WHAT THE CRITICS SAY ABOUT FLYNN'S BOOKS:
A Personal War in Vietnam
“Flynn does the kind of reporting on Vietnam soldiers that Ernie Pyle did about the American GIs of World War II.” Dallas News
“At the heart of this gritty book is Flynn’s record of what the Marines went through and how they felt.” The Veteran
“Flynn”s work is a valuable piece of military history because of its detailed descriptions of the daily operations of CUPP teams. A CUPP team was basically a rifle squad with a Navy corpsman, stationed in a remote Vietnamese village...does not moralize on the Vietnam War but presents a vivid and compassionate picture of what war was like for these men.” Military Review
“This kind of Vietnam War history writing--original and significant--is rare, and we need much more of it.” Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Seasonal Rain:
Winner of the 1986 Texas Literary Award, “The Saviour of the Bees,” and “Christmas in a Very Small Place,” were winners in the PEN short fiction contest.
“An Impressive collection,” The Kirkus Reviews
“With a soft, almost breathless poignancy he reveals the power of the human heart...Displaying the same talent that made North to Yesterday a classic in Western literature, he demonstrates here the vitality of the short story.” Review of Texas Books
Living with the Hyenas - winner of Western Heritage Award from National Cowboy Hall of Fame
“...perfectly demonstrates how these wise, artful stories catch the ways in which we accept or deny what we see when the unexpected casts a bright light on our lives.” New York Times Review of Books
“...no wasted words anywhere, and at the same time, after reading one of these stories, one has the sense of having enjoyed and being overwhelmed by a much longer work.” Houston Chronicle
“nothing is more scarce these days than dignity. Not so the people in Flynn’s collection of stories...The recurring theme of insistence on dignity gives these stories common ground...” Dallas Morning News
“Flynn is a master storyteller.” Annie Dillard
“ordinary heroes caught in exotic conflicts, lonely and on the edge, traps only partly of their own making...They dream of courage and glory but suddenly discover truths about themselves in the dangers and suffering of what they must do alone.” Walter McDonald
Growing Up a Sullen Baptist, and other lies
“...Flynn never bores. If you’ve ever heard him read or give a talk, you know what I mean. If you’ve read him before, you’re probably already hooked.” Walt McDonald
“Flynn is the funniest man in Texas...reverent, irreverent, acerbic, satiric, sensitive and thoughtful. This book shows Flynn at his very best, but will it get him into heaven.” James Ward Lee
After hearing the author read “Truth and Beauty” from the collection Art Spikol wrote, “Flynn captivated me and the audience in a way that I’d rarely witnessed. No stand-up comic ever made me laugh like that. No words in print ever took me from laughter to tears so quickly. And when it was over and the audience applauded, stunned by the magic of plain words and plain talk...the evening’s program was over...Flynn would not have been an easy act to follow.” Writers Digest
Slouching Toward Zion and more lies
“With piercing satire and rare humor, Flynn tells shameless hypocrites they are shameless hypocrites. We are beholden to him.” Will D. Campbell
“All institutions live by the myths passed on from generation to generation. Flynn helps us separate the shaping truths from the lies.” Rev. Raymond Bailey
“Flynn’s prose cuts like St. Michael’s sword slicing through the smug heart of a believer too comfortable in his faith. He is raw, woolly, and wild-eyed and very necessary.” Jill A. Essbaum
When I Was Just Your Age
“These Texans had problems and joys...and their value systems will lead to interesting discussions. Maury Maverick’s disarming observation that at sixty-five he still had not decided what he wanted to be, Horton Foote’s comments on pecan trees and houses that survived hurricanes, and Nakai Breen’s experiences as a Cherokee living with the Kickapoo are a sampling of the delights...” East Texas Historical Association
“future biographers of Horton Foote, Maury Maverick, Stanley Marcus, Paul Baker, and others will neglect these products of child research at their peril.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly
“...this collection of oral histories is intimate, authentic, and filled with arresting details...As a child Mary Chism saw how a tornado ‘blowed a (400 pound) sow on up a tree and scalded the hair off her.’..this marvelous book concludes with valuable activities for young historians who wish to collect the living memories that surround them.” Booklist
“Whereas some of these folks, Mr. Stanley Marcus for example, have been the subject of biographical writing before, the insights offered in response to the prompting questions...are different Tinged with nostalgia, they are pitched to capture much of the hardship as well as the happiness of what these famous and near-famous people recall from their own childhoods.” Dallas Morning News
