In the wee hours of a cold winter morning, the plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson crashed in a remote Iowa field, killing all three musicians, and forever marking February 3rd, 1959, as “the Day the Music Died.” The 59 linked flash stories in “Winter Dance Party” focus on the obsessions and indifferences of the inhabitants who still live near that field, as well as on the development company that bought the property—and what cash-grab designs they might have for a big empty piece of Americana. Amidst flyover-country pranks and bowling-alley shenanigans are the struggles between those who want to stop the commercialization, those desperate for the tourist dollars, and those caught in between. Told in crisp, lyrical prose, this is the fragmented story of tragedy and aftermath, filled with that American determination to profit off them both.
