Strange Business

by Rilla Askew

Lyla Mae Muncy meets her first love at Falls Creek Baptist Assembly Summer Bible Church Camp—and regrets it on their awkward first date. After years of being nagged about lumpy gravy, abused wife Lois pulls out a shotgun to wrap up breakfast her way. In a tender moment, an old man speaks from beyond the grave about his wife’s final goodbye at his funeral. Experience, memory, and town-consciousness bind this collection of ten stories spanning twenty-five years in fictitious Cedar, Oklahoma. From the fears and discoveries of childhood, through the revelations of adolescence, into the troubled years of adulthood and decline into old age and death, Rilla Askew uncannily makes each of her characters’ experiences our own.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Rilla Askew's newest novel, PRIZE FOR THE FIRE, is about the 16th century English martyr Anne Askew. Rilla Askew received a 2009 Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her first novel, THE MERCY SEAT, was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Dublin IMPAC Prize, was a Boston Globe Notable Book, and received the Oklahoma Book Award and the Western Heritage Award in 1998. Her acclaimed novel about the Tulsa Race Massacre, FIRE IN BEULAH, received the American Book Award and the Myers Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. She was a 2004 fellow at Civiella Ranieri in Umbertide, Italy, and in 2008 her novel HARPSONG received the Oklahoma Book Award, the Western Heritage Award, the WILLA Award from Women Writing the West, and the Violet Crown Award from the Writers League of Texas. Askew received the 2011 Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book. Her novel KIND OF KIN deals with state immigration laws and was a finalist for the Western Spur Award, the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, and was long-listed for the Dublin IMPAC Prize. Her most recent book is a collection of creative nonfiction MOST AMERICAN: Notes From A Wounded Place. Kirkus Reviews calls Most American "An eloquently thoughtful memoir in essays." In nine linked works of creative nonfiction, Askew spotlights the complex history of her home state. From the Trail of Tears to the Tulsa Race Riot to the Murrah Federal Building bombing, Oklahoma appears as a microcosm of our national saga. Yet no matter our location, Askew argues, we must own the whole truth of our history if the wounds of division that separate us are ever to heal.

"Five generations of Rilla Askew's family have occupied southeastern Oklahoma. Celebrating this birthright, she has concocted of it her own Faulknerian kingdom. Askew is writing a mythic cycle, novels and stories that unsettle our view of the West's settling. In a continuous fictional mural populated with hardscrabble souls - credible, noble and flawed - Askew is completing the uncompleted crossing of the plains. Trusting prose that is disciplined, luxuriant and muscular, she is forging a chronicle as humane as it is elemental."

Allan Gurganus
May 20, 2009
American Academy of Arts and Letters

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written book. A series of short stories, no connection but the town they occur in, sometimes a character mentioned in one is the main spotlight in another, but not always, different chapters are different years, spanning 100 years from the late 1800's to the 1980's. They say an author needs to write about what they know, but this one wrote so many different perspectives you just know that can't be true in this case. I don't know, I enjoyed it, life sure is strange business.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what to think of this book. Some of the stories made me laugh, some cry, and some are downright disturbing. I think I will have to read this collection again in a couple years to really know what I think about it. I debated between 3 and 4 stars, maybe the second read will bump it up to 4.

[Denny Sexton]

Wow. It's Rilla Askew-- characters I somehow grew up with but with a different set of life-lenses. Rilla is a slow read so as to be able to savor and think.

[Anneliese · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a book written like this before. It was very unique and cool to read

[Kris Lackey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange Business is a neglected masterpiece. Subtle and patient and electric, start to finish. There is no slack in any of the tales. An insider's voice, no prole condescension. The characters' fear and pain cross and recross, their dilemmas sometimes finding sympathy from others, but more often not. This book is in my fiery pantheon.

[CullenWhisenhunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A prime example of contemporary OK Lit, Askew's Strange Business perfectly encapsulates small-town, rural Oklahoma. Being from rural OK myself, I can't count how many of these characters I've met in my own life, how often I've come in contact with the scenery and scenarios. My favorite story by far is "In the Town of Ramona," whose Falls Creek references and precisely sketched (if one dimensional) side characters strike me as truly authentic. Another that hit home was the title story, a poignant look at those decrepit and forgotten members of the rural working class. This tale emphasizes the real beauty of this collection--a stark realism that pervades each scene. Great stuff.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful, loosely linked short story collection centered on the fictional town of Cedar, Oklahoma, and offering glimpses of life there from childhood to old age: from the experiences of a young girl frightened by her strange neighbor to the waning consciousness of an elderly auction-barn owner. The characters are richly drawn, the dialogue spot-on, the total effect invigorating and moving.

[Christine Meadows · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed all of Rilla Askew's novels, especially "Fire in Beulah," but this short story collection is a real gem. The stories are loosely connected, mostly around a place, with some crossover of characters. The characters are people i feel like I could've known growing up in small town Oklahoma. The storytelling in this collection is top notch.