A Twilight Reel: Stories by Michael Amos Cody

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A TWILIGHT REEL was some 25 years in the making. Three of the stories were written for my MA at Western Carolina back in 1995 (the early versions of “The Wine of Astonishment,” “Overwinter,” and “Grist for the Mill”). Another four were written around PhD studies, associate prof / Tenure & Promotion / full prof hoops (“The Flutist,” “The Invisible World around Them,” “A Poster of Marilyn Monroe,” and “Two Floors above the Dead”). The remaining five were written in the past 3-4 years (“The Loves of Misty Sprinkle,” “Decoration Day,” “Conversion,” “A Fiddle and a Twilight Reel,” and “Witness Tree”).

I find it interesting that the first story written for the collection–“The Wine of Astonishment,” set in January–is the first story in the lineup, and the last story written–“Witness Tree,” set in December–is the last story in this order determined not by chronology of composition but by the calendar months.

Is Runion, North Carolina, a real place? Well, yes and no. It was a real place in the early years of the 20th century. The town was built around a sawmill, and when the sawmill closed near the beginning of the Great Depression, Runion soon after became a ghost town. Little remains of it today beyond some concrete foundations of homes and the mill buildings, the mill’s concrete paymaster’s vault, and concrete works related to the transport of lumber, pre- and post-production. A TWILIGHT REEL reimagines Runion in its historical place, at the confluence of the Laurel and the French Broad, and invests it with characteristics of Marshall, Mars Hill, and Hot Springs, with a little bit of UNCA thrown in as well.



View all my reviews