Ergebnisse 1-10 von 15 Review: New stories from the SouthRedaktioneller Bericht - Kirkus ReviewsPersuasive voices, emotional depth, and a wide range of points of view distinguish these 16 stories of generally high quality. Ravenel, a native of the Carolinas, has culled tales by well- and lesser-known authors from American literary magazines ranging from the Carolina Quarterly to Harper's. Protagonists include a not-so-Fauiknerian Mississippi boy turned narcotics abuser and a Peace Corps volunteer only somewhat reminiscent of Styron's Peyton Loftis. Ethan Canin's memorable ""The Palace Thief"" is as carefully mapped out as a Roman campaign, whetting readers' appetites for learning about history even as western civilization is collapsing around the story's key players. While dealing with a school bully whose father is a corrupt senator in West Virginia, an ancient-history teacher learns that political power and great nations arise ""from the simple battle of wills among men at tables."" In Reynolds Price's equally illuminating ""Deeds of Light,"" a young boy's need to replace his dead father with a soldier camped in his town during World War II becomes the catalyst for his awakening sexuality; Price's deep psychological rendering of the protagonist is truly satisfying. Robert Morgan's devastating ""Dark Corner,"" about a penniless, dispossessed Texas family traveling to North Carolina, hooks readers with the tragic, knowing narrative voice of a young girl and skillfully illustrates human beings' noble but futile attempts to beat back death. Some stories seem less fleshed out than others. Melanie Sumner's ""My Other Life"" gives us the barest hint of character development beyond alcoholism and defiance -- and the faintest of epiphanies before abruptly ending. And while John Sayles's ""Peeling"" draws power from its immediacy and authentic dialogue among crawfish shuckers in Louisiana, it seems more like a slice of life than a fully realized story. In the tradition of earlier southern writers, but echoing today's sounds. Review: New stories from the SouthRedaktioneller Bericht - Kirkus ReviewsA mixed bag of 18 mostly unsurprising stories by names both celebrated and more regionally obscure in the 19th installment of this well-established series. As usual, series editor Ravenel aims for a broad readership with stories ranging from the generic writing-program sort (Michael Knight's blithely paced account of a divorced father's kidnapping of his young daughter, "Feeling Lucky"; Bret Anthony Johnston's lachrymose and rather derivative "The Widow") to more truly weird tales informed by innate southern proclivities for dogs, church signs, and General Lee (in, respectively, Ann Pancake's "Dog Song," Drew Perry's delightful "Love is Gnats Today," and R.T. Smith's forlorn visit to the Lee Chapel in "Docent"). What makes this collection specifically southern? Tim Gautreaux in his preface suggests love for their region and for storytelling as salient traits. "A Rich Man," which first appeared in The New Yorker (the others were published in literary magazines across the country), meets these criteria: The language is colloquial and stylistically unforced, the characters quirky and richly depicted, as Edward P. Jones shows his elderly protagonist taking up a life as a swinger and drug dealer following his wife's death after 50 years of marriage mostly living in the same apartment house in Washington, DC. But not every story fits the mold; two that stand out in a most welcome fashion from the conventional selections are Brock Clarke's edgy "The Lolita School," delineating the curriculum of a "alternative country day school of some sort" in South Carolina that will mold young girls into Nabokov's seductive heroine, and Elizabeth Seydel Morgan's "Saturday Afternoon in the Holocaust Museum," which follows an estranged couple's trek through a Richmond afternoon. Each author was asked to offer commentary on his or her story, which many find an unfortunate invasion of their fictional space: "I have trouble remembering whether much in my life was fact or imagined," notes "Pagan" author Rick Bass in discomfort). Well-crafted tales from a laudable tradition, though Ravenal might encourage more experimental voices next time. Review: New stories from the SouthRedaktioneller Bericht - Kirkus ReviewsRavenel stretches her sense of southernness so far in this volume of 18 stories that even some of the contributors wonder what they're doing here, as a few comment in afterwords to their pieces. The strongest tales (by Edward Jones, Jill McCorkle, Peter Taylor, Wendell Berry, Pinckney Benedict, and David Huddle) have all appeared in recent collections and been reviewed (in most cases, favorably) by Kirkus. An excerpt from Robert Olen Butler's prize-winning book also shows up, making this volume a sampler of the year's best collections. The remaining 11 stories are a mixed bag, with tales of love and relationships dominating. Tony Earley's ``Charlotte'' links the narrator's failed romance to the disappearance of professional wrestling in his North Carolilna hometown. Equally quirky, Dan Leone's ``Spinach,'' set in the ``Spinach Capital of the World'' (Alma, Arkansas), finds two men abandoning the same woman for lives as desert bums. Dennis Loy Johnson's ``Rescuing Ed,'' set near Little Rock, chronicles another relationship in turmoil--the narrator's partner in the contracting business has a hard time holding on to his artsy wife. The hip, modern South also shows up in Kevin Calder's ``Name Me This River,'' about a young, self-dramatizing girl from Atlanta. Annette Sanford's ``Helens and Roses,'' about a couple in a Texas trailer- park who've been married for 50 years, testifies to the endurance of jealousy. But Paula Gover's ``White Boys and River Girls,'' Georgia-set, is the real find here--a pitch-perfect tale of mismatched lovers. The unequivocal love between parents and children makes for three compelling pieces: Richard Bausch's narrative of an aging father who feels helpless; Elizabeth Hunnewell's sweet memory of a stepfather; and Lee Merrill Byrd's tear-jerking tale about a family altered forever by a fire. Wayne Karlin's haunting ``Prisoners'' provides a much-needed historical sense to this otherwise free-floating collection. Despite its shortcomings, still maybe the best annual story anthology around. Review: New stories from the SouthRedaktioneller Bericht - Kirkus ReviewsNEW STORIES FROM THE SOUTHThe Year's Best, 1999Ravenel, Shannon—Ed. Review: New stories from the SouthRedaktioneller Bericht - Kirkus ReviewsNow that this excellent series is firmly established among must-read annuals, Ravenel should skip the apologetic introductions in which she repeatedly tries to justify the regional basis for her anthology. The evidence speaks for itself here--16 stories by or about southerners that embrace a wide range of literary and geographical experience. Many of the stories focus on coming-of-age in the South, from Nanci Kincaid's teenage girls hanging out at a Tallahassee movie theater (""This is Not the Picture Show"") to Jill McCorkle's shy young girl who lives vicariously through the postcards form her wild, older sister (""Waiting for the Hard Times to End""). Young people deal with domestic tragedy in Barbara Hudson's ""The Arabesque,"" the story of two sisters confronted by their mother's madness and early death; in Rick Bass's ""In the Loyal Mountains,"" a beautifully written profile of the narrator's big-spending Texan uncle who commits suicide rather than suffer the consequences of his shady business dealings; and in Reynolds Price's overwrought ""HIS Final Mother,"" a boy's meditation on his mother's sudden death. Lee Smith's ""Intensive Care,"" the story of a former high-school nerd who pursues an improbable passion, confronts death with a healthy dose of schmaltz. The least convincing narrative voices here include the successful Vietnamese immigrant in Robert Olen Butler's ""Relic,"" the young grandmother of Bobble Ann Mason's typically hard-luck ""With Jazz,"" and the drunk and sexually inadequate good old boy of Larry Brown's ""Big Bad Love."" The strongest pieces range from Mark Richard's hilarious and sad tale of boys in an orphanage hospital on Christmas Eve (""The Birds for Christmas"") to Susan Start Richards's unusual paean to porch life and the strange bonds of sisters in ""The Screened Porch."" Robert Morgan's story of a Civil War-era stone mason (""Poinsett's Bridge"") and Thomas Phillips Brewer's riff on southern junkies (""Black Cat Bone"") add an interesting dimension to a somewhat homogeneous volume. Peter Taylor's graceful and evocative ""Cousin Aubrey"" easily earns its lead-off position. Once again, southern fiction mostly at its best. Review: New stories from the SouthRedaktioneller Bericht - Kirkus ReviewsThe seventh volume in this now-established series is a welcome mix of stories by new and established authors, drawn from a wide variety of magazines, from The Black Warrior Review to The New Yorker. Of the 17 selections, five or so are from collections already published, including a lopsided and funny piece by Padget Powell (from Typical) and a strained and serious excerpt from Nanci