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White People
In these eleven stories, Allan Gurganus—author of the highly acclaimed Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All—gives heartbreaking and hilarious voice to the fears, desires and triumphs of a grand cast of Americans.
Here are war heroes bewildered by the complex negotiations of family life, former debutantes called upon to muster resources they never knew they had, vacationing senior citizens confronted by their own bravery, and married men brought up short by the marvelous possibilities of entirely different lives. Written with flair, wit, and deep humanity, this award-winning volume confirms Allan Gurganus as one of the finest writers of our time.
Here are war heroes bewildered by the complex negotiations of family life, former debutantes called upon to muster resources they never knew they had, vacationing senior citizens confronted by their own bravery, and married men brought up short by the marvelous possibilities of entirely different lives. Written with flair, wit, and deep humanity, this award-winning volume confirms Allan Gurganus as one of the finest writers of our time.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
51 people are currently reading
887 people want to read
About the author
Allan Gurganus
68 books139 followersSince 1989, Allan Gurganus’s novels, stories and essays have become a singularly unified and living body of work. Known for dark humor, erotic candor, pictorial clarity and folkloric sweep, his prose is widely translated. Gurganus’s stories, collected as “Piccoli eroi”, were just published to strong Italian reviews. France’s La Monde has called him “a Mark Twain for our age, hilariously clear-eyed, blessed with perfect pitch.”
Fiction by Gurganus has inspired the greatest compliment of all: memorization and re-reading. The number of new critical works, the theatrical and film treatments of his fiction, testify to its durable urgency. Adaptations have won four Emmy. Robert Wilson of The American Scholar has called Gurganus “the rightful heir to Faulkner and Welty.” In a culture where `branding’ seems all-important, Gurganus has resisted any franchised repetition. Equally adept at stories and novels or novellas, his tone and sense of form can differ widely. On the page Gurganus continues to startle and grow.
Of his previous work “The Practical Heart”, critic Michiko Kakutani wrote in the New York Times, “Masterly and deeply affecting…a testament to Mr. Gurganus’s ability to inhabit his characters’ inner lives and map their emotional histories.” The Atlantic called the same work, “An entertaining, disturbing and inspiring book—a dazzling maturation.” Of “Local Souls”, Wells Tower wrote: “It leaves the reader surfeited with gifts. This is a book to be read for the minutely tuned music of Gurganus’s language, its lithe and wicked wit, its luminosity of vision—shining all the brighter for the heat of its compassion. No living writer knows more about how humans matter to each other. These are tales to make us whole.”
Gurganus’s first published story “Minor Heroism” appeared in theNew Yorker when he was twenty six. In 1974, this tale offered the first gay character that magazine had ever presented. In 1989, after seven years’ composition, Gurganus presented the novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters). This first book spent eight months on theNew York Times bestseller list; it became the subject of a New Yorkercartoon and remains a clue on “Jeopardy” (Names for $400). The novel has been translated into twelve languages and has sold over two million copies. The CBS adaptation of the work, starring Donald Sutherland and Diane Lane and won and a “Best Supporting Actress” Emmy for Cecily Tyson as the freed slave, Castalia.
Along with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Gurganus’s works include White People, (Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Pen-Faulkner Finalist) as well as the novel Plays Well With Others. His last book was The Practical Heart: Four Novellas (Lambda Literary Award). Gurganus’s short fiction appears in the New Yorker, Harper’sand other magazines. A recent essay was seen in The New York Review of Books. His stories have been honored by the O’Henry Prize Stories, Best American Stories, and The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Gurganus was a recent John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. His novella Blessed Assurance: A Moral Tale, from White People, has become part of the Harvard Business School’s Ethics curriculum. The work is discussed at length in Questions of Character (Harvard Business School Press) by Joseph L. Badaracco.
Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1947 to a teacher and businessman, Gurganus first trained as a painter, studying at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His paintings and drawings are represented in private and public collections. Gurganus has illustrated three limited editions of his fiction. During a three-year stint onboard the USS Yorktown during the Vietnam War, he turned to writing. Gurganus subsequently graduated from Sarah Lawrence College where he’d gone to work with Grace Paley. At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, his mentors were Stanley Elkin and John Cheever. Mr. Gur
Fiction by Gurganus has inspired the greatest compliment of all: memorization and re-reading. The number of new critical works, the theatrical and film treatments of his fiction, testify to its durable urgency. Adaptations have won four Emmy. Robert Wilson of The American Scholar has called Gurganus “the rightful heir to Faulkner and Welty.” In a culture where `branding’ seems all-important, Gurganus has resisted any franchised repetition. Equally adept at stories and novels or novellas, his tone and sense of form can differ widely. On the page Gurganus continues to startle and grow.
