Small Caucasian Woman: Stories

By Elaine Fowler Palencia

Book Overview

" Some people are born to gossip; some people achieve mastery of it through hard work; and some have gossiping thrust upon them, by being in the right place at the right time. " Set in the backcountry... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826209432
• ISBN13: 9780826209436
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: University of Missouri Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 14 to 10 years
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 5

Customer Reviews

It was one of the most engaging I've ever read.

I scoffed at the title when I first saw it, but when my friend lent it to me, I couldn't separate myself from it. The stories and characters are better than fiction. The human dramas and strength evidenced by the women in this Appalachian town are beautifully and powerfully written about by Palencia. The stories are from women of all age groups which should offer wide appeal. I'm ordering this book today for my library and I can't wait to booktalk it.

I enjoyed this story-cycle enormously. Read it!

The eighteen stories in here (and I assume the prologue by the librarian is as fictional as any of the other stories) were completely engaging. I loved the way characters appear as stars in their own stories and then reappear in the background of others. This is so much like earlier stories in US lit -- Zona Gale, Helen Reimensnyder Martin, Margaret Deland, Elsie Singmaster, Olive Dargon, etc. The synechdotal rendering of entire communities is a genre that has always given me great pleasure. It reinforces the reality of our inter-connedtedness without minimizing our uniqueness. And the writing is absolutely wonderful. I'd like to hear what others think about the book and I'd love to read comments from the writer herself.