Selected Stories

by Shirley Ann Grau, Robert Phillips (Foreword)

This magnificent summation of the short stories of Shirley Ann Grau, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, The Keepers of the House, gathers together eighteen gems ranking with the finest of Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. Grau possesses a range representing a master course in the craft of this most demanding art form. Her reader's banquet offers character sketches of Chekovian poignance and insight, a hilarious love story, excursions into the gothic and hauntingly apocalyptic, the elegiac and experimental, and stories that feel like compressed novels in their lapidary polish, depth, and emotional weight. Grau belongs in the company of the great southern short story writers, and the author's own choices of her best work remind readers of the unmatched capacity of the brief fictional form to depict character epiphany and such timeless themes as redemption and rebirth, the struggle between power and love, and the persistence of the past.

274 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Shirley Ann Grau (b. 1929) is a Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist of nine novels and short story collections, whose work is set primarily in her native South. Grau was raised in Alabama and Louisiana, and many of her novels document the broad social changes of the Deep South during the twentieth century, particularly as they affected African Americans. Grau’s first novel, The Hard Blue Sky (1958), about the descendants of European pioneers living on an island off the coast of Louisiana, established her as a master of vivid description, both for characters and locale, a style she maintained throughout her career. Her public profile rose during the civil rights movement, when her dynastic novel Keepers of the House (1964), which dealt with race relations in Alabama, earned her a Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories are worth 4 or 5 stars and none are worth less than 3. Interesting character development and inventive stories.

[Heather Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find that I enjoy Grau’s narrative style. Each story was a compelling snapshot of life. Some with hints of magical realism, others with a level of apathetic curiosity that I can absolutely relate to. I was surprised to see her engage in race relations and lesbianism in addition to motherhood, romance, and other family dynamics. I am interested in exploring her novels.