Of his previous work “The Practical Heart”, critic Michiko Kakutani wrote in the New York Times, “Masterly and deeply affecting…a testament to Mr. Gurganus’s ability to inhabit his characters’ inner lives and map their emotional histories.” The Atlantic called the same work, “An entertaining, disturbing and inspiring book—a dazzling maturation.” Of “Local Souls”, Wells Tower wrote: “It leaves the reader surfeited with gifts. This is a book to be read for the minutely tuned music of Gurganus’s language, its lithe and wicked wit, its luminosity of vision—shining all the brighter for the heat of its compassion. No living writer knows more about how humans matter to each other. These are tales to make us whole.”
Gurganus’s first published story “Minor Heroism” appeared in theNew Yorker when he was twenty six. In 1974, this tale offered the first gay character that magazine had ever presented. In 1989, after seven years’ composition, Gurganus presented the novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters). This first book spent eight months on theNew York Times bestseller list; it became the subject of a New Yorkercartoon and remains a clue on “Jeopardy” (Names for $400). The novel has been translated into twelve languages and has sold over two million copies. The CBS adaptation of the work, starring Donald Sutherland and Diane Lane and won and a “Best Supporting Actress” Emmy for Cecily Tyson as the freed slave, Castalia.
Along with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Gurganus’s works include White People, (Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Pen-Faulkner Finalist) as well as the novel Plays Well With Others. His last book was The Practical Heart: Four Novellas (Lambda Literary Award). Gurganus’s short fiction appears in the New Yorker, Harper’sand other magazines. A recent essay was seen in The New York Review of Books. His stories have been honored by the O’Henry Prize Stories, Best American Stories, and The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Gurganus was a recent John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. His novella Blessed Assurance: A Moral Tale, from White People, has become part of the Harvard Business School’s Ethics curriculum. The work is discussed at length in Questions of Character (Harvard Business School Press) by Joseph L. Badaracco.
Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1947 to a teacher and businessman, Gurganus first trained as a painter, studying at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His paintings and drawings are represented in private and public collections. Gurganus has illustrated three limited editions of his fiction. During a three-year stint onboard the USS Yorktown during the Vietnam War, he turned to writing. Gurganus subsequently graduated from Sarah Lawrence College where he’d gone to work with Grace Paley. At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, his mentors were Stanley Elkin and John Cheever. Mr. Gur
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
October 27, 2013
Some top-notch, moving, finely introspective American fiction in this collection:
“Minor Heroism: Something About My Father." Told from the point of view of the son as a child discussing his father the war hero; then the father as he looks with disgust and incomprehension on his grown son, a gay writer; then the child again, drawing a picture of his abusive father. Moving and funny and sad, crafted thoughtfully with a fine attention to detail and the human touch. Excellent.
"Condolences To Every One Of Us." An elderly woman writes to the daughter of a couple killed during an African tour which stumbles into a riot, explaining what happened. A brilliant story, more light-hearted than it sounds, rife with black humor and digs at the callousness of the human spirit. What is the world coming to? Ruin, probably. Excellent stuff.
"Art History." An art history teacher is dismissed for “misconduct” with his pupils, and later is arrested. The point of view shuttles from the teacher, his daughter, and the arresting officer. Another wonderful story by Gurganus. It makes the reader feel sympathy for this pederast by presenting him as an affable man, somewhat confused by events that seem to have swept him up through no fault of his own. He has been taught to see beauty in everything (his own teacher gave a final exam in which the class had to describe part of a toilet), and unfortunately for him the world isn’t as beautiful as he’d like.
"Nativity, Caucasian." The narrator describes his unexpected birth at a ladies’ bridge game, and how the women reacted: some sturdy and proper, some fainting with horror. A testament to the strength of the Southern woman, stepped in gentility; but more importantly a truly funny scene.
