Introduction to Literary Context: American Short Fiction

Gr 9 Up—With too many typos, this set is ill-prepared and unclear in its purpose. Ostensibly an introduction to "short fiction," it includes Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House, and Faulkner's novel-esque collection of intertwined stories, Go Down, Moses, while also devoting an entry to "The Bear" (a story from that same collection). The typos (geometry instead of geography, for example, and stating that Faulkner received the 1949 "Novel Prize") are clearly accidents, not reflective necessarily of any intrinsic weakness in the book, but certainly they are reflective of a lack of editorial care that is sadly also apparent in the very rudimentary level of some of the articles. The discussion of Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" barely touches the surface of the work's profound theological and moral dimensions. To dismiss the "Misfit" as a devil-like representation of hypocrisy without pressing further presents a cursory reading of the story at best. Each entry includes a general synopsis, along with a discussion of symbols and motifs and the historical, societal, religious, scientific and technological, and biographical contexts present in the story. While the writing is clear and easy to follow, the discussion questions at the end of each entry will be helpful to teachers and reading-group organizers, and the list of essay ideas of use to students and teachers, the volume as a whole is lacking.—Herman Sutter, St. Agnes Academy, Houston.