Redgunk Tales is subtitled “Apocalypse and Kudzu from Redgunk, Mississippi,” and that’s about as accurate a description of this unusual collection as any. Because where else are you going to find aliens, ghosts, swamp gas, a dime store mummy, a yellow dog with black smelly lips, and four hundred-odd (and I do mean odd!) people,
all in one place?

It’s like someone took your average Southern small town, doped up the inhabitants on pulped William Burroughs and Hunter S Thompson, spiced the result with essence of Weekly World News, and served what was left with a twist of gamma-irradiated lime. Thirteen stories, ten of which have appeared before in publications such as Realms of Fantasy, Science Fiction Age, and Amazing Stories, three of which are brand-new, pull back the curtains and expose the truly irrational and unusual nature of a small Mississippi town home to weirdness and the unexpected.

It’s impossible to read these stories all in one sitting. One at a time, with a day or two to recover in between assaults upon your rational side, that’s the way to take it. Savor them, mull them over, reflect upon the ghost of the last living Druid, condemned to forever mow a certain patch of land. Contemplate the woman who discovers that the perfect man for her is utterly and absolutely alien, and can be kept in a jar. Ponder a dragon conjured out of the subconscious and into the sewers. Meditate upon Orange Decker, abducted by aliens. Ask yourself what the Secret of the Mummy’s Brain is.

Describing the contents of Redgunk Tales is like trying to smell music. Some things can only be experienced, and that’s the case with William Eakin’s particular and peculiar prose, some of which is so lyrical and whimsical as to transcend the normal mode of storytelling. I’d love to hear these stories read out loud, as I suspect they’d adapt themselves to an oral format better than most. While Redgunk Tales isn’t normally the sort of thing I’d gravitate towards, I can certainly recommend it for making me think outside the box.