cover image The Smoky Mountain Cage Bird Society: And Other Magical Tales from Everyday Life

The Smoky Mountain Cage Bird Society: And Other Magical Tales from Everyday Life

John Skoyles. Kodansha America, $16 (192pp) ISBN 978-1-56836-181-9

The tone of this collection of original essays by Emerson College (Mass.) writing professor Skoyles (A Little Faith) is established at the start, when the author's flip retort to his six-year-old son's threatening to leave home is misinterpreted in a way that reveals the boy's love for his father. And so it goes throughout this involving assemblage of homilies. They introduce us to two teens who allow a boy eyeing the prizes at an amusement park to pick whichever one he wants; one tale reveals a stop at a Connecticut pizzeria by a house-hunting couple too suspicious to take advantage of help that might save them much time and trouble. In another piece, a maiden aunt devotes alternate Saturdays to introducing her nephew to the wonders of New York City. Not everything comes up roses in Skoyles's world. A once renowned professor strays, homeless, into Grand Central Station while a crowd gathers around a seller of sadistic videos. Yet overall the essays are uplifting. This is a book to slip into as you would an easy chair or your favorite pair of sneakers. (Aug.)