Town Smokes (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Pinckney Benedict
- First Published: 1987
- Type of Plot: Regional, coming of age
- Time of Work: The 1980's
- Setting: Mountains of West Virginia
- Principal Characters: A fifteen-year-old boy, Daddy, Uncle Hunter
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Twentieth century, 1980’s, Death or dying, Mountain life, Orphans or orphanages, Boys, Appalachia, West Virginia
- Locales: West Virginia
The Story
Set during a stormy day in the West Virginia mountains, “Town Smokes” is narrated by a fifteen-year-old boy who has just become an orphan after losing his father in a logging accident that same morning. With nothing but Uncle Hunter, a needy alcoholic, to keep him in his mountaintop home, the boy decides to leave and try to make his way in the world below. Although he tells his uncle that he is going to town to get cigarettes, both he and his uncle know that he will not return from his trip.
During his journey, the boy is robbed by two older boys, poor...
[The entire page is 1423 words long]
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