Reviewed by Allen Mendenhall With so many journals and genres available today, the dependable reviewer has a duty to warn off the noble optimists and advise the faint-hearted when a book is not for them. Obligation thus requires that I caution readers: Gilbert Allen’s The Final Days of Great American Shopping, a collection of short […]
“The Final Days of Great American Shopping,” by Gilbert Allen
Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Allen Mendenhall, Furman University, Gilbert Allen, Short Stories, The Final Days of Great American Shopping, University of South Carolina Press
“Soon,” by Pam Durban
Reviewed by Dan Sundahl Came a time I drove into old man Engebretson’s farm yard, late 1950s, southern Minnesota. It was a good bright day with a light sugary coating of snow on the ground. The old man had a 40-acre duck pond on his farm and corn rows to walk, ducks and pheasants in […]
Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Daniel Sundahl, Pam Durban, Short Stories, The University of South Carolina Press
Pinckney Benedict’s Miracle Boy and Other Stories
Click to Order Pinckney Benedict’s third collection of stories, Miracle Boy and other Stories, fearlessly merges Benedict’s well-established literary style with a darker, more “popular” approach to storytelling. Born to a family of West Virginia dairy farmers, and a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, Benedict burst onto the literary fiction scene in 1987 with […]
Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Andrew McFadyen-Ket, Fiction, Miracle Boy and Other Stories, Pinckney Benedict, Short Stories
Ugly to Start With, by John Michael Cummings
Ugly to Start With By John Michael Cummings Reviewed by Niles Reddick On the heels of his Paterson Prize-winning novel The Night I Freed John Brown, John Michael Cummings has offered fans another look at the historical and picturesque Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in his new collection Ugly to Start With. […]
Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Fiction, John Michael Cummings, Niles Reddick, Short Stories, Ugly to Start With
Three Must-Read Short Story Collections
Tired of buying electronics or golf gadgets for Father’s Day. Hook your father figure up with a sweet read this month instead. Even if the men in your life don’t have the attention span for a novel or memoir, they will enjoy these powerful literary shorts…but old and new. Warning: These are so good, you might […]
Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Adam Ross, Louisiana, M.O. Walsh, Mark Richard, Must Read, Short Stories, Tennessee
Small Displacements Nails Turning Points in Characters’ Lives
Click to Buy Small Displacements Review by Donna Meredith When I was given Vanessa Furse Jackson’s short story collection Small Displacements, I almost sent it back. I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t often warm up to short stories the way I do to novels, perhaps because I don’t get to spend enough time […]
Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Fiction, Short Stories, Small Displacements, Texas, Vanessa Furse Jackson