"Breathing Room: Something About My Brother." The characters from “Minor Heroism” return. Bryan recollects his childhood with his brother Bradley, watching in puzzlement as his younger brother turns from a sickly baby, capable of being killed by a single bee sting, whom he must protect and care for, into a rough, callous, athletic boy, while he remains bookish and sensitive. In retaliation for being shown up by an ungrateful Bradley one day, Bryan burns the models Bradley works so painstakingly on. A painfully real story, with human characters and voices, masterfully done.
"America Competes." A series of letters in a national competitions for ideas to decorate a mural in Washington; the letters are from the contestants and from the increasingly beleaguered, mild-mannered judge to the contest organizers. A very cynical story, implying that the masses are on the whole talentless, rude, illiterate, and/or as crazy as nutcakes. The judge breaks down under the combined weight of anti-government atheist militiamen, hillbillies who want their dead pappy’s sketches back, and a loony old lady who writes bad children’s stories. Fun to read, but rather grim.
“Adult Art." A married father and Superintendent of Schools has a homosexual encounter with a young man he picks up in his office building. The young man tells him a rather ugly story of a voyeuristic sexual awakening, and the older man fantasizes about what it might be like to learn to know, to care long term for this stranger, rather than having to fear “being really belted, blackmailed, worse” each time he craves his kind of intimacy. “They could arrest me for everything I like about myself,” he says; but the urge to connect remains stronger than his fear. It’s a beautiful, intelligent story.
"It Had Wings." An old woman who lives alone helps an angel who crashes in her yard, and her faith in herself is renewed. “I’m right here, ready. Ready for more,” she says defiantly, standing by herself in the kitchen. Great descriptions, the woman’s life brilliantly sketched in a few knowing lines. Then just enough to show the majesty and mystery of the angel, but not enough to make it a Hollywood computer-generated superhero. “Silvery. Raw. Gleaming like a sunny monument, a clock.” The angel tells her to notice things in this life, because in the next they all look alike, “just another army.” An inventive, inspired vignette.
"A Hog Loves Its Life: Something About My Grandfather," fifty "pages. Bryan, now a man of thirty-nine, reminisces about the tales his grandfather told him when he was young (the hilarious story of Lancaster’s mule, makes up the first part of the whole), the spectacle of his grandmother’s death and the slow sad decay of his grandfather into senility. This is a wholly accurate description of a tight family: all the guilt and shame and love and regret are there, expressed as well as they can be.
"Reassurance." A story composed of two letters – one genuine letter from Walt Whitman to the mother of a soldier who died of his wounds; and another imagined letter from the dead soldier to his mother, exhorting her to “forget me by remembering me” and get on with her life. He tells her that something very holy stands before her: a brand new day. It’s a moving story, and succeeds as drama, but it lacks that immediate power of Gurganus’ stories about modern Southern manners.
"Blessed Assurance," a novella. An elderly man narrates how, as a teenager in the ‘forties, he sold funeral insurance to the poor blacks in “Baby Africa.” Very poor himself, he works three jobs, takes care of his sick parents and goes to night school. So when, out of sympathy, he begins carrying some of his clients in arrears, he finds himself in a bind. One noble old lady in particular touches him, and he realizes that sooner or later despite himself he must cut her off. The language is perfect; Gurganus switches from the young man’s abashed inner turmoil to the darkly cynical boss to the elderly black women’s patois seamlessly. It’s a confessional tale: the now successful narrator weighed down with an atheist’s uncertain guilt and wonder over how small sums and minor events can change our world, or maybe even our fate in the next life? But Gurganus also manages to be whip-smart funny as well. A brilliant novella.
“Minor Heroism: Something About My Father." Told from the point of view of the son as a child discussing his father the war hero; then the father as he looks with disgust and incomprehension on his grown son, a gay writer; then the child again, drawing a picture of his abusive father. Moving and funny and sad, crafted thoughtfully with a fine attention to detail and the human touch. Excellent.
"Condolences To Every One Of Us." An elderly woman writes to the daughter of a couple killed during an African tour which stumbles into a riot, explaining what happened. A brilliant story, more light-hearted than it sounds, rife with black humor and digs at the callousness of the human spirit. What is the world coming to? Ruin, probably. Excellent stuff.
