Barbara Kingsolver is an excellent storyteller, and this volume of her short stories is wide in scope. She really knows how to depict human nature, and these stories show her memorable characters with wit, humor, and heart.

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3 out of 5. Not my favorite Kingsolver book, and I enjoy her novels more than short stories. There were a few stories I really liked and would have enjoyed more had they been full novels.

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Kingsolver's finely-drawn characters and her ability to evoke a place and time sing through these dozen short stories. Each one catches its characters at a specific place and time and asks them to make decisions great and small.

From the title story, in which a young girl travels with her family to her aged grandmother's hometown, to the final piece dealing with an outspoken woman caught up in a bitter mining strike, the characters move through living, breathing landscapes as they deal with the conundrums life has dealt them.

Highly recommended.

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Oh, my first taste of non-fiction Barbara Kinsolver, and I wasn't crazy about it. Perhaps it is because her fiction is so magical and uplifting, even after your heart gets slammed down. These stories seemed abrupt and often sad. I could see where she borrowed some character's personalities from in the stories told here. I will try her other non-fiction offering because she is an excellent author, but not my favorite book.

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Good book.

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Early stories from a great writer. Copyright 1989.

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