Midnight Magic: Selected Stories

by Bobbie Ann Mason

A disabled trucker builds his dream house from Lincoln Logs. A recent divorcee fantasizes about time travel as she lies in a tanning booth and wishes for a future "unbounded by time and space or custody arrangements." These are a few of the people who inhabit the world of Midnigt Magic, a collection of Bobbie Ann Mason's best short fiction, featuring "Shiloh." In her signature style, Mason moves quietly through the lives of her Kentucky characters, capturing their tangeld aspirations and buried disappointments. Men and women struggle with the ironies of modern life in a traditional rural society, trying to cope with fractured families, television evangelism, women's lib, and MTV. With an introduction by the author especially written for this new volume, this timeless collection chronicles the perplexed lives of contemporary people as they confront our everchanging society. As one character wryly puts it, "Nobody knows anything. The answers are always changing."

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Bobbie Ann Mason has won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the American Book Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Her books include In Country and Feather Crowns. She lives in Kentucky.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are somewhat of a mixed bag of stories, but many of them are very good. It's refreshing to read stories about regular working-class people, rather than the wealthy well-to-do's who populate most short story collections. There is a sad and unromantic realism that is present in all of her stories, and it's much appreciated.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book of short stories set in various parts of Kentucky. Most seem to over-emphasize the accent,but maybe it simply hits a nerve. Living in Kentucky myself the characters seem overdone. Short stories in general are not a favorite of mine. They are usually a study in character of characters and usually the characters in a collection share certain characteristics. I always feel let down by the story because the events don't take the natural flow other fictional stories take. Meaning the plot leaves events hanging for example the story "Third Monday" is about a woman who is diagnosed with breast cancer,does not tell the man she is seeing. The story ends with no explanations, no insight for the characters and their story.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was kind of bored by these stories, but kept reading them anyway. It's like eating something under-seasoned--you keep putting more in your mouth, hopeful for satisfaction. Mason is good at dialog, and it was refreshing to read about non-rich New York types, so, there's that.

Years ago I read "Shiloh" and learned a lot from it. I reread it, and while I still might use it in a class, it didn't stand up to my memories of it. I was looking for Mason to undercover something unusual, or to provide a unique point of view, but I never found that in this collection. All the stories are in the same territory--failing marriages, dealing with families--but it never got anywhere rich with those topics for me.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

Midnight magic --
*Bumblebees --
The retreat --
*Love life --
*Big Bertha stories --
Shiloh --4
Offerings --
Drawing names --
Coyotes --
*Residents and transients --
Sorghum --2
Nancy Culpepper --
Graveyard day --2
*A new-wave format --
Third Monday --
*Wish --
Memphis --
***
Hunktown
Lying doggo

[Melissa]

Fantastic collection of short stories. And a great introduction to Mason, if you havne't read her. As a literature teacher, I find Mason's writing provocative, fun, and totally accessible to a variety of ages. She's a joy!

[Wendy Sumner-Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great group of stories - no wonder it's a classic.

[L]

i am really looking forward to someday reading and rereading these stories.

[Ruth Mandel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the narrow purview, the stories are varied and convincing.