A Ruth Suckow Omnibus

by Ruth Suckow, Clarence A. Andrews (Introduction)

Overview

This collection of ten short stories and one novella reintroduces a superb regional writer whose fiction, though firmly planted in the soil of the Midwest, stretches in significance to include all human drama.

Despite her wide experience, Ruth Suckow became and remained a writer interested in small-town and small-city life. All her fiction contains deep and penetrating insights into the motivations of characters who are upheld by their dreams, memories of small-town childhoods, and the need to make sense of the contrast between past and present, idealism and practicality, conformity and individualism. These expressive, resonant stories will be welcomed by all new readers and by Ruth Suckow fans everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587292323
Publisher:	University of Iowa Press
Publication date:	08/01/1988
Series:	Bur Oak Book
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	342 KB

About the Author

 Ruth Suckow (1892-1960) grew up in rural Iowa as the daughter of a Congregationalist minister. She studied at Grinnell College and at the University of Denver. She traveled throughout the U.S., living and writing in Greenwich Village, at Robert Frost’s home, at the Yaddo writing community in New York, and at her farm in Earlville, Iowa.

Table of Contents

Contents Ruth Suckow, by Clarence A. Andrews Susan and the Doctor Home-coming A Part of the Institution Visiting The Crick What Have I? A Great Mollie Three, Counting the Cat Midwestern Primitive The Little Girl from Town The Man of the Family

Editorial Reviews

The republication of these 11 stories and the title novella by Iowa writer Suckow (1892-1960) is a welcome event. Several are from Children and Older People (1931), others from magazines like Good Housekeeping and Smart Set. A regionalist, Suckow celebrates with gentle humor the foibles and emotional richness of unsophisticated folk stuck on the farm or in small towns. The title novella is a triumphant evocation, laced with irony, of turn-of-the-century collegiate life. Not only is it riveting fiction about Hester, who imbibes the school spirit all too thoroughly, but it's a gold mine for social historians. The high price of adultery for a pretty woman in a gossipy town is delineated with bitter charm in ``Susan and the Doctor.'' A visit from the in-laws to a ``Godforsaken burg in Colorado'' is treated in ``Visiting.'' When ladies of the club get together in ``What Have I?'' the memory of an old scandal unnerves Winifred. ``The Crick'' and ``The Little Girl from Town'' are about childhood. These delightful tales of nostalgic Americana are just right for summertime reading in the backyard or on the front porch swing. (August)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly