New Stories From the South 2004

New Stories From the South 2004 EDITED BY SHANNON RAVENEL (ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL, $13.95)

In his introduction, Tim Gautreaux muses, "Southern writers...see story telling as an Olympic competition, indeed life itself as a sequence of short narratives stitched together with the mantra 'Hey, that reminds me of...'"Reading these dynamic works makes you feel part of the contest, a passionate spectator cheering on the future of Southern fiction.

A few eternal ties, such as age, race, and gender, bind these short stories to one another. Motifs aside, though, the distinctive voices in each of the 18 pieces grab the reader time and time again. Drew Perry's "Love Is Gnats Today" and George Singleton's "Raise Children Here" present a laugh-out-loud South, while first person accounts in "Docent" by R. T. Smith and "The Lolita School" by Brock Clarke reveal writers with tongues firmly planted in cheeks. This collection will have you chiming in with the rallying cry, "Hey, that reminds me of..." KELLY MARGARET SMITH

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Jul 2004
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