There is no doubt that Bobbie Ann Mason is a top notch writer. Her collection of short stories in this book confirms that multiple times. Her style is somewhat unique, identifiable to Bobbie Ann, and repeated in each story. By about midway through the book, I had figured out her formula for her framework – a formula she followed for almost every short story in the book.

I call her formula the Six ‘Fs’. Each story was or had:

> Feminine based; told from the persona of a woman (one exception was Edwin in A New-Wave Format). There is often a second strong feminine persona as a mother or close friend in each story.

> Faulted relationships; a separation, a divorce, an affair, a question if the other was faithful, always a central part of the story.

>Fears; the main character either faces fears of the future, or fears of opinions of others, or both.

>Former time; the stories were set in the 1960s, 70s, 80s with one in the 40s, mostly pre-digital settings.

>Fine details; the stories were well painted (described) with realistic brands, actual places, common practices (for that era), and believable character traits

>unFinished Finale; each story ends somewhat unfinished, mid-thought sometimes. ( )

I found it refreshing to be transported back to the 70s and 80s, the period just before the dawn of personal electronic devices. I was in my teens and 20s during these decades and i really miss those days. I am not a rural person, although I did work on a farm for one summer job in 1983. the distance now in time makes it seem like another world. But the experience of attending to an elderly relative in declining health (Nancy Culpepper) is timeless. I started out by reading Bobbie Ann Mason's book about Nancy Drew, but having read these stories, I believe I will now seek out some of her novels. ( )

On our trip to Europe a few summers ago this book meant more to me than any other. So much so, I would almost say that Mason became my favorite contemporary writer, although if it came down to recommending a work, I don't really think any of the 3 I've read so far is truly "great" on its own. It's the final reflection or cumulative appeal that makes her work important to me...that and the enjoyment of reading it in the present tense!

Mason does use present tense segments quite a bit in the SHILOH stories. Normally that style doesn't appeal to me, but here it works as an appropriate mark of her down-home characters' time orientation: the past is quickly ignored (though its deep effects lurk everywhere unsuspected), while the future is only something the here & now grades into unnoticeably. I shared "Residents and Transients" and "The Retreat" with my husband, in hopes of giving him an impression of my homesick outsider's status while we visited Estonia.

Mason's evocation of the small-town American attitude is masterful. ( )

Normally I don’t pick up a volume of stories to read, but the fact that this is a well known Kentucky author, and I had read some of her other novels, I was compelled to see what was inside. I’m glad I read this book. The stories all have similar themes, and if you read it all at once like I did, the characters and plots can get a little confusing and start to run together. The author writes perfectly using the dialect and slang of country people in Kentucky. All the stories take place in western Kentucky, and familiar places like Paducah, Kentucky Lake, and Murray State University are often mentioned. I loved the characters in these stories because, if you are from Kentucky, most likely you have known people who are just like them in the way that they talk and act. All of the stories have a theme of relationships, and the characters all seemed to be yearning for something
more out of life, although what was not always clear. There is not a clean ending for most of these stories, but it is just like sampling a slice of their everyday lives. This is a nice book to pick up and read when you are on the go and don’t want to be tied down with a long novel. ( )