Downhome: An Anthology - Paperback

A collection of diverse voices and experiences, all springing from a shared legacy: memories of the american South, of being "downhome." Mee introduces each group of stories and then lets the authors reveal aspects of the South from their own female point of view. Introduction by the Author.

Back Jacket

The South - within its diversity of voices and experiences lies "a shared legacy: the act of speech - of stories handed down in which a distinctive language is honored, a language rich in Biblical and regional contexts; the love of place where individuals, relationships, and family histories not only matter but buttress everyday life. Both are part of that rarest and most indispensable groundspring of literature, memory. The memory of being 'Downhome.'" Susie Mee has gathered a wealth of short fiction by southern women who - from their various backgrounds, from their different eras - draw on that shared legacy she describes in her introduction. That memory of "downhome", whether it is used lovingly or ironically, echoes throughout the seven sections here, which range from Growing Up to Kinfolk and Courtship to Passing On, and in the words of these special authors.