All 19 contributors to this mixed collection are associated with the Fellowship of Southern Writers, based in Chattanooga and organized in 1989 under the aegis of the late esteemed critic Cleanth Brooks for the purpose of encouraging and honoring excellence in Southern letters. Many of the writers are household names where Southern literature is discussed. However, while several of the stories are well crafted and touching, an equal number do not represent these authors at their best, despite their having been chosen by the authors themselves. "Between the Lines," by the irrepressible Lee Smith, is from her long-ago collection Cakewalk. The story is a classic, telling of an optimistic rural woman who puts a positive spin on the most life-shattering events as she composes a fortnightly column for a Greenville, S.C., newspaper. Of equal excellence is Elizabeth Spencer's "Everlasting Light," a short, powerful tale of a father's overwhelming love for his daughter. Michael Knight, a young writer who burst onto the scene just a few years ago, delivers a memorable narrative in "For Alice to the Fourth Floor," concerning a woman who returns from a first date to find herself locked out of her apartment on a freezing December night, and the pains her new friend takes to help her. In "Feeling Good, Feeling Fine," George Garrett captures a magic and tragic baseball moment from a boy's childhood. Stories by Allan Gurganus, Barry Hannah, Shelby Foote, Doris Betts, William Henry Lewis and Jill McCorkle are less engaging, some too long and rambling, some difficult to fully understand. This is a smorgasbord of literary offerings, several still tasty, others having lost their freshness. (Apr.)
