The stories in Bobbie Ann Mason's remarkable collection read like poetic transcriptions of day-to-day life. With her keen eye and ear for late twentieth-century popular culture, Mason can render a photograph of a brightly lit supermarket or a bit of wisdom from the Donahue show. This special edition of a beloved local author's work includes a new foreword by George Ella Lyon, Kentucky writer and friend of the author.
These were really something. Not too much of a weak one in the lot. My current favorite: Georgeann, the malcontent preacher’s wife, happy with her lousy chickens and playing Space Invaders in the basement. (Sorry, not Space Invaders. The Galaxians. Space Invaders is the better game, says the trucker, because things come at you head-on.)
And then there’s Mary and her dentist in “Residents and Transients,” and Nancy Culpupper twice over, and… and…
How I’d describe these stories, actually: if the gentler Larry Brown (think A Miracle of Catfish; all the Sam parts of Fay) wrote Drive-By Truckers songs.
The incongruities, secrets, and hidden depths in people, here’s a book full of them.
Reading updates
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18 May, 2014:
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18 May, 2014:
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