Going Through the Change: Stories [Hardcover]

Janice Daugharty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994

A collection of stories concern the dramatic lives of a diverse group of characters in Southern Georgia, including a wealthy landowner who learns the value of human beings and a pair of sisters who are the objects of racism. IP.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Daugharty ( Dark of the Moon ) loosely links the 14 strong stories in this collection with frequent references to "the change," or menopause. She doesn't profile stereotypical all-American mothers with college-age kids and libraries of self-help books, though; her characters invariably challenge conventional takes on the midlife crisis. Residents of south Georgia near the Okefenokee Swamp, Daugherty's principals include people of all ages: the 52-year-old woman who literally wrestles with an "old cheerleader" type at a bar ("You're No Angel Yourself"); a grandmotherly babysitter left in charge of an infant boy by neglectful parents ("Looking to Miss Sara"); a 45-year-old woman whose lesbianism so angers her 82-year-old father that he provokes a fistfight with her ("Nightshade"). More than a hint of gothic oddness pervades these tales, as in "Dogs in a Pack," in which a single mother and her teenage daughters apprehend two would-be rapists at gunpoint, and "Shorn Glory," in which a drunken man cuts the flaxen hair of angelic 10-year-old triplets--an action that implies threat but provides the formerly identical girls with individual looks. Elsewhere as well, Daugharty strongly suggests impending danger but veers from actual tragedy: a hitchhiker walks away from his backwoods kidnappers in the title story, and elderly protagonists tend to recover from the brink of heart attacks or strokes. Dramatic, even perverse buildups and often striking prose make these stories compelling; cautious conclusions leave them just shy of memorable.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Southern authors often mine their own backyards, writing about locals whom readers might characterize as poor white trash. The temptation to craft stories like William Faulkner's or Flannery O'Connor's is a worthy goal, but one that hardly anyone attains. The pieces in this collection all begin with great promise. Almost immediately, there is an undercurrent of pending violence as mostly male characters follow their visceral feelings, which range from mean to downright ornery. In the end, however, only "Last Man In" and "Making Beliefs" succeed in reaching believable denouements that pack a wallop. The rest of the stories fall short, unraveling in flat endings that usually depict life as it actually is but nevertheless disappoint the reader's expectation of an epiphany. In addition, the endless succession of ill-educated poor folks results in monolithic stories that seem repetitive by the end of the book. Only for comprehensive collections.
Olivia Opello, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Ontario Review Press; First Edition edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865380813
• ISBN-13: 978-0865380813
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,771,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

See www.janicedaugharty.com for sample writings and more on me.

One morning, I expect to wake up to breakfast in bed--served by Amazon/Kindle. They do everything else for authors with more and more happening all the time.

I've been writing for about thirty years but publishing only about twenty years. Slow starter, that's me! Now, in my later years, I find myself having to ostensibly start over: I'm trying to find my way in a virtual publishing world, after so many years of print publishing only. If I thought my little place was isolated before, it's even more isolated now that I'm tied to my computer. I like it though, very much. I especailly like the freedom of quick, uncomplicated publishing through Kindle on Amazon. Compare having to mail copies of manuscripts to an agent, waiting, waiting, waiting for her to get back to me, then waiting again for some editor to accept or reject one of my novels, so on and so forth. You get the picture. Lately I've been clicking on to the digital platform and uploading precious manuscripts--most written during those other long waits--that I thought I'd never see in print.

Thankfully, I now have a print publisher too--Belle Bridge Books--who has done an amazing job with my last two novels. Both best-sellers in the Kindle Store! The titles are "The Little Known" and "Heir To The Everlasting." We're hoping soon to add the prequel to "Heir..." in ebook format. My e-novel,"A Righteous Wind," is briefly posted for free on Kindle, with almost 15,000 downloads in the US alone (for more titles by Janice Daugharty, see my author's page--almost 100 novels, short stories and essays to pick from).

I write a lot; I write too much, maybe. But now I'm glad I've spent all those hours writing. I'm an excellent typist too.

See my old typewriter with a spool ribbon I used to have to manually re-ink at Valdosta State University archives, Odum Library. Love my fans, Janice Daugharty, writer in residence at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College, in Tifton, Georgia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Woderful collection!, May 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Going Through the Change: Stories (Hardcover)

Daugharty's collection of short stories is fantastic. Her writing style is truely unique. Each story moves the reader and allows them the experience of life in the south.