Indiana Winter

by Susan Neville, Dan Wakefield (Introduction)

"Neville's observations on inner and outer worlds deserve a large readership." --Studies in Short Fiction

"Blending fictional and reportorial technique, Ms. Neville unwinds a tapestry of the Indiana seasons... in scene after remarkable scene she succeeds in disturbing and undermining one's calm.... moving... " --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

..". shrewedly perceptive studies of the poetics of place... Neville pierces the heart of this 'heart of the country, ' unloosing disquieting images and poignant scenes that cling to your memory." --Belles Lettres

"If there is darkness in this vision there is also compassion, a lucid and inclusive civility born of remembering how fragile are the houses of our lives." --Arts Indiana

"A collection of essays, works of fiction and blends of those two genres, Indiana Winter is a poetic and disturbing interpretation of phenomena familiar to most of Neville's fellow Hoosiers--so familiar, in fact, that we may not really see them.... As a plunge into the blackness and glare of the examined life, Indiana Winter is a testament to courage." --Dan Carpenter, Indianapolis Star

"These stories and essays are filled with great emotion and affection for the people and the land we've come to know as the Hoosier state." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

..". a book that is firmly and honestly rooted in region, yet finds in its careful and lyrical examination of Indiana's people and places truths that move the prose pieces away from simple regionalism." --Sycamore Review

A sensitive writer's imaginative essay-stories about spiritual boundaries and values in the state of Indiana and everywhere.

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Susan Neville is an American short-story writer and a professor at Butler University. She won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 1984.

Reviews

[Katie Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I am a life long Hoosier and am familiar with many of the experiences and places the author talks about. I go shopping in Bloomington and Seymour fairly regularly. I went to the Jackson County Fair every year as a kid and remember the plane exhibit well. I also loved that most of the stories were set in the 90's, when I was a kid. I don't remember the earthquake scare, though. I guess my parents weren't that worried. 🙂

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indiana Winter is not often a phrase that makes people happy. I think this book will be an exception to that rule. Susan Neville portrays the people and places of Indiana with the tender grace of someone deeply in love and yet not blinded by it. Her imagery is profound and clear; the color red is described in one place as the color between your fingertips if placed over a flashlight, and elsewhere three red-headed children are described as three matches waiting to be lit. This is good writing.

Yes, I love Indiana. I have been many beautiful places, and still find a special part of my soul for sunsets over Hoosier cornfields and farmhouses. In my own spiritual autobiography, I’ve done my best to show how much I love the people there. Neville focuses more on place, but even so, she does a much better job than I.

[Daniel Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Neville contributes mightily to what Scott Russell Sanders called "a literature of inhabitation" (as opposed to the literature of exile of the Midwest's not-so-distant past. This is a wonderful collection that Hoosier writers and readers can be proud of, and that open-minded, curious readers around the country should want to know about.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some lovely writing here, and it certainly captures the sense of this place, these people.

It's possible that reading this book during the middle of a rural Indiana winter snowstorm is just a little too much.

[Andy Dillingham]

I would give it negative stars if possible

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book club pick. Didn't really care for it. Just really no connection with anything. I felt detached from the book while reading it.