Daughters of Muscadine: Stories

by Monic Ductan

Two events tie together the nine stories in Monic Ductan's gorgeous the 1920s lynching of Ida Pearl Crawley and the 1980s drowning of a high school basketball player, Lucy Boudreaux. Both forever shape the people and the place of Muscadine, Georgia, in the foothills of Appalachia. 

The daughters of Muscadine are Black southern women who are, at times, outcasts due to their race and are also estranged from those they love. A remorseful woman tries to connect with the child she gave up for adoption; another, immersed in loneliness, attempts to connect with a violent felon. Two sisters love each other deeply even when they cannot understand one another. A little girl witnessing her father's slow death realizes her own power and lack thereof. A single woman weathers the excitement—and rigors—of online dating.

Covering the last one hundred years, these are stories of people whose voices have been suppressed and erased for too Black women, rural women, Appalachian women, and working-class women. Ductan presents the extraordinary nature of everyday lives in the tradition of Alice Walker, Deesha Philyaw, James McBride, and Dorothy Allison in an engaging, engrossing, and exciting new voice.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Historical Fiction

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2023

Reviews

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of interconnected short stories. Each one was complete and satisfying but still left the reader more of this world. These Black women of Muscadine are strong and flawed as they live, love and suffer. In other words, so relatable and human.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich, interwoven stories of the Deep South focused on family, community, and expectations. The Sense of Touch and Daughter were my favorite, but each story in the collection added another branch of lived experience to the family tree, including some ghostly ancestors. Highly recommend

[Phyllis | Mocha Drop · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a wonderful collection of kindred stories set in a small, rural town of Muscadine, Georgia. These tales are woven into the maternal fabric of the community and glimpses into the lives, deaths, loves, wins, and losses of its Black mothers, daughters, wives, and sisters.

The opening story Black Water sets the stage for generational curses and we see these characters appear in later stories in the book - each struggling with the aftereffects experienced in the first story. Gris-Gris deals with the sudden and unexpected loss of a friend and with it the dashed hopes, dreams, and promises that a collegiate scholarship can offer. In Kasha and Ansley, despite being orphans, the sisters are polar opposites and struggle to understand themselves and each other. Gullah Babies hones in on the country-folks’ otherness, earthiness and the scorn from city-folk that enforces their comfort and peace in isolation. In Daughter, old regrets and guilt surrounding an adoption surface when a woman attempts to connect with the child she gave away. In The Sense of Touch, a widowed, middle-aged woman attempts to stave off depression and loneliness via online dating during the pandemic (and all the challenges it brings).

I sense there are some aspects that most young girls and women can relate to – but these stories are dipped in Southern culture and experiences that add a special kind of “seasoning” to the collection. My personal nit with short stories is I find myself wanting to know more about the characters and the same rings true here: I wanted a bit more closure. It’s my issue and doesn’t take away from this solid offering.

Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for an opportunity to review.

[Ashley Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I need to preface this by saying it took me way longer to finish this book than I would have liked, but not because of the book itself. I guess it was just such a hectic time of year when I began reading; I kept putting it on the back burner. Given the right timing, I think I could have easily devoured these stories in a day. However, taking them slow and reading them basically 1 or 2 at a time was also satisfying.

The magic in these stories for me was their everyday-ness. In most of them, we get a snapshot story of the characters’ lives covering a fairly small span of time. Ductan does this so masterfully. The details of the day to day life for the daughters of Muscadine (who were Black women from a rural town in Appalachian Georgia) were what stole my heart and made me love each story, even when they were hard or a little ugly. This was not a “happy endings tied up with a bow” collection. And that’s real.

Ductan also didn’t overstate the connections between the characters, which I enjoyed. Several times, I flipped back to previous stories to figure out the timeline or who was connected how. Each story was complete and could stand alone, but also left me wanting more at every ending. I can’t think of a reason not to give this one 5 stars.

[Marlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Daughters of Muscadine is another book that got derailed by that question of who is “I”. These are linked short stories, all taking place in a small town in northeast Georgia that is part of the Appalachian Region. The stories are linked by two events, the lynching of Pearl Crawley in 1920, and the drowning of Lucy Boudreaux in the 1980s. Both stories are told by one of Pearl’s descendants, as Pearl still haunts the area decades after her death.

The idea that all of the stories in this collection are linked into a sort-of novel is an interesting one, but the execution of that idea fell apart at “I”. Many of the stories are told in that first-person “I” voice, but the possessor of that “I” changes from story to story without explanation. So they didn’t link the way I (there’s that “I” again) expected. Or much at all.

Escape Rating D+: I shouldn’t have picked this up right now, because it won’t be published until November. But more than half of the short stories in this linked collection have been previously published so I don’t feel as bad about that as I otherwise might. But I got lost, over and over, because the speakers seemed to change without much warning and just didn’t link into a whole. I think this just needed something it didn’t have in the way of an introduction to each story to set them into the narrative as a whole. The description in the blurb was awesome, but the book unfortunately did not live up to it.

My two cents and your reading mileage may vary.

Originally published at Reading Reality

[Eel · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Two events tie together the nine stories… The 1920s lynching of Ida Pearl Crawley and the 1980s drowning of a high school basketball player, Lucy Boudreaux.” Except they aren’t tied together. The stories are published in a ton of different places according to the acknowledgements and don’t seem to go together at all. Not only that, but they’re full of icky sexual stuff?? P55 was the most repulsive.

My biggest problem was actually how boring these stories are. Usually short stories have punchy endings, but these seem to end randomly with no impactful last line. It was incredibly unsatisfying. Even if the stories aren’t connected well, there should have been a clear moral of the story or ANYTHING besides candid BBQ’s and helping people move. It’s just utterly lacking.

[Nelda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short story collections are usually uneven, with some leaving you puzzled or flat. Not these. All of them resonated or satisfied in some way. All the stories are tied together by the deaths of two women, sixty years apart, but also by place (Muscadine, Georgia) and its people. Of course, I had favorites. "June's Menorah" is about a child's fear of change and how a book, Anne Frank's Diary, can change one's perspective. "White Jesus" is about a Black-White friendship that goes very, very bad. Joy and sadness pervade "Gullah Babies" in a North-South relationship gone awry and in learning to accept who you are and who is meant for you.

Nicely done. If you've gone off short stories, try this one. It will restore your faith in the genre.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories that are tied together by a place called Muscadine, Georgia, and the women who live there. I enjoyed how some characters made repeat appearances in different stories and how their lives and connections were woven together. The main characters are all struggling with some turmoil and trying to overcome challenges. I also think the cover is gorgeous. Sometimes I felt the stories were a bit scrambled from one train of thought to the next but overall I liked the book and the creativity of stories. Thank you @NetGalley and Fireside Industries for an ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

[Marquitta Harlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Daughters of Muscadine" by Monica Ductan offers a captivating exploration of women's lives in a small community. The collection of short stories resonated with me, providing a relatable glimpse into the experiences of these women. Ductan skillfully gives voice to the girls of small towns in the south, offering a great representation of the challenges and triumphs that characterize life in such close-knit communities. A compelling read that beautifully captures the essence of women's lives in smaller towns.

[D.A. Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing collection of stories centered around the complex lives in and around Muscadine. Filled with relatable characters, Ductan's stories touch on just about every emotional register - human stories that are at times painful to witness yet accompanied by remarkable resilience. I've had the pleasure of reading Ductan's work in journals - so it has been great seeing some of them gathered in book form - and they did not disappoint.

[Melissa Helton · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it's difficult for me to read short story collections (because as soon as you get into one story's characters and plot, it ends and you have to switch), this was a good read. Having the stories linked in small ways (mention of a previous character) or big ways (being in the same town or having shared history) helped ease the shock from piece to piece. It was great to read stories of rural Black women and families. And what a gorgeous cover!

[Rhonda McKnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

An immersive Southern experience. 3.75 stars

Daughters of Muscadine is a collection of interconnected stories set in a small, rural town of Muscadine, Georgia. Each story is of Black mother, daughter, sister, or wife. All the women were grappling with various aspects of life to include death, grief, poverty and sometimes love and success.

I liked the format. Certainly enjoyed the read.

[Shrirex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t expecting to be as moved as I was reading this. I absolutely loved Ductan’s writing and her exploration of religion and family dynamics within her interconnected stories, which was a welcome surprise. There isn’t a storyline or grand resolution, just an exquisite inquiry into human connections and needs.

[Autumn Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of stories.
These stories show you the complexities of small town southern life through the African American lens.
The tales are well paced and get you right to the heart of its characters and their lives. I look forward to reading these again in the future.

My favorite stories in no particular order:
Daughter
Kasha and Ansley
Gullah Babies
White Jesus

[Azariah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book with amazing interconnected stories! It took me a while to read this book. I would borrow the book, try to read it, then return it. However, once I truly sat with the book, I loved how every story was connected by one place and/or one person. It was like reading a different adventure in every story, filled with different complex themes.

[kare :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed how the stories connected to each other and the drawl of all the characters. a fast read but full of so many emotions and complex characters. definitely recommend if you like short story collections that are also connected to one another.

[Lexi · Rating 3 out of 5]

i found it hard to connect all the stories and i think in my effort to find the connections, beyond the setting, i got distracted.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolutely beautiful book! The humanity within these pages is awe inspiring, I loved it.

[maka · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this collection. through all of these interconnected stories were beautiful tales of real life. some hurt, some made you feel for the characters and experience their loss and regrets, but they were all REAL. i think that’s what i liked the most about the book was the believability of the characters and their situations, despite how different each story was