Southern Fried Women

Southern Fried Women by Pamela King Cable

Southern Fried Women
Author: Pamela Cable
ISBN: 978-1-9358740-7-2
Price: $16.95
Pub Date: August 2011

Summary

Pamela King Cable has woven together the music, the language, the religions, and the traditions of the South. The result is Southern Fried Women, a collection of nine short stories about Southern women, and a few men, struggling to find answers to unanswerable questions, hoping for forgiveness, seeking righteousness, and questioning the existence of God in their lives. Cable writes Southern fiction in the true spirit of the rural South. She can ruffle the feathers of the most stoic, mess with the beliefs of the strictest fundamentalists, and reel you into her stories like a stubborn catfish meant for the fryer. In stories with themes ranging from flea markets to coal mine strikes, once you have met her Southern Fried Women, they will be with you forever. A delightful collection of short stories that weave together the music, the language, the religions and the traditions of the South. Sometimes seriously and sometimes with humor, these stories examine everything from love and death to racial conflict and tragedy. The Southern Fried Women portrayed within each story are as realistic as any you have ever met, facing common situations and obstacles with all the charm and tenacity they can muster.

My Thoughts

This book of short stories is a treat to read! If you love the picture on the cover, you will be happy to see each story starts with a photograph and an introduction from Pamela King Cable explaining her inspiration for the story. I am a huge fan of old photos, so the photos really spoke to me. I found it interesting to get into Pamela's head and see how each character and their story was born. It made the characters and their stories very real to me.

The stories are very unique. These are not all feel good, sugary stories. These Southern Fried Women have not had easy lives. They are tough women battling problems some of us can only imagine. In the end, they overcome and stand tall.

Some of these stories are dark and disturbing as Pamela even warns us about in the introduction to one such story, Old Time Religion. I found myself gasping and thinking about many of these stories long after I read them. On the flip side, some of the characters had me laughing out loud at their thoughts and antics.

I highly recommend this book of short stories. Pamela King Cable is a wonderfully gifted storyteller! I look forward to reading more from her in the future. If you are a fan of Southern fiction, you will enjoy these stories.



Thank you to Julie from Satya House Publications for sending me this wonderful book for review.