Kincaid's novel Crossing Blood (p. 419). Lesser-known authors are represented by the often glib and predictable writing-workshop style of Susan Perabo's ""Explaining Death to the Dog,"" about a grieving young mother; Elizabeth Morgan's ""Economics,"" which explores race and sex from a young girl's point of view;, Karen Minton's ""Like Hands on a Cave Wall,"" about a hobo trapped under a house in an Arkansas earthquake; and Dan Leone's deep-imagistic ""You Have Chosen Cake,"" an inconsequential road-story. Mary Ward Brown's ""A New Life"" deals with that old-time religion in a direct and sympathetic (though unbelieving) fashion. Lee Smith and Alison Baker serve up some middlebrow comedy about a small-town girl at a ritzy women's college in Virginia, and again about a happy pair of black Siamese twins. James Burke's excellent ""Texas City, 1947"" draws on elements from his Robicheaux mysteries; Cajun Catholics on the Louisiana bayou deal with death, guilt, and ""the nature of consequence."" And the two most stunning pieces come from old master Peter Taylor and Algonquin's own Larry Brown. Taylor's lengthy ""The Witch of Owl Mountain Springs"" is a deceptively nostalgic tale of romance in the Old South; Brown's ""A Roadside Resurrection"" is southern gothic in the Flannery O'Connor vein, an over-the-top, no-holds-barred tale about a legendary backwoods faith-healer. Despite its regional focus, Ravenel's annual anthology nevertheless manages to reflect a catholicity of taste. No short-story fan should miss it. Review: New stories from the SouthRedaktioneller Bericht - Kirkus ReviewsThe second decade of this fine series begins with a real coup--a story by the King of Southern culture himself: no, not Elvis, but William Faulkner, a previously unpublished story rediscovered by the editor of The Oxford American, itself a bright new addition to the literary scene down home. Ravenel continues to scour magazines big and small for the best by and about the South. It's no great shame that most of her selections pale besides the Master. And Faulkner's ""Rose of Lebanon"" definitely belongs in his canon: A true daughter of the Confederacy--no flighty southern belle--reenacts her vulgar taunts to Yankee marauders years later at a sedate Memphis dinner party. Diminished in comparison are a number of light pieces: J.D. Dolan's ""Mood Music,"" a tale of sunburns and sexual tension in a nuclear family; David Gilbert's ""Cool Moss,"" a satiric look at coal-walking and the failure of positive thinking; and Tim Gautreaux's ""Died and Gone to Vegas,"" a compendium of tall-tales told by Louisiana oil workers. Tom Paine's ""General Markham's Last Stand,"" in which a retiring general humiliates himself in public, is simply unconvincing, but some familiar voices sound loud and strong here. Lee Smith's pointed tale of a retirement home's writing group, ""The Happy Memories Club,"" goes straight to the heart of the fictive enterprise itself. Jill McCorkle's ""Paradise,"" with its contemporary Eve, a southern Baptist girl, and her boyfriend, Adam, a Jewish northerner, gives opportunity for her vintage low humor, with its droll portrait of middle-class vulgarity. Moira Crone's ""Gauguin"" is a fractured advertisement for quirky Louisiana. Particularly haunting are Robert Olen Butler's ""Twilight Zone""-ish fable about a husband reincarnated as a parrot in his wife's home; Ellen Douglas's old-timey account of an old man's death; and Annette Sanford's portrait of a slightly retarded girl who's smarter than her relatives realize. An estimable volume in an estimable--and getting on toward the venerable--series. Review: New Stories from the South 1998: The Year's Best (New Stories from the South)Nutzerbericht - Will - GoodreadsThere is a story in this collection called "The Order of Things" by Nancy Richard, which is really good. Perhaps the rest of the stories are as good? Vollständige Rezension lesen Review: New stories from the SouthNutzerbericht - Cahners Business Information.As quoted by Ellen Douglas in her preface to the 15th anthology in this consistently strong series, a neighbor of Flannery O'Connor once said, "Them stories just gone and shown you how some folks ... Vollständige Rezension lesen Review: New stories from the SouthNutzerbericht - Reed Business Information.Like last year's edition, the 19th installment of this annual showcase of Southern short fiction is exciting but uneven. The collection gets off to a fine start with Pulitzer winner Edward P. Jones ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
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