Leigh Allison Wilson is, as one of her narrators says of the country music lover, "an inveterate truth seeker who, deep down, believes every word is at best a pack of decent lies and at worst a matter of opinion." This debut collection was one of the first two winners of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.
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When Leigh Wilson sets her pen to it, she can inscribe grim parables of pretentious morality and outright evil that will curdle your blood.
" -
Georgia Review"
Short stories with a corrosive, bent, off-beat quality brighten From the Bottom Up. Characters one can't easily forget . . . Wilson's work has a Tennessee regionalism that shifts to universal dimensions.
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Los Angeles Times"
The view of the world is 'from the bottom up,' as sturdy and unsentimental as country music . . . notable and worthy addition to collections of short fiction.
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Library Journal"
Leigh Allison Wilson is a very talented short-story teller. . . . She cares with gentle sadness for her curious Southerners, and she paints them with vivid rue. Her talent is striking, her first book superb and successful.
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Best Sellers"
She writes of simple people with simple ideas that somehow go awry. Wilson is carving out her own share of the Southern territory and she hones it exceedingly well. Her characters are funny and exasperating and entertaining.
" - Nancy Shapiro,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch