Plantatia

"Southern fried stories--Plantatia by Dixon Hearne -Dixon Hearne teaches in Southern California, but his roots run deep in the Mississippi Deltaas do his stories. Plantatia: High-toned and Low-down Stories of the South is set deep in magnolia country, where a variety of characters in rural settings and small towns deal with life and each other. The title tale re-examines race and class, as Plantatia, an illegitimate, barely literate young woman trades a bad employer for a good one. In another, a small-town love triangle leads to a knock-down, drag-out bar fight and a shot at fame on Maury Povichs show. A standard device to start a love storya man spies a woman bathing near a bayou sandbarturns out to be anything but straightforward. These stories rely on character development, and demonstrate that country or Southern are not synonyms for dumb. Instead, there are wise folks and fools, and its not as easy as one might think to tell the two apart."--Sacramento News and Review.