sarah gilbert’s Reviews > Southern Sin: True Stories of the Sultry South and Women Behaving Badly > Status Update

Rachel Peckham's story 'A Lesson in Merging' was so unlike the story I read before it, on moonshine, that I had to take a death. And it hit a little too close to home. feeling for Rachel, and wanting to find and friend her. what a life she must be leading now; I have so many questions.

two pieces other than mine in this book, however, have struck me as very important and nuanced evaluations of how viewing an act as "sin" brings us to dark places and, possibly, through them into light; "Fat" by Sarah Einstein and "Out of the Woods" by Gail Griffin. "Fat" had me shivering by the end in grief. "Out of the Woods" had me wracked with Virginia's black/white man/woman sex/violence social fabric. oohhh.

I have an essay in this book ('No Other Gods'), and so the first thing I read upon opening the book was the three editor's notes/introductions, in reverse order, looking for a reference to my piece. When I saw that there was none, this was my first clue that my piece is rather unlike the others. Mine is more dark, a story of scratching out a new perspective on sin; the others, for the most part, are less agonizing.