Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories (review)

Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories (review) Fred Chappell, Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories. New York: St. Martin's, 2009. 320 pages. Trade hardcover, $27.99. Reviewed by Warren J. Carson Fred Chappell's Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories (2009) brings together twenty-one of this magnificent storyteller's favorite stories gathered from the last three decades of his work with several new works into a single volume that many will find delightful, as only Fred Chappell can delight readers. The previously published stories demonstrate the breadth of Chappell's fictive vision and his fascination with history and fantasy. Stories like "Linnaeus Forgets" and "Moments of Light" that focus on the plant specialist Carl Linnaeus and master composer Franz Joseph Haydn are examples of these. Though well written and interesting enough, they seem not to represent Chappell at his best and, frankly, often seem much too contrived. Rather, the stories that show Chappell at his best are those that are set in the mountains of North Carolina, a geographical and artistic terrain that he knows much better and renders with more emotion and believability. Of the new stories, the opening selection, "The Overspill," is one of the most poignant, as the narrator returns to "the small town of Tipton, where the Challenger Paper and Fiber Corporation smoked eternally." With this evocative opening, Chappell focuses in on a young boy's growing sense of closeness with his father while experiencing an unfathomable loss due to man's manipulation of nature and an overriding disregard for human life. This story, too, reconnects readers with the irrepressible Uncle Luden, the narrator's trouble-prone relative whose antics and travails never fail to amuse. Similarly, "The Overspill" connects readers to other stories by Chappell that share the same setting, the North Carolina mountains that he knows so well where one may view the "purple-black mountain tops" or feel the comfort of "the cool-looking mint green hills." Likewise, Chappell demonstrates his mastery of Appalachian storytelling in many of these stories like "Duet," and he offers a good dose of the strong humor, including much mirthful self-critique, that is part and parcel of the same art form, especially in "Broken Blossoms." Although Ancestors and Others may not be Chappell's best offering, it is nevertheless a happy reminder of the extraordinary career of a gem of a writer/ teacher in the person of Fred Chappell. That, at least, is cause for celebration. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Appalachian Review University of North Carolina Press

Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories (review)

Appalachian Review , Volume 38 (3) – Aug 8, 2010

Loading next page...
 
/lp/university-of-north-carolina-press/ancestors-and-others-new-and-selected-stories-review-4cD4b2F7XO

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © University of North Carolina Press
ISSN
1940-5081
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Fred Chappell, Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories. New York: St. Martin's, 2009. 320 pages. Trade hardcover, $27.99. Reviewed by Warren J. Carson Fred Chappell's Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories (2009) brings together twenty-one of this magnificent storyteller's favorite stories gathered from the last three decades of his work with several new works into a single volume that many will find delightful, as only Fred Chappell can delight readers. The previously published stories demonstrate the breadth of Chappell's fictive vision and his fascination with history and fantasy. Stories like "Linnaeus Forgets" and "Moments of Light" that focus on the plant specialist Carl Linnaeus and master composer Franz Joseph Haydn are examples of these. Though well written and interesting enough, they seem not to represent Chappell at his best and, frankly, often seem much too contrived. Rather, the stories that show Chappell at his best are those that are set in the mountains of North Carolina, a geographical and artistic terrain that he knows much better and renders with more emotion and believability. Of the new stories, the opening selection, "The Overspill," is one of the most poignant, as the narrator returns to "the small town of Tipton, where the Challenger Paper and Fiber Corporation smoked eternally." With this evocative opening, Chappell focuses in on a young boy's growing sense of closeness with his father while experiencing an unfathomable loss due to man's manipulation of nature and an overriding disregard for human life. This story, too, reconnects readers with the irrepressible Uncle Luden, the narrator's trouble-prone relative whose antics and travails never fail to amuse. Similarly, "The Overspill" connects readers to other stories by Chappell that share the same setting, the North Carolina mountains that he knows so well where one may view the "purple-black mountain tops" or feel the comfort of "the cool-looking mint green hills." Likewise, Chappell demonstrates his mastery of Appalachian storytelling in many of these stories like "Duet," and he offers a good dose of the strong humor, including much mirthful self-critique, that is part and parcel of the same art form, especially in "Broken Blossoms." Although Ancestors and Others may not be Chappell's best offering, it is nevertheless a happy reminder of the extraordinary career of a gem of a writer/ teacher in the person of Fred Chappell. That, at least, is cause for celebration.

Journal

Appalachian ReviewUniversity of North Carolina Press

Published: Aug 8, 2010

There are no references for this article.