cover image The Apple-Green Triumph, and Other Stories

The Apple-Green Triumph, and Other Stories

Martha Lacy Hall. Louisiana State University Press, $19.95 (144pp) ISBN 978-0-8071-1608-1

The ambience of the Deep South is palpable in this collection of nine stories that consider the varieties and vagaries of human relationships. In Hall's oustanding title story, we travel with a recently widowed 75-year-old racing to the New Orleans airport to pick up her brother, who has flown home for their sister's funeral. We observe her silent shock at first sight of his obese bulk in her tiny car, their gradual acceptance of each other and their will to survive. Impeccable manners, social rituals and class demarcations that bespeak an earlier, perhaps gentler time are the concerns of most of these tales. Memorable is ``Saturday Job,'' where insight dawns on a black teenager because of his relationship with his employer, a white woman and skilled gardener. Sibling relationships unfold and inform ``The Birthday Party,'' as three sisters and their husbands gather for an irascible parent's birthday. ``The Authoress'' is Glory Bea, ``the only fiction writer in Ste. Marie, Louisiana, near the reedy shores of Lake Pontchartrain''; we follow her on a boozy exploration of writer's block. Hall wrote Call It Living and Music Lesson. (Sept.)