Meredith Sue Willis’s Out of the Mountains is a collection of thirteen short stories set in contemporary Appalachia. Firmly grounded in place, the stories voyage out into the conflicting cultural identities that native Appalachians experience as they balance mainstream and mountain identities.Willis’s
Meredith Sue Willis is the author of more than fifteen books,
including novels for adults and children, collections of short
stories, and nonfiction about the art of writing, most recently Ten
Strategies to Write Your Novel. She teaches novel writing at New
York University’s School of Continuing and Professional
Studies.
www.meredithsuewillis.com
“Appalachian stories need not feature ‘a granny woman’ and be set
in the past. Out of the Mountains: Appalachian Stories by West
Virginia native Meredith Sue Willis is a collection to prove the
point. It's (twelve) stories are set in the milieu of the 21st
century and explore current issues familiar not to just
Appalachians but to contemporary readers everywhere. Her timely
stories ring true and are often humorous.… She is one of the true
voices of Appalachia in print today.”
*West Virginia Book Festival: The Blog*
“(Willis’s) characters possess a conversational familiarity, and
the reader feels absorbed into the small community that is both
distinctly Appalachian and markedly universal. This finely crafted
collection is worth reading twice to discover all its intricacies
and connections.”
*Booklist*
“I love this collection because it is not just about the rich, full
heritage of the Appalachian past, but about how contemporary people
from the mountains deal with moving out or moving on.… The stories
from Out of the Mountainsmake me wish I knew these people; I
probably do.”
*“Around Cincinnati,” WVXU*
“Character-driven and contemporary, the stories mirror situations
we know.… As a writer (Willis) uses the imagination of her heart to
explore her cultural heritage from many vantage points.”
*Now and Then: The Appalachian Magazine*
“Pick up this book and read it a story at a time. Meet Willis’
people and understand the issues they face. You won’t be the same
after you do.”
*The Advocate (Baton Rouge)*
“Meredith Sue Willis writes sparkling, masterful stories, grounded
in the wisdom of place, musical in their voices and cadences, and
truly joyful in their understanding of the power of words. Reader,
enter in!”
“In Out of the Mountains, Meredith Sue Willis gives her characters
the juice of life. Some turn up in more than one story, prompting
the pleasure of recognition. Willis writes about people from
Appalachia’s West Virginia corner, where she herself comes from,
and about people from New York, where she lives now, with a
smattering of folks from elsewhere. They’re all alive on the
page.…Grade: A-”
*CityBeat (Cincinnati)*
“What does connect the stories is a sense of displacement and
restlessness—insiders who leave the mountains to live elsewhere and
outsiders who come to the mountains. There’s a tension between
belonging and not belonging, of insider vs. outsider, of rural vs.
urban, of traditional customs vs. new ways.”
*In This Light blog*
“The words have a precision to them, swift and clear and vivid,
infinitely correct brush strokes that make tiny adjustments to the
color of the story. And there is not a wasted word. You think you
aren’t reading about Appalachia, but you are. Without your knowing,
Meredith Sue Willis paints Appalachia on your heart.”
“The Appalachian stories in Meredith Sue Willis’s Out of the
Mountains are lively, funny, and, in good mountain tradition,
sometimes a little bizarre. Willis uses her characters to show the
ways people work out the conflict between what they desire and what
they get. Alert to the edgy personal and political tensions between
ambition and reward, between longing and satisfaction, these
stories offer up essential human conflicts wisely and with a lot of
heart.”
“You wish you knew the people who inhabit the stories of Meredith
Sue Willis. In fact, you do know them! And Willis’s scope, from
Emma Goldman to a dying West Virginian who drives his truck into a
New England lake, is breathtaking.”
“These stories are memorable and moving. Meredith Sue is so adept
at capturing the fine points of Appalachian culture, and she’s
especially good at depicting culture clashes and the difficulties
of native Appalachians who try to balance both mainstream and
mountain identities. The contrasts between rural Appalachian and
urban Jewish cultures are depicted very vividly in ‘Elvissa Did Not
Become a Rabbi.’ The conflict between family loyalty and
church-sanctioned homophobia was wonderfully portrayed in
‘Fellowship of Kindred Minds.’ Even in ‘Big Boss Is Back,’ Meredith
Sue examines the cultural contrast between long-time natives of the
region and newcomers. I actually taught this story in my graduate
fiction workshop, and several of the students commented on the
superb metaphor Meredith Sue uses when she says that ‘what Dr. and
Mrs. Siefert were putting down was less like roots and more like
the little feet English ivy uses to hang onto bricks.’”
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
