Red Clay, Blue Cadillac: Stories of Twelve Southern Women

by Michael Malone

Twelve short stories of all the wrong women.

The author of First Lady and Handling Sin has given us a page turning collection of short stories, with a central theme in each of which the main character is a belle of the South whose talents include a penchant for deceit, betrayal, seduction and sometimes murder. Written in the author's wry and masterful voice, these evocative stories are infused with all the peculiar customs, ironies and humor so special to the South.

The twelve stories in this collection include "Red Clay," which won an Edgar Allen Poe Award, in which a local girl from Thermopylae becomes a movie star who moves back to her sleepy North Carolina home town and is tried for murdering her unfaithful husband. Her trial causes the town and one man in particular to look back with longing and nostalgia at this exquisite Southern belle who captivated-and sometimes manipulated-every man she met.

"Fast Love," the recipient of an O. Henry Award, is the story of a man who chases down his future wife after seeing her jog past. As he gets closer to his quarry, he also gains the courage to stand up for what he wants and to champion what he believes.

In "Blue Cadillac," Marie, blonde and beautiful, shares dinner and her love of Elvis with a high-tech sales rep on his way home to Memphis. Along the way and on the road, they have exquisite sex and decide to part, Marie in her blue Cadillac. As he rings the bell at his mother's house, the young man discovers that he has been robbed of his wallet and his whole life on cards.

Self-contained masterpieces, each of these short stories has the impact and power of a full-length novel.

Stella : red clay --
Marie : blue Cadillac --
Precious : winners and losers --
Charmain : white trash noir --
Lucy : maniac loose --
Flonnie : the rising of the South and Flonnie Rogers --
Patty : love and other crimes --
Meredith : fast love --
Angie : the power --
Mona : Miss mona's bank --
Betty : a deer on the lawn --
Mattie : invitation to the ball

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Southern, Mystery

294 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Michael Malone was the author of ten novels, a collection of short stories, and two works of nonfiction. Educated at Carolina and at Harvard, he was a professor in Theater Studies at Duke University. Among his prizes are the Edgar, the O. Henry, the Writers Guild Award, and the Emmy. He lived in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife.

Reviews

[Lianne]

I am a fan of Malone's Hillston mysteries so I had high hopes for these short stories. They did not disappoint. Although the subtitle mentions "stories of twelve southern women" not all of them are told from the female point-of-view. One story uses characters that readers of the Hillston mysteries already know but other stories are very fresh. Malone's presentation of the foibles of small towns in the NC Piedmont are spot on and make me smile.

[Michele]

just ok. Not a fan of short stories anyway, but reminds me of the old Earl Gardiner books. Not my cup of tea.

[Arrel]

Exactly what is says it is! - "Stories of twelve Southern women." NC's Michael Malone is a good writer with his finger on the pulse of the South and particularly NC, both in its storied past and in the present. Humorous, entertaining, insightful, and memorable.

If you don't already appreciate, not to mention fear, Southern women, you will by book's end. His full-length novels, particularly the early ones, come highly recommended by this reviewer as well.

[Amy]

Perfect dor my frame of mind these days. Women killing men who deserve it. Except that last one, but I suppose we were due. My favorite woman was Lucy. She's my new heroine.
So e if the stories were a little slow, but for the most part I really enjoyed them. Great for a poolside read. You'll laugh & maybe feel a little sinister for doing so.

[Mary Erickson]

3.5

Some of the short stories were engaging, others less so, as seems true for most short story collections. The "Stories of Twelve Southern Women" is a bit of false advertising, really. It's mostly stories about MEN and their interactions with women, although not even always that. Sometimes it's just a plain murder-mystery that has a woman in there somewhere.

[Jacinta Carter]

This collection of short stories about southern women combines the humor of Flannery O'Connor with the darkness of William Faulkner. If you're a fan of southern literature, dark humor, badly behaved women, and the men who love them, check out Red Clay, Blue Cadillac.

[Beth]

This book does have one story featuring Cuddy, a favorite character from other Malone mysteries.

[Frazier Armstrong]

Raucous southern sagas..

