Regional American Anthologies, Family & Friendship - Fiction

Downhome

Name: Downhome
Author: Mee
ISBN: 9780156001212

by Mee (Editor), Susie Mee

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Overview

A collection of diverse voices and experiences, all springing from a shared legacy: memories of the american South, of being “downhome.” Mee introduces each group of stories and then lets the authors reveal aspects of the South from their own female point of view. Introduction by the Author.

Downhome speaks through the fiction of these Southern women writers, whether it is embraced or used ironically. Combining 21 stories into seven sections, Mee introduces each group of stories and then lets the authors reveal aspects of the South from their own female point of view. Contributors include Eudora Welty, Nora Zeale Hurston, Doris Betts, Elizabeth Cox and many others.

Synopsis

Publishers Weekly

As the number of regional and thematic anthologies swells to meet academic and general demand, it also threatens any sense of a cumulative American literature. Only a rare editor of Mee's talents can pull together such an exclusive collection of stories and render them inclusive in their broader human concerns. Featuring work by such contemporary Southern celebrities as Ellen Gilchrist, Lee Smith, Bobbie Ann Mason and Dorothy Allison, and such established icons as Zora Neale Huston, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne Porter and Flannery O'Connor, Mee's collection shines a light on the concerns of women born and raised below the Mason-Dixon line. Using seven thematic sections which address ``The Pleasures and Miseries of Marriage'' or ``Settings, Customs, and Artifacts,'' Mee reveals how experience tends toward a certain commonality that transcends time, race, and religion when the land itself seems to keep a grip on its history. ``Full voice, all out, late evening gospel music filled the car and shocked passing traffic,'' says the narrator of Allison's ``Gospel Song.'' The same could be said for Downhome, except Mee (The Girl Who Loved Elvis) hasn't constructed her chorus of voices to strike up a mystical religious fervor. Instead, these stories haunt the reader with their intimacy, their language, and their keen eye for the telling detail. (Oct.)

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Library Journal

In Southern Women's Writing, editors Weaks (English, Rockford Coll.) and Perry (English, Westminster Coll.) have compiled an exceptional collection of writings by women who have lived and are living in the American South. Both black and white writers are represented and all share, and are divided by, a common heritage of racism, gender bias, and social stratification. Drawing on letters, journal entries, essays, poems, and fictional pieces, the compilers trace the evolution of the Southern feminine point of view from the early 18th century to the late 20th century. The first writer featured, Eliza Lucas Pinckney, was born in 1772, and, the last, Leigh Allison Wilson, in 1959. Because of its richness and accessibility, the anthology will probably become a standard text in college courses in American Southern literature and women's studies, making it essential for all academic libraries and enthusiastically recommended for all others. Downhome contains 21 previously published short stories by contemporary Southern female writers. Eight of the writers are included in the Weaks-Perry anthologyKatherine Anne Porter, Zora Neale Hurston, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Doris Betts, Bobbie Ann Mason, Alice Walker, and Ellen Gilchristbut only one selection, Bobbie Ann Mason's "Shiloh," appears in both books. Brief paragraphs at the end of the book identify the authors, though editor Mee (fiction, NYU) strains to make her points about a "shared legacy" and "distinctive language." The stories trace the life cycle from "Growing Up" to "The Pleasures and Miseries of Marriage" to "Passing On." Although this is a good group of stories, as a whole the collection is not unique and not as rigorously researched as Southern Women's Writing. Recommended for popular literature collections in libraries lacking the writers covered.Carol A. McAllister, Coll. of William and Mary Lib., Williamsburg, Va.

School Library Journal

YA-A powerful collection of short stories by Southern female writers, from Eudora Welty and Zora Neale Hurston to Ellen Gilchrist and Dorothy Allison. Written in a time period spanning several decades, the selections reflect the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of Southern life. They also tap into the darker side of Southern life. They deal with the superficial roles women are expected to play as they hide their problems behind social niceties; the racial tensions of blacks and whites co-existing in a society of inequities and accepted myths; the nuances of the ``caste system'' that dominate social interactions; and the taboos and inhibitions associated with sexual behaviors. The female characters engage in courtships, marry, and experience happiness or despair in their relationships. They find solace or bondage in their religion, and finally deal with death. The unifying theme, however, is the sense of place, of belonging to something larger than self, of ``downhome.'' Mee prefaces each of these thematic sections with an analysis of its central theme and brief comments on the stories found in the section, resulting in a somewhat academic tone.-Glenda Decker, Lee High School, Springfield, VA