Heaven Lies about: Southern Stories

This debut collection of five stories--all of which touch on girlhood or female adolescence--is long on atmosphere if short on material. The languorous pace and the tension underlying polite conversation place the action solidly in the American South. A woman recalls the period when her parents took in a male and a female boarder who fell for each other despite the woman's tragic past. A young girl is heartbroken when she searches in vain for the spruce her absent mother had chosen to be their next Christmas tree. An elderly woman fends off the racism of others after she is mugged and believes her black attacker to be the grandson of a childhood friend. On Good Friday, a young girl who lives with her prissy aunt wants to teach her friend the meaning of suffering but accidentally sets fire to a barn, and a woman recalls the day when she was seven that her family's beloved cook and surrogate mother appeared at the train station after it had been rumored that she was dead. Bocock uses tender language to describe complex situations, but this slender volume is literally too slim to truly satisfy or give a good feeling for Bocock's work. (Sept.)