The Only Road There Is

Rebecca Bailey's novella The Only Road There Is arrives at the perfect moment in this national season of gloom and doom. Narrator Brenda Marlene Simpkins' spoken language is fresh as a cold mountain stream as she tells the story of her road trip from Kentucky to 'out west' with her dear old and frustrating mother. I think this book establishes Rebecca Bailey high on the list of new-century American fiction writers. - Gurney Norman, author of Divine Right's Trip and Kinfolks; The Only Road There Is sparkles with the same rare, creative energy that makes Rebecca Bailey a prize-winning short story writer and poet. - John Engle, author of Tree People, Modern Odyssey, and numerous other poetry collections; This marvelously witty romp through the postmodern American West is a delightful and fresh point of view with a narrative voice that recalls the best of Tom Robbins and Jane Smiley without being imitative or derivative in the least. The heroine/narrator of this finely wrought story of a dysfunctional family that manages to pull it all together when the going gets... well, ridiculous... is just plain fun. Never a dull word here, just angst revealed in a candid and totally original and utterly fun story that creates an appetite for more. It is a nearly perfect novella. - Clay Reynolds, Series Judge