"Art History." An art history teacher is dismissed for “misconduct” with his pupils, and later is arrested. The point of view shuttles from the teacher, his daughter, and the arresting officer. Another wonderful story by Gurganus. It makes the reader feel sympathy for this pederast by presenting him as an affable man, somewhat confused by events that seem to have swept him up through no fault of his own. He has been taught to see beauty in everything (his own teacher gave a final exam in which the class had to describe part of a toilet), and unfortunately for him the world isn’t as beautiful as he’d like.
"Nativity, Caucasian." The narrator describes his unexpected birth at a ladies’ bridge game, and how the women reacted: some sturdy and proper, some fainting with horror. A testament to the strength of the Southern woman, stepped in gentility; but more importantly a truly funny scene.
"Breathing Room: Something About My Brother." The characters from “Minor Heroism” return. Bryan recollects his childhood with his brother Bradley, watching in puzzlement as his younger brother turns from a sickly baby, capable of being killed by a single bee sting, whom he must protect and care for, into a rough, callous, athletic boy, while he remains bookish and sensitive. In retaliation for being shown up by an ungrateful Bradley one day, Bryan burns the models Bradley works so painstakingly on. A painfully real story, with human characters and voices, masterfully done.
"America Competes." A series of letters in a national competitions for ideas to decorate a mural in Washington; the letters are from the contestants and from the increasingly beleaguered, mild-mannered judge to the contest organizers. A very cynical story, implying that the masses are on the whole talentless, rude, illiterate, and/or as crazy as nutcakes. The judge breaks down under the combined weight of anti-government atheist militiamen, hillbillies who want their dead pappy’s sketches back, and a loony old lady who writes bad children’s stories. Fun to read, but rather grim.
“Adult Art." A married father and Superintendent of Schools has a homosexual encounter with a young man he picks up in his office building. The young man tells him a rather ugly story of a voyeuristic sexual awakening, and the older man fantasizes about what it might be like to learn to know, to care long term for this stranger, rather than having to fear “being really belted, blackmailed, worse” each time he craves his kind of intimacy. “They could arrest me for everything I like about myself,” he says; but the urge to connect remains stronger than his fear. It’s a beautiful, intelligent story.
"It Had Wings." An old woman who lives alone helps an angel who crashes in her yard, and her faith in herself is renewed. “I’m right here, ready. Ready for more,” she says defiantly, standing by herself in the kitchen. Great descriptions, the woman’s life brilliantly sketched in a few knowing lines. Then just enough to show the majesty and mystery of the angel, but not enough to make it a Hollywood computer-generated superhero. “Silvery. Raw. Gleaming like a sunny monument, a clock.” The angel tells her to notice things in this life, because in the next they all look alike, “just another army.” An inventive, inspired vignette.
"A Hog Loves Its Life: Something About My Grandfather," fifty "pages. Bryan, now a man of thirty-nine, reminisces about the tales his grandfather told him when he was young (the hilarious story of Lancaster’s mule, makes up the first part of the whole), the spectacle of his grandmother’s death and the slow sad decay of his grandfather into senility. This is a wholly accurate description of a tight family: all the guilt and shame and love and regret are there, expressed as well as they can be.
"Reassurance." A story composed of two letters – one genuine letter from Walt Whitman to the mother of a soldier who died of his wounds; and another imagined letter from the dead soldier to his mother, exhorting her to “forget me by remembering me” and get on with her life. He tells her that something very holy stands before her: a brand new day. It’s a moving story, and succeeds as drama, but it lacks that immediate power of Gurganus’ stories about modern Southern manners.
"Blessed Assurance," a novella. An elderly man narrates how, as a teenager in the ‘forties, he sold funeral insurance to the poor blacks in “Baby Africa.” Very poor himself, he works three jobs, takes care of his sick parents and goes to night school. So when, out of sympathy, he begins carrying some of his clients in arrears, he finds himself in a bind. One noble old lady in particular touches him, and he realizes that sooner or later despite himself he must cut her off. The language is perfect; Gurganus switches from the young man’s abashed inner turmoil to the darkly cynical boss to the elderly black women’s patois seamlessly. It’s a confessional tale: the now successful narrator weighed down with an atheist’s uncertain guilt and wonder over how small sums and minor events can change our world, or maybe even our fate in the next life? But Gurganus also manages to be whip-smart funny as well. A brilliant novella.
