A Surrealist Walk Through Appalachia: Derelict Days in That Derelict Town Reviewed
Sometimes a review arrives that reminds us exactly why we publish books in the first place. This week, we were thrilled to see Alan May’s Derelict Days in That Derelict Town receive a gorgeous, in-depth treatment from critic Ian Hall, a review that reads as both celebration and excavation of this remarkable fourth collection.
From the opening poem, “A Walk in the Park,” Hall highlights how May uses the outré not as ornament but as mechanism, an engine for seeing the familiar anew. A shortcut through a hedgerow becomes a mythic battle; a migraine becomes an existential trial; a discarded crutch becomes a haunting symbol of hope and despair. As Hall notes, May’s imagination doesn’t float above reality but tunnels deeper into it, illuminating what we overlook in the everyday grind.
This dual awareness, of the fantastical and the painfully real, threads its way through the review. Hall points to the book’s Appalachian civic landscapes where “the social contract has collapsed,” where county clerks fly kites amid chaos and mayors unfold from cars like characters in a fever dream. These moments capture what May does best: the blend of humor, dread, tenderness, and chaos that defines so much of 21st-century American life.
But at the center of Hall’s review is the theme he finds most resonant: loneliness. In poem after poem, May’s speakers tilt toward the absurd, only to collide with their own aching humanity. Hall lingers on the image of a child “shooting the sky,” on the speaker who imagines friends outside the pool hall only to confess his solitude while deer lick the shop windows. These moments land with a clarity that feels earned, strange but never alien, surreal but never detached.
For us at BlazeVOX, this review is a joy to read. It sees May’s work for what it is: a brave, inventive, deeply humane book that refuses to choose between the real and the surreal, the tender and the terrifying. Hall’s insight and generosity shine through every paragraph, and we are honored to share his enthusiasm.
Derelict Days in That Derelict Town is available now. If you haven’t yet taken this strange and beautiful journey through Alan May’s Appalachia, we invite you to step inside. The crows are waiting.
Read the review at Chapter 16 here
