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A review by elaesa
The Black Prince and Other Stories by Shirley Ann Grau
2.0
Like most short story collections, I loved some stories and I hated some stories so it's hard to accurately rate the collection as a whole. The overall rating must then come from what was consistent in each story.
The stories all focus on the American South and various people and families living there. You can feel the underlying class and race divides but they are rarely a major feature which I found interesting. The writing is to the point but does a fine job of building the atmosphere for the reader. At times I felt like I could hear, see, and smell the setting around me. I only wish that more attention had been paid to maintaining this feeling throughout each story as I felt descriptions of place were mostly concentrated in the first few paragraphs.
Some of the stories towards the middle I found to be too short and fairly uneventful. I didn't see the purpose to them except to bulk up the collection by a few pages which would have been better done by adding more descriptions to the stronger stories. I don't think this collection is particularly illuminating of its subject matter but it is a nice read with a feeling of nostalgia that fell just a bit short of my expectations.
The stories all focus on the American South and various people and families living there. You can feel the underlying class and race divides but they are rarely a major feature which I found interesting. The writing is to the point but does a fine job of building the atmosphere for the reader. At times I felt like I could hear, see, and smell the setting around me. I only wish that more attention had been paid to maintaining this feeling throughout each story as I felt descriptions of place were mostly concentrated in the first few paragraphs.
Some of the stories towards the middle I found to be too short and fairly uneventful. I didn't see the purpose to them except to bulk up the collection by a few pages which would have been better done by adding more descriptions to the stronger stories. I don't think this collection is particularly illuminating of its subject matter but it is a nice read with a feeling of nostalgia that fell just a bit short of my expectations.