March 1, 2021
Been reading this 1990 collection forever, so finally decided to mark it as read. Why not? I did read most of it, over the past 16 months, although in the year 2020 it did seem weird to be reading a book called "White People" so I mostly put it aside. I liked the story "Art History" and also "Adult Art" — so anything with Art in the title mostly.
Okay, I admit it. I liked the "Adult" aspects in "Adult Art" more than the "Art". Had to do a lot of digging just to get those bits. No wonder I never finished the whole thing.
Okay, I admit it. I liked the "Adult" aspects in "Adult Art" more than the "Art". Had to do a lot of digging just to get those bits. No wonder I never finished the whole thing.
July 4, 2015
What a great collection - the last was the most moving, Blessed Assurance. I liked how some of the characters overlapped from previous stories. Only one in this collection I just wasn't able to get through, the rest were all excellent in their own way. A blend of Flannery O'Connor with John Cheever.
October 24, 2015
I like Gurganus' style: Frank, frugal, cynical, aspirational, and poetic. Jerry in "Blessed Assurance" is an excellent portrait of a good 19-year old doing the best he can to do right by others and himself. Coming from a poor blue-collar background, he's forced to work a few jobs to get himself through college, and one of these is selling funeral insurance to black people.
Through the course of his telling, occurring forty years after the events, we come to meet a Vesta Lotte Battle, a freed slave who is in her nineties. She is a force of moral authority, an unlikely prophetess with tremendous dignity and quiet but real power. My reading is that she changes Jerry's life and converts him to another way of seeing the world. His unease at the end of life looking back arises from perhaps realizing he lacks the dignity VLB had at the end of her life, and whether he can do something about that now. The one thing he's proud of is participation in a class action lawsuit against the local cotton mill owners that resulted in some compensation for brown lung to victims and the installation of cotton filters. Otherwise, his business career was spent taking coins from people in a way that was perhaps better than funeral insurance, but seems to nevertheless leave him uneasy.
By the way, here's a definition of leadership: "A struggle by a flawed human being to make some human values real & effective in the world as it is."
Some of my favorite lines:
--"My rounds sure felt easier when people had the decency to stay blended. Now I started worrying over payer and nonpayers too. You know how it is, once a crowd splits into separate faces, nothing can ever mash them back into that first safe shape." pg. 211
--"On a night-school pop quiz, once question asked, 'Define Business Ethics.' I wrote, 'Business ethics is a contradiction in terms.' Then I erased this. So I'd pass." pg. 222
--"'Jerry's always had him a soft streak,' Mom said, with me standing tight here. 'It's not soft,' I snapped at her. 'It's the only part I like. It's hard--and the rest of it is sloppy and extra. Don't say 'soft.''" pg. 243.
Through the course of his telling, occurring forty years after the events, we come to meet a Vesta Lotte Battle, a freed slave who is in her nineties. She is a force of moral authority, an unlikely prophetess with tremendous dignity and quiet but real power. My reading is that she changes Jerry's life and converts him to another way of seeing the world. His unease at the end of life looking back arises from perhaps realizing he lacks the dignity VLB had at the end of her life, and whether he can do something about that now. The one thing he's proud of is participation in a class action lawsuit against the local cotton mill owners that resulted in some compensation for brown lung to victims and the installation of cotton filters. Otherwise, his business career was spent taking coins from people in a way that was perhaps better than funeral insurance, but seems to nevertheless leave him uneasy.
By the way, here's a definition of leadership: "A struggle by a flawed human being to make some human values real & effective in the world as it is."
Some of my favorite lines:
--"My rounds sure felt easier when people had the decency to stay blended. Now I started worrying over payer and nonpayers too. You know how it is, once a crowd splits into separate faces, nothing can ever mash them back into that first safe shape." pg. 211
--"On a night-school pop quiz, once question asked, 'Define Business Ethics.' I wrote, 'Business ethics is a contradiction in terms.' Then I erased this. So I'd pass." pg. 222
--"'Jerry's always had him a soft streak,' Mom said, with me standing tight here. 'It's not soft,' I snapped at her. 'It's the only part I like. It's hard--and the rest of it is sloppy and extra. Don't say 'soft.''" pg. 243.
April 13, 2008
"It Had Wings" is tender and lovely and sad. One of my favorite stories.
February 7, 2017
The last story will stay with me for a long time. One of the most unique collections I've read.
