Farlanburg Stories

The sleepy rhythm of small-town, rural Southern life flows through the 10 simple yet powerful tales in Koger's consistently appealing debut. Farlanburg's blue-collar inhabitants, ruled by conventional down-home values, sense something missing in their lives. They either wait patiently for fulfillment or dream of escaping Farlanburg to find it. Earl, whose wife refuses to discuss their marriage problems or to fry chicken the way his mother did, fears life has passed him by. Country-western singer Louisa Nell thrusts singing lessons upon her nieces so that they can enjoy the career she never had. Ollie, who ruins her reputation by bearing an illegitimate child, finds more happiness in her spunky love affair than Farlanburg's holier-than-thou homemakers do in their dull marriages. In an unaffected, objective voice brimming with humor and affection, Koger uses deceptively sophisticated metaphor and detail to portray narrow-minded, superstitious hypocrites whose backward lifestyle may seem worlds away, but whose all-too-human needs and dreams are strangely familiar. (July)