The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 20 March 2006
by James Alan McPherson
In these twelve short stories, the author demonstrates a dexterity and wit in his writing that is exquisitely pleasurable to read. The stories are funny and wry, often sharp and scathing. All of them are incredibly well-crafted and memorable. McPherson manages to convey an entire American subculture, that of African-American communities that interact and often clash, between the South, northern cities, and the West. It is tempting to suggest that these stories will be relevant to African-American readers in ways that other readers might not detect. However, McPherson puts so much humanity and humor on the page that they make compelling reading across cultural lines.
Indeed, the crossing of cultural lines is often a noticable thread running through the stories. This would, of course, be most obvious in the title story, and last in this collection, which tells of an interracial marriage between a white man from Kansas and a worldly black woman living in San Francisco. Here, McPherson raises troubling questions about understanding between races, but manages to finish on a wryly optimistic note. But the author touches on tensions within the African-American experience, as well. He describes conflicts between rural, and often poor, Southern people and their cultured, urban brethren in Chicago. There's a woman who has to defend herself in court, but is reluctant to rely on the colorful testimony of her enthusiatic neighbor in the face of white justice. And there's the man who, in the opening story, beautifully and sweetly, defends his love for country and western music. McPherson seems a fearless skeptic, but one given to gentleness as well as ascerbic wit. These stories are well-balanced and beautifully written. The author was obviously at the height of his craft. Highly recommended.
(For this collection, McPherson was awarded the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.)