[Lori Brown]

The author has such a way with words, especially when it comes to describing a person. I thought these short stories were captivating. I especially liked the unreliable narrator in Precious.

[Michelle]

So I don't usually read a lot of short stories, but my book club decided it would be good to take up this genre to shake up things a bit, and it was a great choice! I need more short stories in my life. (1) They're fast, and (2) the challenge of squishing in characters, their pasts, their present, creating whole scenes and scenarios, etc., everything a book does but in just a few pages, fascinates me. I thought Michael Malone did well, and I enjoyed his style. Also, he's a local author, so extra points because I love local authors. And he's writing about Southern women! I love reading about Southerners! Very technically, I am one, but in many ways, I am most definitely not, so I enjoy learning more about Southern women with all of their idiosyncrasies.

I most enjoyed reading about Lucy and Betty, because timid, "normal" ladies that crack and kill people intrigue me, especially when they get away with it (see The Way Up to Heaven by Roald Dahl for an excellent example of this. Actually, best example of this. I love Roald Dahl.).

I liked the detective character in the Patty story. From Patty: "I ate another chocolate doughnut out of sadness at the way people work so hard at breaking their own hearts." Hahaha. I will think about this every time I eat a chocolate doughnut (so, quite frequently).

Meredith was sweet. "Her red hair in its ponytail leapt all over the places like a fire chasing her down the street. She was beautiful from a rear view; I don't mind mentioning that I noticed because I'd already decided to marry her. We Wintrip males have a long family tradition of choosing a bride in the twinkling of an eye, although I believe I was the first to spot one on the run."

[Miranda]

Maybe I was feeling nostalgic for our years in North Carolina when I took this off the shelf at my New Hampshire library. We used see Malone around, now and then, and I read several of his novels in those years. I'm close to the end of this collection of short stories, and heartily enjoying it. Malone is a hell of a writer - he crafts images, scenes and characters with great skill. I picked this book up after reading two pages of something downright terrible that I'd gotten from the library at the same time, and the first page of Malone's prose was like a fresh breeze in my face. Each story in the collection pivots around one woman - some are almost a snapshot, some have a more fully-developed plot (including a murder mystery). The women range from vixens to crones. I like that Malone presents each woman as she's known and seen by a man - each story has a male voice telling it, and those characters, too, are distinct and varied. I suppose I could get grouchy about the women characters being mediated by a male character's gaze, but to me it feels authentic and effective for Malone, a man, to write about these women from a male perspective. Anyway - good stories, excellent writing, and a lovely dose of the South for anyone with a soft spot for that region. Check it out.

[Lauren Cooper]

i picked up this book after reading the first story, "stella" in an american lit class. it was a pretty good book, but i ended up liking "stella" the best out of any of the stories, which was a little disappointing since i'd hoped they'd all be that great. because it's a collection of short stories, it's good for beach or plane reading.

[Beth]

It wasnt bad, but I loved the Cuddy novels and read those in order back to back..I guess I should have had a small break because I was still looking for Cuddy. I do love Malones small town life, and if I find it I am moving there.

[Ellanor]

Heard interview with Malone on NPR

[Mary Frances]

Wow, I don't even like short stories but you will love these. They have Malone's great characters and slight edge. The first one in the book is the best, but all of them are great.

[Agatha Donkar Lund]

Every story was good, and a few were outstanding.

[RF]

This author wrote one of the funniest books I've ever read "Handling Sin." He's also local.

[Majda]

I loved this collection, and I'm not a huge fan of short fiction, but I couldn't put these down (okay, I was on an airplane, but even still!).

[Molly Lynde]

So very amusing

[Sheri Longshore]

I read this for book club (I don't normally drift to short stories) and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. If you are from the South, you know at least a few of these women, I promise.

[Dana]

entertaining beach read.

[Patty]

Guess I would say this book is about Southern Belles rasing hell.. 12 short stories infused with deceit, betrayal and irony..

[Steve]

Malone is the voice of new Southern fiction. This volume of short stories won't disappoint.

[Liz]

nice collection of short stories from the south

[Tina Aumiller]

these women's stories are excellent.