Welding with Children : Stories

by Tim Gautreaux

Book Overview

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year In eleven raucous, touching stories, Tim Gautreaux's Welding with Children traces the course of sin and redemption through the lives of small-town women and men in Louisiana. His unforgettable characters include a grandfather who discovers, while taking care of his grandchildren, that they are growing up without any sense at all of right and wrong; a camera repairman who discovers a woman's secret in her undeveloped...

Customer Reviews

The Cream of the Crop of Louisiana Writers

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!!!

Welding with Children is "Good For The Soul."

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.

Gothic Southern Short Stories at Their Best

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.

The Southern Literary Tradition is alive and well!

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.

Wonderful stories, with quirky complex cajun characters.

This collection of short stories is populated with surprisingly complex characters yet quirky characters. The stories are vividly set in rural blue collar cajun communities (with some New Orleans thrown in). He avoids stereotypes, and instead gets you inside people's heads in a wonderful and friendly way.