Ozark Superstitions: A Collection
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This collection of linked short stories explores the storytelling traditions of a family that continues to deal with the results of a past trauma in their day-to-day lives. The three members of the Taile family struggle to maintain their small farm in the rural Missouri Ozarks at the turn of the twenty-first century. The collection follows the narratives of two sisters, Corrie and Jenny Taile, whose mother died shortly after birth of the youngest daughter. The dueling narrative is interrupted in key places by their father’s stories that extend beyond the traumatic event and provide links to the past. A motherless girl buys tampons from the local feed store, where she becomes trapped in conversation with a ranting local. A young woman goes noodling for catfish by the riverside with her friends while sharing secrets and barbequed meat. A boy comes home from school one day to find his mother covered in dog blood. Ultimately, this collection depicts storytelling is an act of power, a matter of inheritance, and a negotiation of belief.
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Introduction -- Ozark Superstitions -- Hollering -- Blood -- Utterances -- The Chicken House -- Bone -- Bad Blood between -- Water Cats -- Fire -- Silver Thaw -- Stone -- Dead Animals
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M.F.A.