Eddie and I

In a vivid work that is part autobiography and part memoir, Shaffer writes a family portrait that exposes the idiosyncrasies of rural life in a small 1950s mid-Appalachian community. Straightforward and laced with comic hyperbole and humor, the stories and observations focus on the personality of his father recognizing his frustrations and attempts to get ahead and describe myriad situations and exacting details that validate the man's inventive and near genius quirkishness. Weaving in and out of accounts of his own experiences as a young rural kid and part-time farm boy, he also familiarizes us with his mother, his extended family of relatives and himself. Shaffer likes to refer to his parents by their first names and is not afraid of using artful figures of speech and clichés of the day to deftly paint his characters from a palette that is both creative and poetic.