A book from the awardwinning poet that bursts with anecdotes and experiences its poems inhabit the psychology and mythology of this Southern town St Louis PostDispatchVillage Prodigies imagines the town of Cold Springs Alabama from 1950 to 2015 and unfurls its narrative reach as six boysprodigies and swainsgrow up and leave the familiarity of home and the rural SouthYet all prodigies all memories all stories inevitably loop back Through a multiplicity of points of view and innovative forms Rodney Jones plays with the contradictions in our experience of time creating portals through which we travel between moments and characters from the interior mind to the most exterior speech from delusions to rational thought We experience Alzheimers and its effect on family listen to family lore and read family Facebook posts relive war and revive halfforgotten folktales and video games In this deep examination of personal and communal memory Jones blurs the lines between analog and digital poetry and proseA novel in language as dense and lush and beautiful as poetry or a book of poetry with the vivid characters and the narrative force of a novel Whatever you care to call it its a remarkable achievement Richard Russo Pulitzer Prizewinning authorWonderfully rich and dense an adventure a trip an engrossing read a Southern golden book of words CD Wright National Book Critics Circle Awardwinning poetAny James Dickey connoisseurs or fans of the films of David Lynch or Chris Nolan will feel right at home on these pages This is a gorgeous thoughtprovoking and evocative book of narrative poetry Booklist