Downhome Book

I read this book slowly, a bit and a story at a time over the course of the last year. Out of 21 stories, 7 were excellent, and that's good enough for me. I don't mind skipping over the slower ones, and I don't feel guilty for it, either. Some of my favorites I'd read before, but not for a long time: Zora Neale Hurston's "Isis," Alice Walker's "Everyday Use." I'll never get over Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People," which doesn't have a single unnecessary word, and Dorothy Allison's "Gospel Song" will ruin me every time. There's a passage in there that explains two out of the three times I was born again. But Doris Betts' "The Ugliest Pilgrim" was a discovery and a delight, and I'll go looking for more by her. It reminded me of Flannery O'Connor's dark earnest humor. Elizabeth Seydel Morgan's "Economics" was very good. And ending the anthology with Elizabeth Cox's "The Third of July" was the stroke that made me sob into my pillow and fall asleep with the book in my arms. Highly recommended.