SOURCE: Stevens, David. “Writing Region Across the Border: Two Stories of Breece Pancake and Alistair MacLeod.” Studies in Short Fiction 33, no. 2 (spring 1996): 263-71.

In the following essay, Stevens considers Pancake and the Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod as regional writers.

In a Tennessee folk tale from the early twentieth century, a Yankee traveling salesman receives a dose of regional wisdom when his car breaks down in the southern backwoods.

Judging from the last hour of his trip, the salesman decided his best chance of reaching civilization lay in abandoning the road and cutting through the surrounding forest, which he did, only to find himself hopelessly lost minutes later. Luckily a young farm-boy was hunting nearby and offered to guide the salesman to the nearest service station. Grateful for this rescue, the salesman tried to strike up a conversation with the boy along the way. “That's a mighty fine rifle...