Ancestors and Others
New and Selected Stories
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Ancestors and Others collects selected stories from the legendary southern writer, Fred Chappell
In this collection, Fred Chappell shows his mastery across a range of genres. Featuring folk fables in the Twain tradition, realistic stories of growing up in remote Appalachia, stories of family, kin, and community, and tales of the fantastic and spooky, this book will delight fans and surprise new readers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chappell's newest culls from a lengthy, productive career; the result, a broad, richly textured anthology that exquisitely captures the author's contribution to Southern literature. The title story is classic Chappell: as a North Carolina couple is visited by laboratory-resurrected Civil War veteran forefathers, elements of Southern culture are explored through fantastic plot twists. This supernatural streak runs throughout, illuminating subjects as diverse as family, astronomy, gender and deer hunting. Sometimes the extraordinary is rendered subtly, as in "Duet," where a bereaved man learns to express himself musically following the death of a friend. Sometimes the magic comes intensely to the forefront, as in "Linnaeus Forgets," where the "father of botany" is visited by tiny flying people. Sometimes, as with "The Three Boxes," Chappell's writing becomes more thought experiment than fiction and his style succumbs to the weight of allegory. At its best, however, Chappell's careful, evocative prose surprises with the quiet power of its descriptions.
