 | Out of the Mountains: Appalachian Stories Subjects: Short stories American; Appalachian Region -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; City and town life -- Fiction; Mountain life -- Fiction; Willis (A Space Apart) returns to her West Virginia roots with a dozen vivid stories set among the "restless" salt of the earth. In the first story, "Triangulation," the narrator ponders the effects of history and chance on her present life by examining three individuals from 1917 who were bonded by cataclysmic events: Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, anarchist Emma Goldman, and the narrator's grandmother, a teenager at the time living in West Virginia. In subsequent stories Willis gives great texture to the lives of north-central Appalachian folk, like Merlee Savage who, in "Pie Knob," finally leaves her ne'er-do-well husband and gets a job helping a well-off Jewish woman through chemotherapy. In the autobiographical tale, "Elvissa and the Rabbi," Willis pursues the single-minded trek of a native daughter determined to get to New York City at any cost. These crisp stories burn with the tender-heartedness Willis obviously has for her characters. (Aug.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. |
