Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best
Review: I just finished reading this book, and could start all over again. Gatreaux has a wonderful way of crafting a story with believable people. No matter where the reader is from, because of his character descriptions, it is easy to identify with these folks from Louisiana. Gatreaux's short stories evoked all kinds of emotions, but there were many places where I simply laughed out loud. The best thing about this book, is the ability of the author to depict flawed characters living flawed lives, who nonetheless experience redemption in various ways. I will be looking for more books by this talented writer.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: I just finished reading this book, and could start all over again. Gatreaux has a wonderful way of crafting a story with believable people. No matter where the reader is from, because of his character descriptions, it is easy to identify with these folks from Louisiana. Gatreaux's short stories evoked all kinds of emotions, but there were many places where I simply laughed out loud. The best thing about this book, is the ability of the author to depict flawed characters living flawed lives, who nonetheless experience redemption in various ways. I will be looking for more books by this talented writer.
Rating:
Summary: Welding with Children is "Good For The Soul."
Review: I love every story in this book. I did not want the story "Welding with Children" to end. I wish Gautreaux would make it a novel. My favorite story is "Good For The Soul" which is hilarious. You cannot live in Southern Louisiana and not know Father Ledet. I pray Tim Gautreaux lives to be a very old man and writes for the rest of his days. I am buying every person I love this book for Christmas.
Rating:
Summary: A Peek Inside America
Review: If you get off the interstate and on to the old highways, you can see them. They're the people who live between the suburbs of one great city and the suburbs of the next. Tim Gautreaux invites us to get out of our cars and into the grey-wood houses with a bentwood rocker on the front porch and an Oldsmobile engine hanging from the pecan tree in the side yard. He gives us a sad, funny, sympathetic and ultimately hopeful introduction to his friends. He shows us their fears, their friendships, their courage and their dreams. Take him up on his invitation. You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Gothic Southern Short Stories at Their Best
Review: Like Flannery O'Connor and Ellen Gilchrist, Tim Gautreaux crafts sly tales that build upon the landscape and characters of the Delta South in a manner that shows his love of the people and place, their hopes and dreams, foibles and flaws. The stories turn equally tragic and humorous with deft turns of Gautreaux's pen.In Welding With Children, Gautreaux devotes a fair number of the stories to older people caught in a modern world not of their making, yet they manage to find ways to reach out to (in the case of the title story) their grandchildren, to neighbor youths, or even strangers. The old Cajun woman and her bourée playing neighbors who end up outwitting a would-be robber/murderer is an especially delicious tale. However there are other stories -- such as the one about a camera salesman who develops old rolls of film in used cameras his shop buys in search of found art, or the one about a minister/would-be novelist at a writers' conference -- that illuminate other corners of the soul. This, and Gautreaux's previous work, should put Hammond, Louisiana, on the literary map.
Rating:
Summary: The Southern Literary Tradition is alive and well!
Review: These are fabulous stories narrated in a clear, concise manner. The characters are typical Southern Gothic who help keep the Southern Literay Tradition alive. Gautreaux is a great storyteller who has both the gift of creating a vivid environment (Louisianna), and the ability to make you relate to his characters.
Rating:
Summary: The Cream of the Crop of Louisiana Writers
Review: These short stories are awesome and pure Louisiana: rich, delectable and spicy. My favorite was also 'Good for the Soul' about the well-meaning priest who drank just a wee bit too much....but had a heart of gold. I laughed until I cried in parts of this one. Thanks, Tim, for these superb, uplifting stories. You make us Louisiana natives proud!!!
Rating:
Summary: Welding with Children
Review: This second collection of short stories from Tim Gautreaux is, perhaps, even better than the first. Of course, if you look inside the book and see who published the individual stories, it's obvious that they must be good; The New Yorker, Atlantic, and Esquire are not noted for publishing bad fiction. While these are fiction, the stories ring so true to life and the lives of the characters, that we can all see ourselves in someone in this collection. Most of Gautreaux's stories have a touch of humor, but all show the depth of character that draws readers into the stories. Anyone who reads these stories and enjoys them, should also read his novels. You'll find that same voice and an author you can trust, who will not betray your empathy for his characters.
