A good story with great characters is the best reading experience, in my opinion. That's why I love the literature of the South. I've read all of Robert Inman's books recently -- they all have that great storytelling quality that all great Southern novels share. Old Dogs and Children is a wonderful, hopeful and heartbreaking book about the choices we make and the way they affect us and the people around is. It's about the importance of place -- and how leaving it or remaining in it is both a joy and a sacrifice. Bright Birdsong, like all the other characters in the novel, makes choices -- often with bad results, and sometimes with good ones. Robert Inman is one of those writers who, once you discover him, you read all his books voraciously, and are then angry at yourself for finishing them all so quickly. I hope he writes more!