Engel can move from voice to voice as easily—and as quickly—as someone spinning an AM radio dial. In this set of linked stories (after her debut novel A Woman of Salt
), she uses that strength to bring to life the inhabitants of South Carolina's Lowcountry, a place of poverty, suspicion and, above all, faith. "You thinkin' my mama went fishin' in her Bible with a blind finger and caught a name for me, ain't you?" declares a 114-year-old woman in the first story, Queen Esther Coosawaw. Like many of the characters here, she's a patient of, and tells her stories to, the area's new Jewish doctor, Jake Reuben, whose integrated waiting room signifies the shifting times in this deepest part of the South. Cultures rub against each other throughout, sometimes comically, as in "Redeeming the Dead," when a lonely Jewish woman opens her door to Mormon missionaries, and other times brutally, as in "What Addie Wants," in which grief swells into a hate crime. As befits a former theology professor, Engel is particularly adept at showing how faith helps make sense of daily life. In "All That We Need," a curbside preacher, mourning his runaway wife, embarrasses his son by declaring the Gospel—at the top of his voice—from the back of a pickup truck. With 21 stories in just over 200 pages, most of the entries are quite brief, and a few lengthier works would have added narrative depth to the collection's breadth. But this series of vivid portraits reaffirms the abiding role of place in Southern literature. Agent, Geri Thoma.
Southeastern regional author tour.
(May)