Rating:
Summary: Welding with Children
Review: This second collection of short stories from Tim Gautreaux is, perhaps, even better than the first. Of course, if you look inside the book and see who published the individual stories, it's obvious that they must be good; The New Yorker, Atlantic, and Esquire are not noted for publishing bad fiction. While these are fiction, the stories ring so true to life and the lives of the characters, that we can all see ourselves in someone in this collection. Most of Gautreaux's stories have a touch of humor, but all show the depth of character that draws readers into the stories. Anyone who reads these stories and enjoys them, should also read his novels. You'll find that same voice and an author you can trust, who will not betray your empathy for his characters.
Rating:
Summary: STORIES THAT GET TO THE HEART OF PEOPLE...
Review: Tim Gautreaux's writing is simply amazingly good. His characters are sublimely human, and he has a knack for finding the good in all of them - even those who might be a bit unsavory. He places them in situations that are ordinary and unique at the same time - and in those situations he finds ways to reveal things to us that allow us to learn more about ourselves. The characters learn about themselves as well, and this is a treasure to observe. The stories here deal with joy and sorrow and all of the areas in between. The people here are struggling to come to grips with their own families, with their work, with the people around them - and with the world in which they live. In the title piece, a man attempts to assert more of a guiding influence on his grandchildren, and in the process winds up changing several aspects of his own life as well. His trials in striving to accomplish a task given him by his wife, while sitting with his grandchildren at the same time, is presented with some of the most genuine humor I've read in a while - but it's a gentle humor, and it never belittles the characters or the situation (and this finely-tuned humor is used to good effect in several of these stories, even the more `serious' ones. `Misuse of light' is a moving portrait of a man who works in a camera shop learning about the lives of his customers through the small areas where their lives intersect with his. When someone sells a camera to his shop and he finds a roll of film in it, he develops it in order to get a glimpse into other lives. Opening this door can, as he learns, have jarring effects - on him as well as on the lives he enters. When he uncovers information that causes pain to the young woman who has sold him the camera, rather than abandoning his `study', he probes a bit further in order to get to a level in this past wherein she can find a bit of peace. It's something that makes the character endearing - it's a story to restore faith. Another story dealing with faith it `Good for the soul', in which a parish priest with a bit of a drinking problem, attempting to do a good deed (against his better judgment), runs afoul of both the law and his community. `Easy pickings' details a rather inept thief's attempt to take advantage of a solitary elderly woman - rather than being a cakewalk, he finds that he's definitely bitten off more than he can chew. There's a great deal of the above-mentioned gentle humor in this tale - and Gautreaux delivers it with tender respect, never ridiculing his characters. `The piano tuner' is, like `Misuse of light', a finely-crafted work in which one character sets out to help another cope with the world - and does so with no expectations of any sort of reward. It's a good example of how those among us who are a little `different' can find their niche - and a gentle lesson in showing such folks more tolerance. `Resistance' is another case of one human helping another - in this instance, an elderly man, a widower, sees a need and fills it. The little girl who lives next door is very obviously the victim of an abusive, drunk father. When the neighbor learns that her parents are unable/unwilling to help her with her science project, he takes on the task himself - and the light he creates shines not only into her dark life, but also into his own. `Sorry blood' and `Sunset in heaven' both deal with aspects of growing old. In the former, an Alzheimer's patient is victimized by one of the lowest low-lifes you're liable to meet (and hope that you don't). In the latter, the plight of an old man similarly afflicted opens the eyes of a middle-aged man to the possibilities in his own life. `Rodeo parole' is a frightening, surreal look at a desperate attempt by prisoners to be viewed in a more favorable light by the parole board - by making themselves sitting targets for a bull enraged by repeated electric shocks from prison guards. Its few pages explode with action. My two favorites in this collection are `Dancing with the one-armed gal' and `The Pine Oil Writers Conference'. In the former, a man on the run from (or is it `to') himself meets a woman hitchhiker as he travels west from Louisiana. They're both looking for something - and neither is sure just what, although they think they know - and the `answers' they find aren't the ones they expect. It makes for a very interesting and revealing encounter - both for the characters and the reader. `The Pine Oil Writers Conference' is, for me, the gem of this book. Gautreaux has created the classic `riddle wrapped in an enigma' with this story - an aspiring writer (a minister) attends the conference, hoping to find out if writing fiction is `the thing he does best'. The short excerpt included in this story produced by the character for a conference workshop is so well written than it made me sorry there wasn't more of it. I've never read anything by Tim Gautreaux before - but you can bet I'll be looking for his other short story collection (SAME PLACE, SAME THINGS) as well as his novel (THE NEXT STEP IN THE DANCE). This little book was a great discovery.
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