Want to read
July 24, 2019via this list compiled by Jess Row: https://www.bookforum.com/syllabi/wha...
July 27, 2024
I’m not usually a fan of short stories, and didn’t love this collection at first. It earned a 5 based on the final story, which was brilliant and made me glad I stuck it out.
November 2, 2017
I read this because while we're now in a moment where titling a story collection "White People" would count as unexceptional, Gurganus' published these stories over 25 years ago when white culture was the assumed default in America. Unsurprisingly, they feature a very specific set of white people - residents of the Carolina's for the most part. Many were written in the 1970's and feature gay men in various forms of conflict with the prevailing male culture. Most are interesting as snapshots of that conflict, and I'm guessing grabbed attention when first published simply thanks to their subject matter - but few are compellingly told. To this late-arriving reader, the collection was therefore underwhelming. A couple of stories surprised me, most didn't. Several were so dull - especially when they assumed an unearned fascination with Southern history - that I gave up on them.
December 5, 2024
¿Literatura para ricos? ¿White People Problems? Justamente, el título original sería textualmente "Hombres Blancos", pero no se estaría dando a entender que se trata de gente con menos problemas económicos que el elenco de Friends o Seinfeld.
Estos cuentos son sobre personas de alto poder adquisitivo que se mueven en círculos muy exclusivos, al punto que ni se menciona que trabajen; son dueños, sin impedimentos económicos ni laborales.
Como humilde lector de a pie, no podría sentir empatía por ninguno de los personajes; quizás solo por los ancianos que aparecen, nostálgicos de tiempos pasados, de humildad, sin lujos.
Este libro vale por su testimonio de una clase, un país y un momento puntual: millonarios de Estados Unidos después de ganar la Segunda Guerra Mundial, donde quienes sufrieron la Gran Depresión del 29 envejecen en un mundo de prosperidad y futuro prometedor.
Estos cuentos son sobre personas de alto poder adquisitivo que se mueven en círculos muy exclusivos, al punto que ni se menciona que trabajen; son dueños, sin impedimentos económicos ni laborales.
Como humilde lector de a pie, no podría sentir empatía por ninguno de los personajes; quizás solo por los ancianos que aparecen, nostálgicos de tiempos pasados, de humildad, sin lujos.
Este libro vale por su testimonio de una clase, un país y un momento puntual: millonarios de Estados Unidos después de ganar la Segunda Guerra Mundial, donde quienes sufrieron la Gran Depresión del 29 envejecen en un mundo de prosperidad y futuro prometedor.
October 27, 2023
I had trouble with Allan Gurganus’s 1991 collection of short stories and novellas WHITE PEOPLE until I was more than halfway through it. Not that there aren’t passages in which the writer I admire comes through, but for my taste, too often in the earlier storers he’s just too convinced that he’s being cute.
Then, at page 135, I came to the shortest story in the collection, “It Had Wings,” and I was struck by the way Gurganus goes out on a limb imaginatively and comes through as being being comfortable and in command there.
That’s followed by a longer work, “A Hog Loves His Life,” which I submit is a masterpiece that stands to one day become an heirloom of our literature. As an editor, I would have argued strongly that it should be the opening piece in the collection. Reading in it at a counter in a Starbucks, at one point I laughed out loud, and then a moment later I was so overcome that a woman I don’t know stepped over and asked if I was all right.
The story appears to be dedicated to Gurganus’s grandfather, and in it a 10-year-old boy, sitting in his grandfather’s lap, learns about family and community legends and storytelling, while other family members gossip and carry on outside: “The rest of our family still jabbered on the bright porch. Jaw jaw jaw, gas gas gas. A waste. Out front, my grandmother's clear tone straddled three conversations, governing them. Family talk sounded like one church organ’s many pipes and tubes — flute to chimney size — all alive with a single feeling breath.” How Eudora Welty would have loved Gurganus’s firm grounding in his region and the way people talk there, the grounding that so distinguished his first novel, OLDEST LIVING CONFEDERATE WIDOW TELLS ALL.
Here goes grandmother Ruth talking about “her husband’s way with clothes”: “It’s not so much poor taste. Bobby has UN-taste. I can send him to the finest store in driving distance, one you’d think has stocked nothing but charcoal gray for thirty-five years. But he’ll make them go to the cellar — force them, beguile them —you know how he is — and they’ll scare up some houndstooth horse-blanket thing — a mat. I won’t call it a coat, it was a sort of mat with armholes. He comes to the car holding the thing, and I promise this: you can see it through the paper bag. Admit it, Bobby. Tell them. It’s still in one of the closets in the guest room. Go get it, Bobby. Show them. Admit you chose it. If it’s not upstairs, that’s because I sent it to the vet’s and had it put down …” She goes on.
Gurganus has never been afraid to belt out a sentiment, as he does in “Blessed Assurance”: “Nothing reminds you of how fragile it all is — nothing like living with two mild and funny people who, if offered any riches on earth, would choose to get one deep single breath again.” This remarkable story represents another leap of the imagination in the tricky area of interracial relations.
So you’re giving five stars to a book more than half of which gave you trouble?
Yes, I am.
Then, at page 135, I came to the shortest story in the collection, “It Had Wings,” and I was struck by the way Gurganus goes out on a limb imaginatively and comes through as being being comfortable and in command there.
That’s followed by a longer work, “A Hog Loves His Life,” which I submit is a masterpiece that stands to one day become an heirloom of our literature. As an editor, I would have argued strongly that it should be the opening piece in the collection. Reading in it at a counter in a Starbucks, at one point I laughed out loud, and then a moment later I was so overcome that a woman I don’t know stepped over and asked if I was all right.
The story appears to be dedicated to Gurganus’s grandfather, and in it a 10-year-old boy, sitting in his grandfather’s lap, learns about family and community legends and storytelling, while other family members gossip and carry on outside: “The rest of our family still jabbered on the bright porch. Jaw jaw jaw, gas gas gas. A waste. Out front, my grandmother's clear tone straddled three conversations, governing them. Family talk sounded like one church organ’s many pipes and tubes — flute to chimney size — all alive with a single feeling breath.” How Eudora Welty would have loved Gurganus’s firm grounding in his region and the way people talk there, the grounding that so distinguished his first novel, OLDEST LIVING CONFEDERATE WIDOW TELLS ALL.
Here goes grandmother Ruth talking about “her husband’s way with clothes”: “It’s not so much poor taste. Bobby has UN-taste. I can send him to the finest store in driving distance, one you’d think has stocked nothing but charcoal gray for thirty-five years. But he’ll make them go to the cellar — force them, beguile them —you know how he is — and they’ll scare up some houndstooth horse-blanket thing — a mat. I won’t call it a coat, it was a sort of mat with armholes. He comes to the car holding the thing, and I promise this: you can see it through the paper bag. Admit it, Bobby. Tell them. It’s still in one of the closets in the guest room. Go get it, Bobby. Show them. Admit you chose it. If it’s not upstairs, that’s because I sent it to the vet’s and had it put down …” She goes on.
Gurganus has never been afraid to belt out a sentiment, as he does in “Blessed Assurance”: “Nothing reminds you of how fragile it all is — nothing like living with two mild and funny people who, if offered any riches on earth, would choose to get one deep single breath again.” This remarkable story represents another leap of the imagination in the tricky area of interracial relations.
So you’re giving five stars to a book more than half of which gave you trouble?
Yes, I am.
October 25, 2017
While Allan Gurganus is clearly a talented writer, there just isn't much compelling about these stories. Sure, it's an honest look at the real world issues of white people in the South - issues that don't always get discussed much outside of the privacy of homes - but there was very little that made me want to turn the next page. In fact, I kept counting down the pages until I was done.
The one exception is the last story, which was certainly compelling and worth reading. I only wish I had bypassed the rest of the book to get there. If it weren't for the final story, I would have to give White People a one-star rating.
I'm not ready to give up on Gurganus, because I've heard great things about Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, but he made it difficult to find the motivation with this collection of stories.
The one exception is the last story, which was certainly compelling and worth reading. I only wish I had bypassed the rest of the book to get there. If it weren't for the final story, I would have to give White People a one-star rating.
I'm not ready to give up on Gurganus, because I've heard great things about Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, but he made it difficult to find the motivation with this collection of stories.
October 23, 2024
Found Gurganus's anthology at our library's book sale. Haven't read him in years.
The last story, "Blessed Assurance," is one of the most remarkable tales I've read in years. It alone is reason to grab this book.
