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Gifts: A Southern Story
During the 1950s, young Jessica – Southern born but “being Yankee raised” -- spends Christmas in the small town of Galilee, Georgia, in the company of her Great-Aunt Kate, two other aunts, and a cousin. During this relatively brief visit, Jessica is subjected to full “Southernization” by the entire family.
As one means of teaching Jessica “who she is,” they tell her the family story of the J.P. Stevens Percale sheet, a singular present that has circulated back and forth between Great-Aunt Kate and her late husband’s Aunt Frances in Dallas for over forty years. The story of how that tradition began and why it continued for so long provides Jessica with her greatest lesson in the crash-course of Southern culture and manners. Conversely, she is also initiated into the brutal burden of Southern history.
Of all the family, only Aunt Cana, an African-American woman who has “been with” the family for as long as anyone can remember (and whose church-going, God-fearing Mama named her in honor of Christ’s miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee), knows the real secret behind the story of the cyclic gift. Of all the women who try to influence Jessica, Cana is the one who finally leads the child into an acceptance and then a somewhat reluctant celebration of Family -- “no matter how crazy it is!”
A light-hearted story on the surface, Gifts also portrays the full range of that era’s Southern history and culture: rigid racial and social stratification, a veritable worship of the past, an eternal honoring of Ancestors, an iron-clad adherence to good manners, and most of all, the restructuring of memory – the art of making a good story even better.
As one means of teaching Jessica “who she is,” they tell her the family story of the J.P. Stevens Percale sheet, a singular present that has circulated back and forth between Great-Aunt Kate and her late husband’s Aunt Frances in Dallas for over forty years. The story of how that tradition began and why it continued for so long provides Jessica with her greatest lesson in the crash-course of Southern culture and manners. Conversely, she is also initiated into the brutal burden of Southern history.
Of all the family, only Aunt Cana, an African-American woman who has “been with” the family for as long as anyone can remember (and whose church-going, God-fearing Mama named her in honor of Christ’s miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee), knows the real secret behind the story of the cyclic gift. Of all the women who try to influence Jessica, Cana is the one who finally leads the child into an acceptance and then a somewhat reluctant celebration of Family -- “no matter how crazy it is!”
A light-hearted story on the surface, Gifts also portrays the full range of that era’s Southern history and culture: rigid racial and social stratification, a veritable worship of the past, an eternal honoring of Ancestors, an iron-clad adherence to good manners, and most of all, the restructuring of memory – the art of making a good story even better.
38 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 20, 2011
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About the author
Augusta Trobaugh
15 books43 followersAugusta Trobaugh is the author of three previous novels, Sophie and the Rising Sun, Resting in the Bosom of the Lamb, and Praise Jerusalem!, a semi-finalist in the 1993 Pirates Alley Faulkner competition. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Georgia, with a concentration in American and Southern literature. Her work has been funded through the Georgia Council of the Arts.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 17, 2017
Sweet as Honey
I love her books. The eccentricities of her characters are very endearing. I think I have now read everything she has written.
I love her books. The eccentricities of her characters are very endearing. I think I have now read everything she has written.
April 23, 2015
Southern memories
Being raised in the south, this story feels very familiar in its simplicity. Very comforting to a person living in this complicated, difficult world.
Being raised in the south, this story feels very familiar in its simplicity. Very comforting to a person living in this complicated, difficult world.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews