Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver

1 review

thecriticalreader's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

Whoever chose the cover art for the US edition of Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver did an amazing job: the art is not only stunning, but it perfectly reflects the feelings evoked by this collection of short stories. On the cover, two glamorous and attractive Black people collapse on the sofa as if utterly exhausted, their facial expressions almost shell-shocked. Oliver’s stories, written in the 1960s, capture the everyday heaviness and hardship that came from merely existing as a Black American in the Jim Crow era. The majority of stories take place from the perspective of Black women from various locales and class backgrounds. No matter the woman’s particular situation in life—rich, poor, Southern, Northern, young, old, etc.—they face undue peril and adversity in ordinary circumstances. For instance, in “Closet in the Top Floor,” Oliver depicts the unraveling of a freshman who is the only Black student at her Southern girl’s college, driven to increasingly obsessive-compulsive and self-isolating behaviors as a result of her intense alienation. In “Health Service” and “Traffic Jam,” a woman with five children struggles to keep afloat in the face of dire poverty and an unreliable partner. Additionally, stories such as “Neighbors” and “Before Twilight” will remind modern audiences that the individuals who put their lives on the line to protest Jim Crow segregation were not fearless figures of historical myth, but ordinary people who had to contend with terror, confusion, and doubt. Oliver’s evocation of dread and terror is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s style of horror in the mundane, but her work is rendered all the more horrific in its realism. 
 
Many of the stories in this collection are fairly straightforward with clear messages, but others favor nuance or experimentation. “Spiders Cry Without Tears,” which features the perspective of a white Southern widow who enters into an ill-defined relationship with a married light-skinned Black doctor, demonstrates Oliver’s grasp of how the lines between the oppressor and the oppressed can blur. “Frozen Voices,” an overly long experimental piece that plays with repeated sentences and impressionistic imagery, proves less compelling, but it does feature some of the more poetic writing in the collection.
 
TL;DR: Although the collection Neighbors and Other Stories was published about sixty years after the premature death of its author, it’s still a collection that warrants the attention and praise of modern audiences in its evocation of everyday hardships and horrors of life for Black Americans in mid-century America.
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