Given Ground (Bakeless Prize) [Hardcover]

Ann Pancake (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1584651180 | ISBN-13: 978-1584651185 | Publication Date: July 1, 2001 | Edition: 1st

Short stories explore cultural change and class conflict in contemporary West Virginia.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ann Pancake . . . is indisputably a regional writer, but her stories are free from the kitschy sentimentality and high-art self-consciousness that this label has come to imply. Pancake shares [her characters'] fondness for what ordinarily appears unlovable, depicting an ignored pocket of the country with a clear and admiring eye. She has an unusual gift for portraying difficult lives with a plain-spoken accuracy that makes them seem suddenly exceptional." --New York Times Book Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

5 1/2 x 8 1/2 trim. LC 2001-001472

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Middlebury; 1st edition (July 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584651180
• ISBN-13: 978-1584651185
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,846,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading, August 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Given Ground (Bakeless Prize) (Hardcover)

In _Given Ground_, Ann Pancake offers many things I've been craving (and have not been able to find) in much of recent literature: an honest, original voice; an attention to language which is integrated with the characters and plots of each story; an unpretentious lyricism that goes beyond refusing trends and fads: when reading Pancake’s work, you become unaware that any trends exist. She transcends them that purely. This is writing that will last.

Though I’m tempted to try to comment on each story in _Given Ground_ to do so would take too much space on this page; Pancake packs so much into each story, and each story leans so gracefully into the next. A world slowly unfolds and envelops the reader. I read all but the last story of the book in one sitting, and when I put it down, I had the distinct sense that I had visited another place—and I wanted to go back there again. This is a book I will definitely read more than a few times.

It may be tempting to call Pancake’s writing “regional”; however, that is too limiting for what she does with language, character, and sense of place. In her hands, rural West Virginia becomes simultaneously specific to time and place—and beyond time and place.

This is the first book that has moved me to write a review ..._Given Ground_ is an essential read for anyone seeking the authentic voice that has been missing in much of today’s writing.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stories that will haunt you, August 25, 2001

By 

Gretchen Laskas "Author" (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Given Ground (Bakeless Prize) (Hardcover)

This is a collection of raw yet vibrant stories -- an increasing rarity in a world where the "novel in stories" or the "girl's guide to stories" are the big market sellers. This is a book that should be read slowly, allowing the reader's own emotions to rise and fall with Pancake's stark yet skilled prose. More than once I had to set the book aside, only to be drawn back to a world where often it seems that nothing more can possibly happen -- the flood is over, the baby has died -- but you come away with the feeling that something might happen. That something MUST. I highly recommend this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Southern fiction with nuance., November 17, 2004

By 

Richard L. Pangburn (Bardstown, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Given Ground (Bakeless Prize) (Hardcover)

A thoughtful, literary, collection of stories, with patches of beautiful language, and with insights nuanced so that you have to look for them in the patterns. The author has a gift for understatement, and the reader must fill in what has been left unsaid. All of the stories hang together well, but the lead story, "Ghostless," stands out as one of those southern literary gems that will long haunt me in its ambiguity.