Customer Reviews

The Cry of an Occasion: Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers

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Anthologies are like boxes of chocolates: some pieces are good, some are excellent, some you might bite and put back, and some just do not interest you. Some pieces appeal to everyone, some do not. The piece that one person rejects may be another's favorite. However, if you are going to find those pieces that suit your taste just right, you must buy the whole box. "The Cry of an Occasion" is just such an assortment, containing work by nineteen writers, all southern. Not every piece will interest every reader equally, but there will probably be a delicious handful for each.

As might be expected of a "southern" anthology, religion, family, sense of place and race are themes that weave through the various stories; however, while some themes may be regional, the scope and treatment of these themes are universal.

"The Encyclopedia Daniel" by Fred Chappell is an odd little story with an Edgar Allen Poe twist. "Feeling Good, Feeling Fine" is a by George Garrett is a quick, broad-stroked vignette of a southern institution - the family relation who isn't quite right. "Sim Denny" is a painful story about an elderly black man who first attempts, unsuccessfully, to ignore the civil rights movement, and then attempts, equally unsuccessfully, to join it. My personal favorite is William Hoffman's examination of family dysfunction, "The Secret Garden" - a tale whose several narrators offer their observations about the central character, while revealing their own roles as enablers.

Such is the variety of this sampler, there should not be any reader who does not find at least several pieces to satisfy his interests.