I remember funeral insurance being peddled to poor people outside Asheville, NC in the late 60s. Never heard of it until then. People in the hollers, deep in the mountains, black and white, bought plans. But you couldn't fall behind or you lost the entire benefit.
I was swept away by the story of Jerry, working several part time jobs, including selling funeral insurance to poor blacks. Their lives and attitudes and his evolving understanding of his clients and himself is so moving that I had to stop often and cry.
I also liked "Breathing Room" and "Minor Heroism."
Back to reading Gurganus I shall go!
The last story, "Blessed Assurance," is one of the most remarkable tales I've read in years. It alone is reason to grab this book.
I remember funeral insurance being peddled to poor people outside Asheville, NC in the late 60s. Never heard of it until then. People in the hollers, deep in the mountains, black and white, bought plans. But you couldn't fall behind or you lost the entire benefit.
I was swept away by the story of Jerry, working several part time jobs, including selling funeral insurance to poor blacks. Their lives and attitudes and his evolving understanding of his clients and himself is so moving that I had to stop often and cry.
I also liked "Breathing Room" and "Minor Heroism."
Back to reading Gurganus I shall go!
February 15, 2023
I read “oldest living confederate widow…” from Gurganis which I enjoyed and spurred me to read more from him. This collection of short stories is subtle. I thought the 1950s suburbia was rather a dull period, but Gurganis finds humanity in the mundane. The best story has to be the art contest. I think this is clearly a manual on “write what you know”.
I’m still not sure what to make of the title. Maybe these are the seedy and/or uncomfortable realities that white socialites don’t want anyone to know and are being revealed here.
I’m still not sure what to make of the title. Maybe these are the seedy and/or uncomfortable realities that white socialites don’t want anyone to know and are being revealed here.
May 16, 2023
A truly American collection of stories. They ring true to who we are as working class, poor, needy, misunderstood, looking for love and acceptance and as white. Definitely as white, which is intentional. Obviously. Sometimes cringe worthy, sometimes maddening, sometimes truly sad in how far we have not come. No surprise there.
January 29, 2018
Never been a real short story lover and this collecton was disjointed and felt like different people had written each story. Like they were early works of the author when he was trying to figure out his writting style.
July 29, 2019
The writing is top-notch, but there are only two good stories in this book. It may or may not be worth wading through the rest to find them, depending on how light your summer is in terms of your book stack.
November 19, 2025
every one of these stories feels eminently real and grounded, notwithstanding their frequent strangeness, giving the reader a sense that there's something odd and unexplored underlying that most commonplace of cultures, the white one
June 1, 2017
Published in 1990, this compilation of short stories & 2 novellas were written in the prior 2 decades. Did not finish but got the feel of them - all somewhat quirky.
July 5, 2017
Great short stories well-written.
September 20, 2017
"A Hog Loves Its Life" and "Blessed Assurance" were particularly well-written and poignant.
November 4, 2018
Short stories were great, but Blessed Assurance -- last story in the book -- hit it out of the park. Excellent detail and evocation of place, time and characters.
February 19, 2019
I haven't laughed out loud at a book in ages. Wonderful read!
February 11, 2022
These meandering stories are enjoyable not so much for plot or character but for the pleasing way Gurganus turns a phrase.
March 26, 2022
Loved Blessed Assurance, others were meh
I got this collection specifically for Blessed Assurance, which did not disappoint. The other stories did not grab me as much.
I got this collection specifically for Blessed Assurance, which did not disappoint. The other stories did not grab me as much.
April 11, 2023
The stories are kind of hit-or-miss but the ones that hit are really good.
March 17, 2024
A wonderful discovery. A male Alice Munro?
December 2, 2024
Interesting window into the psychology of the diverse fabric of American life. Could be helpful as a textbook for new immigrants.
November 7, 2018
Clever, charming Southern short stories; each story is quite distinct in tone and content. He has an impressively wide-ranging voice, and this collection made me want to read his novels.
October 31, 2025
What a gem of a book. I hadn’t heard anything about it until my dad recommended it to me.
It’s a wonderful collection of touching and meaningful short stories with attention to small details that reveal the characters’ innermost struggles and emotions.
It’s a wonderful collection of touching and meaningful short stories with attention to small details that reveal the characters’ innermost struggles and emotions.
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