Four
short stories . In ‘ Slave Auction’,
after the master of a plantation dies, his heirs sell off his slaves. Four-year-old
Horatio, who has always been safe and secure, living in a cabin with his mother,
is ripped from her arms and sold at auction.
In ‘Missus
Buck’ young Horatio is bought by a
plantation owned by Missus Buck’s son. Missus Buck believes her son married
beneath him, and consequently treats her daughter-in-law with contempt, which
also extends to the plantation slaves. When her son takes his family on a trip,
leaving her in charge, her mistreatment of the slaves leads to dire
consequences.
In ‘The Dust Storm’, set during the Great Depression, Muriel and
her husband Palmer are trying to eke out a living on a small farm in the Texas
Dust Bowl. It has been a hard year for the family, and Muriel wants to give up
and go back East. But the idea of owning his own farm has been Palmer's dream
all his life. Will Muriel leave without him?
In ‘The Hankering’, Miss Carmelia Faye Lafayette runs away from an
abusive home when she is 16. She meets Hank at a traveling minstrel show,
marries him, and they travel all over Mississippi and Louisiana with the show.
They save their money and buy ‘The Hankering’, a juke joint in Mississippi.
After Hank is killed in a knife fight, Miss Carmelia runs the joint by herself.
I’m not a big fan of short stories, and I didn’t find these
particularly well-written.
86 pages
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