Items related to Follow Me Home: Short Stories
William Hoffman is a master storyteller, and Follow Me Home reveals him at his inimitable best. In these eleven brilliantly observed, superbly crafted stories, he explores one of the most secret places of the human heart - the corner where we keep hidden the small and precious supply of whatever it is that lets us persist, and sometimes even triumph, in the face of life's inescapable diminishments and losses.
In Hoffman's characters, the content of this inner reservoir varies greatly. For the hill farmer in "Abide with Me," it is a form of direct grace granted to him in a near-death vision. For the disabled veteran in "Night Sport," it is a bitter concoction of disillusionment and raw truth carried home from a distant war. For the quietly retired minister in "Sweet Armageddon," unexpectedly given a glimpse of the life he long ago forsook, it is a prayerful wish for annihilation.
On a less apocalyptic scale, in the haunting "Points," a once-great horseman finds sustenance in a remembered world of elegance and courage - a world that, like his skills, is rapidly fading. In "Dancer," a bereft and lonely woman retreats into the music of her youth, birds becoming quarter notes that fill the sky. In "Expiation," a self-made executive after many years comes to terms with his own childhood, even though it means ending the lie on which his marriage is built. And in "Coals," a maid and cook calls on her own reserves of spirit to bring her employer a renewal of life.
Set in the small towns, cities, hills, and seascapes of Virginia - territory Hoffman knows as well as any writer ever has - the stories of Follow Me Home reveal to us men and women we know and care about, for in their struggles, win or lose, we recognize ourselves.
In Hoffman's characters, the content of this inner reservoir varies greatly. For the hill farmer in "Abide with Me," it is a form of direct grace granted to him in a near-death vision. For the disabled veteran in "Night Sport," it is a bitter concoction of disillusionment and raw truth carried home from a distant war. For the quietly retired minister in "Sweet Armageddon," unexpectedly given a glimpse of the life he long ago forsook, it is a prayerful wish for annihilation.
On a less apocalyptic scale, in the haunting "Points," a once-great horseman finds sustenance in a remembered world of elegance and courage - a world that, like his skills, is rapidly fading. In "Dancer," a bereft and lonely woman retreats into the music of her youth, birds becoming quarter notes that fill the sky. In "Expiation," a self-made executive after many years comes to terms with his own childhood, even though it means ending the lie on which his marriage is built. And in "Coals," a maid and cook calls on her own reserves of spirit to bring her employer a renewal of life.
Set in the small towns, cities, hills, and seascapes of Virginia - territory Hoffman knows as well as any writer ever has - the stories of Follow Me Home reveal to us men and women we know and care about, for in their struggles, win or lose, we recognize ourselves.
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About the Author:
William Hoffman has worked as a teacher of English at Hampden-Sydney College.
From Kirkus Reviews:
``I coulda married Joe Morgan, who owns three Tastee Freezes,'' a wife tells her husband--not unkindly--in Hoffman's third collection (after By Land, By Sea, 1988). It's just this sort of low ambition that runs like a fault line through these competent but commonplace stories. ``Home'' is the mid-South, by turns genteel, grotesque and seedy. Hoffman's range is broad, but the track is well worn: Feisty widows drink ``tonic'' and bemoan their faded beauty; horses are noble and bird dogs soft of mouth; great-great-grandaddy was a Confederate colonel and a US senator. At their best, these stories relate with great tenderness the small kindnesses people share: Celeste, the black maid in ``Coals,'' antagonizes but ultimately comforts her grieving white employer; the retired and embittered preacher in ``Sweet Armageddon'' prays for doomsday but is solicitous toward his wife, regretful of the poverty to which his principled stubbornness has reduced them. At their worst, the pre-fab familiarity of character and situation dulls the intended effect. ``Abide With Me,'' meant to be a raucous tall tale about a man who sees God and raises a statue in tribute, degenerates instead into a catalogue of tired bumpkin caricatures and cute southern colloquialisms. Like the anglophile fox hunter in ``Points,'' for whom the chase is ``choosing to reach back into the best epochs the centuries had to offer, as well as a statement of where one stood in respect to a world becoming increasingly common, disordered, and hateful,'' many of these characters--aging, fighting irrelevance, confronted with evidence of their own deterioration as well as that of society--seek refuge from the inhospitable present in the past. In the best southern literary tradition, they are more often haunted than comforted by their heritage. Well-crafted, but oh so familiar. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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- PublisherLouisiana State Univ Pr
- Publication date1994
- ISBN 10 0807118354
- ISBN 13 9780807118351
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages213
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Follow Me Home: Short Stories
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Louisiana State Univ Pr
(1994)
ISBN 10: 0807118354
ISBN 13: 9780807118351
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: First printing. Dust Jacket Condition: Mylar dust cover. 1994 stated first printing hardback is inscribed by William Hoffman is personalized no marks and is in very good condition with mylar dustAND AS ALWAYS SHIPPED IN 24 HOURS; and emailed to you a USPS tracking number on all orders; all books are sanitized and cleaned for your protection before mailing. PLEASE NOTE OVER SEAS BUYERS if the book extra large or heavy there will be additional postage due to the new US Postage rates. Signed inscribed. Seller Inventory # 171119033S
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