Sweet Hollow: Stories

by Lou V. Crabtree

Sweet Hollow tells of life in the hills of Appalachia some fifty years ago, a primal world of craggy hills and tangled forests where good and evil, charity and malice exist in their purest forms. If the pleasures of men, women, and children in these seven stories are simple, the ills and misfortunes that beset them are equally forthright and undiluted. There is beauty in the ridges and ponds, and grace in the flights of birds overhead; but nature also bestows lessons of cruelty and can, without warning, turn tormentor. There is magic and holiness in these hills, but there is also witchcraft and the hoofprint of the devil.

Lou Crabtree portrays this world in all its rugged complexity, writing of the games of its children and the struggles of its adults, the wiles of its predators and the contentment of its livestock. In "Little Jesus" she tells of the roamings of a group of children and of the one fatherless boy among them who is the innocent victim of their jokes and scourgings. "Wild John" is the story of a hellfire preacher's attempts to understand the actions of his vengeful, seemingly hellbent son. "Holy Spirit" tells of the life of Old Rellar, a woman who, cruelly mistreated by her husband, is left to expend her gift of pure, selfless love on the buried bodies of her thirteen miscarriages and on the motherless calf and piglet that she nurses back to health. And "Homer-Snake" describes the affection of a solitary woman named Old Marth for a particularly cunning blacksnake who lives in the corner of her stone chimney.

The world of Sweet Hollow is a harsh one. But it is a world where, at times, nature and humanity can be glimpsed in perfect balance. There are places such as "The Jake Pond," where life follows its cycle of seasons undisturbed. There are moments like those in "The Miracle in Sweet Hollow," when wonders occur and the earth and the heavens are suddenly in harmony.

Genres: Short Stories

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Lou V. Crabtree was born, and lived most of her life, in Washington County, VA, located the hills of Appalachia. During her active life she taught school, farmed, directed the Rock of Ages Band, conducted regional auditions for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, co-directed a bicentennial play, and lectured on various subjects. Her first book, a collection of short stories entitled Sweet Hollow, was published by LSU Press in 1983, in her 70th year, and is now in its fourth printing.

She won numerous awards for her writing including a PEN/Faulkner award, and poetry awards from Laurel Review and Shenandoah, and from the Poetry Society of Virginia. In 1988 she was declared a "Laureate in Literature" by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and a one-woman show based on her stories and poems was presented by Cleo (Partington) Holliday at the Barter Theatre, and later toured throughout the South.

The widow of Homer Crabtree, and mother of five children, she lived in Abingdon, VA until her death in 2006.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lee Smith was completely correct. Very seldom do you discover a writer of such perfect pitch that every word and every sentence is a pleasure to read. I am not a big fan of short story collections, generally. However, the way this collection all flowed together, connected, bisected, merged, and lifted each preceding and proceeding story was magnificent. I hated to finish the last story. It was like walking out of the hollow that you had grown up in, and saying good bye to all the old folks and loved ones you knew all your life. Immediately after finishing the book, and returning it to the library I searched online and purchased myself a copy so that I can continually revisit these people.
Lou Crabtree has a voice like none other I have discovered in Appalachian literature. It's a shame this is the only collection of her stories to be published. I could live on her world and be perfectly happy. A world full of holiness, witchcraft, black snakes, mischievous children, the sweet ponds where life always continues on regardless of what is happening elsewhere. It's a truly magical, visceral, melancholic and uplifting world up in Sweet Hollow and I can't wait to return.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't make the mistake of thinking this 106 page book will be a quick read. This is powerful stuff with a voice that I will not soon forget. I reread passages over and over to make sure what I red the first time was true. Homer Snake, the first piece, I was sure would give me nightmares having read it just before sleeping....but it did.not thanks to the small child narrator. Little Jesus was my favorite title, Holy Spirit is the piece that is imprinted on my brain.....sigh. This was Appalachia before there were outhouses...how did anyone ever get out?

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still in awe of the tales told here. Female Appalachian writers get my mind, heart and soul every time I read their stories. I'll buy this book to share and to add to my small collection of heart rending tales that I have hidden away from dust and sun. I value them so.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can hardly add more words of praise than the other 5-star reviews shown. Amazing writing.

[Vel Veeter]

I found this book through Lee Smith's small collection of memoir essays Dimestore, where she talks about being in charge of a local creative writing programs after she's published a few novels. Still relatively young, Smith describes meeting the lot of amateur writers and going through the motions a little trying to help them discover their voice. Now, I also value writing and the teaching of writing, but there's a special kind of special that comes out of local and amateur creative writing classes. It's a variety to be sure, but sometimes you end up with incredibly arrogant students, a lot of students who have not really thought very much about what fiction is and why it is, and then plenty of students who cannot receive help. Then, at least according to Smith, you get a student like Lou Crabtree (which is also just a fantastic name) who floors you with an opening sentence that just shows brilliant understanding (even if purely innate) about fiction. This story collection shows exactly that, a lifetime of understanding demonstrated in a small collection of stories near the end of a life. There's better stories in here than some writers might spend whole lives chasing, and Lou Crabtree lived a full life, and there's a lot of promise. Maybe these were the best of a much larger bunch, or maybe these were the ones Crabtree wanted to tell. Regardless, the collection is worth your time if you can find it, and especially if you want to read about the mountains of Virginia around 1930, served up to you not by an outsider.