Bonita Byrnes comes of age during the civil rights movement in Birmingham's working class neighborhoods. Pearl, her mother, runs a boarding house. Ida, her black cook with enormous faith, becomes her confidante as Pearl goes from one bad relationship to another, leaving Bonita's father for a young Marine, just home from Korea. Their lives are complicated by what we now would call his PTSD from World War II. He drinks to excess, becomes violent at times, and moves from job to job. Lucinda, her older sister, does not like the stepfather. Bonita's father Phil marries a new wife and does very little to help with the girls though he is quick to criticize Pearl's efforts.

How Can I Keep from Singing?

Literature & Fiction

Cobb, Loretta

Genre Fiction

Livingston Pr

Bonita Byrnes comes of age during the civil rights movement in Birmingham's working class neighborhoods. Pearl, her mother, runs a boarding house. Ida, her black cook with enormous faith, becomes her confidante as Pearl goes from one bad relationship to another, leaving Bonita's father for a young Marine, just home from Korea. Their lives are complicated by what we now would call his PTSD from World War II. He drinks to excess, becomes violent at times, and moves from job to job. Lucinda, her older sister, does not like the stepfather. Bonita's father Phil marries a new wife and does very little to help with the girls though he is quick to criticize Pearl's efforts. His first wife, Priscilla, is more than willing to help Pearl and her girls. The two women bond as they care for their children together when Pearl is on hard times.

How Can I Keep from Singing

Livingston Press at the University of West Al

The Ocean Was Salt

These stories flow from a most touching recount of the Civil Rights Movement ("The Darling Buds of May" set in Oxford, MS) to a completely raucous tale of academia ("Belle's Balls"). And the subject matter ranges as widely as the tone. For instance, in "Seeing It Through," a woman diagnosed with cancer confronts and defeats her bumbling, uncaring doctor and the equally bumbling medical system in a surprisingly funny story. In "Feeling Salty," a story that Sena Naslund especially praised for its insight into father-son relations, a divorced father is confronted by his angry teenager son in a spectacular way that oddly leaves both father and son closer. Shifting locale in "Out," Cobb places two "Southern belle" friends in New York City and has them take on successive metropolitan playboys. And in a story of Alzheimer's, "And the Word Was God," we find a surprising and magical redemption. Whatever the mood, the constant running throughout Loretta Cobb's first collection is a Southern voice that adeptly crosses sexual, economic, and age barriers to paint a picture of the South moving from the early sixties to the present. In doing so, Loretta Cobb has used a Southern motif and setting to move beyond regionality to encompass everyone's problems.

Contemporary

These stories flow from a most touching recount of the Civil Rights Movement (The Darling Buds of May set in Oxford, MS) to a completely raucous tale of academia (Belle's Balls). And the subject matter ranges as widely as the tone. For instance, in Seeing It Through, a woman diagnosed with cancer confronts and defeats her bumbling, uncaring doctor and the equally bumbling medical system in a surprisingly funny story. In Feeling Salty, a story that Sena Naslund especially praised for its insight into father-son relations, a divorced father is confronted by his angry teenager son in a spectacular way that oddly leaves both father and son closer. Shifting locale in Out, Cobb places two Southern belle friends in New York City and has them take on successive metropolitan playboys. And in a story of Alzheimer's, And the Word Was God, we find a surprising and magical redemption. Whatever the mood, the constant running throughout Loretta Cobb's first collection is a Southern voice that adeptly crosses sexual, economic, and age barriers to paint a picture of the South moving from the early sixties to the present. In doing so, Loretta Cobb has used a Southern motif and setting to move beyond regionality to encompass everyone's problems.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cobb, Loretta. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cobb, Loretta

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cobb, Loretta. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

How Can I Keep from Singing?

How Can I Keep from Singing

The Ocean Was Salt

The Ocean Was Salt