This book is exquisite, like a great oil painting, full of rich, layered detail. Payne has a true gift for the lilt & structure of regional language, Southern dialect in particular; the voices of these characters are one of the many things that make this book more "cinematic," for lack of a better word. I was immersed and had to take this book with me wherever I went. I hated for it to end, and had to go off all books for a few days, so the power of it could sink in. I'd already read Gravesend Light, in which the young narrator from Ruin Creek, Joey, has grown up and returned to the outer banks. For me, Payne's greatest work is Early from the Dance; it is more focused, centered on a shorter period of time, one summer - a young love triangle... and there's an echo of Dangerous Liaisons, a darker force controlling their relationships. But Ruin Creek is something to be savored, the warmth of this book, especially, in the loving relationship with young Joey and his Grandpa.
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