Town Smokes by Pinckney Benedict

Pinckney Benedict's Town Smokes is a collection of his short stories published in 1987, when he was only 23 years old. Pretty impressive to have a collection out at that age, and with praise on the back cover from both Eudora Welty and Joyce Carol Oates. Narrating in first person dialect is a difficult task, not recommended for amateurs, but Benedict pulls off this point-of-view/voice technique effortlessly.