have lost direction in their lives. He knows the pressures of life in a small community, the love of land, the cost of loyalty to family, and the confines of geography. With a vast scope including wars in Vietnam and Iraq, car dealers and high school teachers, this book never wavers from its profound embrace of humanity. There is no judgment here, never a shred of remorse or blame, but an honest depiction of frailty, yearning, and loss. The prose is compassionate and wise, the understanding deep. The people are real, and we all know them."
~ ~ Chris Offutt, author of Kentucky Straight
January 12, 2009
When I finished this book, I turned it over and read it again. I can’t say that I’ve done that with many books. I can say that I was enthralled by Spivey, Kentucky and its inhabitants. Sometimes we read because we love to revisit the familiar. Sometimes we read to be carried beyond our place in this world. And a short journey to a new place can be as absorbing as a trip around the world.
This all goes to say that I’m a Southern Californian, born and bred, daughter of a college professor, child of the Los Angeles suburbs, my only ties to something outside So Cal being my Sicilian relatives. Spivey, Kentucky is as far from my experience as Minsk.
I have no way of judging if Jim Tomlinson has captured the these people accurately. I only know that it rings true to me. I’m totally convinced of their reality and their experience. I will hear their voices for a long time.
This all goes to say that I’m a Southern Californian, born and bred, daughter of a college professor, child of the Los Angeles suburbs, my only ties to something outside So Cal being my Sicilian relatives. Spivey, Kentucky is as far from my experience as Minsk.
I have no way of judging if Jim Tomlinson has captured the these people accurately. I only know that it rings true to me. I’m totally convinced of their reality and their experience. I will hear their voices for a long time.
February 1, 2022
What a delicious slice of humanity!
April 13, 2009
Jim Tomlinson’s stories in his collection
Nothing Like an Ocean
and the characters who inhabit them run as deep as the ocean. There’s something endearing about these people struggling to get by, get past, get closer. Tomlinson’s writing is smooth, his worlds easy to enter.
My favorites were the title story; Angel, His Rabbit, and Kyle McKell; Overburden; and A Male Influence in the House. Perhaps they stood out for me because Tomlinson does not shield his readers from the uncomfortable, or the uneasiness of despair. He doesn’t shield us from three quietly broken adults all complicit in a child’s death, doesn’t shield us from a soldier’s brokenness and anger, doesn’t shield us from the murder of whole mountain tops and all the life reliant on those ecosystems, doesn’t shield us from the horror of a young man poisoning himself in an attempt to feel something other than his lonely anguish.
There are no neat, happy endings but therein lies the veracity of this collection. And often Tomlinson’s endings are spot-on gorgeous such as the one in Overburden, juxtaposed as it is against so much destruction:
“Inside Sarah will tell him that her labor has started, early pains, but unmistakable. There’s no need to rush, she’ll say, but they shouldn’t delay, either, getting to the hospital. It’s only a matter of time. Yes it’s five weeks early, maybe six, but their future, she’ll assure him, is most certainly happening now.”
My favorites were the title story; Angel, His Rabbit, and Kyle McKell; Overburden; and A Male Influence in the House. Perhaps they stood out for me because Tomlinson does not shield his readers from the uncomfortable, or the uneasiness of despair. He doesn’t shield us from three quietly broken adults all complicit in a child’s death, doesn’t shield us from a soldier’s brokenness and anger, doesn’t shield us from the murder of whole mountain tops and all the life reliant on those ecosystems, doesn’t shield us from the horror of a young man poisoning himself in an attempt to feel something other than his lonely anguish.
There are no neat, happy endings but therein lies the veracity of this collection. And often Tomlinson’s endings are spot-on gorgeous such as the one in Overburden, juxtaposed as it is against so much destruction:
“Inside Sarah will tell him that her labor has started, early pains, but unmistakable. There’s no need to rush, she’ll say, but they shouldn’t delay, either, getting to the hospital. It’s only a matter of time. Yes it’s five weeks early, maybe six, but their future, she’ll assure him, is most certainly happening now.”
May 8, 2009
Jim Tomlinson’s Nothing Like an Ocean is nothing less than brilliant. I read this collection of stories when I had the flu. No medicine that I know of could have made me feel better. It seemed like the author and I knew the same people, though I am sure neither of us has mutual acquaintances. As I read the story of each character, I saw truths revealed about people I know and have known in my life. This book is not filled with flowery description nor is it full of judgmental statements. It is a gentle, yet forceful reminder that everyone has a story.
May 4, 2012
Beautifully written short stories about inhabitants of a small town in Kentucky. Ranged from homosexuals to huffing gas, and everything in between. Some stories were just a pleasure to read, lush descriptions and all, then others left me wondering what the "meaning" was and what such-and-such was symbolic of, like I'd need to write an essay and read into it to figure it out, and that just requires too much from me at this stage in my life.
January 24, 2009
Jim Tomlinson is a master of the short story form. He creates little worlds within a few pages, sometimes more completely than other authors do in a novel. He writes from the point of view of the old, the young, male and female and the voice rings true each time.
January 14, 2009
More terrific and versatile stories of families and communities from Jim Tomlinson (following upon the beautiful collection Things Kept, Things Left Behind_.
February 11, 2010
Well written, mostly interesting. Too many religious themes and references for me to thoroughly enjoy. But despite that, I can appreciate that he is a good writer.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews