THE GREAT SPECKLED BIRD AND OTHER STORIES

by P. H. Lowrey ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

In a great many of these stories, people simply sit down and think, or stand shaving and thinking, and what they think about is Life (capital L). Mostly, the characters are small-town Southerners who are humble-proud, quiet and quite sad. In A Country Life the very elderly Miss Erin Ashby sits near her stove and reflects about an unkind remark her only surviving son made that evening about her failing memory. She remembers the deaths of two sons, her husband and how she survived her miseries. But the memory she goes back to most often is that of her old colored urse and servant from whom she still draws strength. In The Quick and the Dead the town doctor reflects about the changes in the life and character of a bootlegger who has that day committed suicide after a five-year affair with a married woman. Some of the stories are about family life in the Thirties and awakening youth. In one of the more impressive stories, All the Leaves Were Green, a man awakens one June morning in his 28th year of marriage and decides that although his wife is an acceptable woman and he madly loves his daughter, his life has not really been worth living. The stories are a bit short on fresh artistry and intensity--when one recalls the citizens of Winesburg and Spoon River.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Regnery

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964

Categories: FICTION