My personal favorite story in this collection is "Offerings," which originally appeared in The New Yorker in the 1980s. "Offerings" is not "flash" but it is very small for a traditional short story length, I am guessing maybe under 3000 words. I can't get over the story's magic, I keep re-reading it to comprehend its hypnotic complexity and simplicity (both) its honesty and intuitive sense of how the world leaves us so connected and so alone. The others in this award winning collection (the collection won the PEN/Hemingway Award) have this quality also, the title story "Shiloh" is breathtaking. Jesus, they all are. Some of them are also outrageously funny.It never stops with this writer's work, her novels and stories. BAM's work bubbles with longing, sly humor, a dangerous amount of tenderness, sadness, and everyday wisdom; She does this the way no other writer does, in such an accessible, intuitive, no-nonsense way, using tiny and sometimes random details which stick in ones mind forever...Almost everyone whose writing I respect has something similar to say about Bobbie Ann Mason's work. Mostly, when I bring her work up, good writers say to me "She is the one who made me want to write, or think I could write." BAM creates for the reader a lingering, unforgettable ache for the feeling ones of this world.
This quiet, meditative collection is set in western Kentucky, in the homes of ordinary, working-class people (I liked to believe each story was about a different neighbor). This is not the book for you if you enjoy a dense plot. Be forewarned: nothing really happens. A couple hundred pages later and I can recall a tree being cut down, dinners being made, cats being fed…like most fiction I enjoy or movies I prefer, what I take with me is the feeling, the loneliness, the futility. This book was a hazy, downtrodden, blur of yearning. Dusks on farms and supermarket checkouts and greyhound buses and TV dinners eaten by the blue flickering light and a soft undercurrent of bored housewives waking from a deep slumber.They are beautiful. Sorrowful. Understated. And the endings come suddenly and much too quickly. Like life. Things feel incomplete.
What do You think about Shiloh And Other Stories (2001)?
I'm not sure I'm the best critic of short stories (or any stories, for that matter), but that aside, I thought these were pretty good stories. I don't give it four stars because I liked the stories, though; I give it four stars because I thought they were written well. Honestly, the stories disturbed me somewhat because of how accurately they portrayed family life in the south. Written primarily about western Kentucky in the 1980s, it seems that not much as changed. Most of the stories made me sad.
—Joseph
I'm a huge fan of short stories. I'm actually somewhat obsessed with the idea that an author can be so economical with words, yet often create a lasting impression/feeling that lingers. Bobbie Ann Mason, with her strong Southern influence, has some stories that can do this. Most of her work is downright depressing, yet the characters stay with you. Most of the stories don't resolve neatly, if at all. I like this for the feeling it gives of being present for a quick moment in the lives of others. However, her stories often tend to run together in my mind as do the characters. Still, fun to read, and some of the stories are touching.
—Niki
"Bobbie Ann Mason is an unusually attractive younger writer whose works have appeared in The New Yorker..." Isn't it strange that the above is the first sentence of the inside book jacket cover for this book? The book won many awards. Do any of Philip Roth's book jackets include statements like "Philip Roth is really handsome"? Strange.The stories are terrific. I just don't see how writers master the short story and then go on to write multiple great short stories. Bobbie Ann Mason creates funny, poignant, thoughtful stories out of ordinary people and mundane situations. What a great imagination she has, accompanied by an amazing facility with the language.
—Lynn
