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Sitting Up With the Dead - by Pamela Petro (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- An enthralling, rollicking tour among the storytellers of the American Deep South.
- Author(s): Pamela Petro
- 452 Pages
- Social Science, Folklore & Mythology
Description
Book Synopsis
An enthralling, rollicking tour among the storytellers of the American Deep South.
The story of the South is not finished. The southeastern states of America, the old Confederacy, bristle with storytellers who refuse to be silent. Many of the tales passed down from generation to generation to be told and re-told continue to change their shape to suit their time, stretching elastically to find new ways of retailing the People's Truth. Travelling back and forth, from the Carolinas to Louisiana, from the Appalachians to Atlantic islands, from Virginian valleys to Florida swamps, and sitting before bewitching storytellers who tell her tales that hold her hard, Pamela Petro gathers up a fistful of history, and sieves out of it the shiny truths that these stories have been polishing over the years. Here is another America altogether, lingering on behind the façade of the ubiquitous strip-mall of anodyne, branded commerce and communication, moving to other rhythms, reaching back into the past to clutch at the shattering events that shaped it and haunt it still.
Review Quotes
"[Petro] is an adventurous, inquisitive writer who brings a perfect balance of reverence and scrutiny to her subject, and in SITTING UP WITH THE DEAD she has created a literary feast that is both delicious and nutritious.... From tales of cunning and quick wit to love stories tinged with tragedy and to eerie ghost lore, all are comforting in their ability to transport the reader to the childlike state of captivated listener, then to travel ahead to other times, places and dimensions of reality."
"Pamela Petro offers a richly layered view of the American South.... Her chorus of voices cuts across centuries and continents, knitting together Europe and Africa and these American states, into a most unusual and fascinating narrative."
"Petro has a journalist's eye for detail and a good professor's way with exegesis and that makes SITTING UP WITH THE DEAD much more than just an anthology of colorful stories. This is a book that honors stories and storytelling and reminds us that we all have our tales to tell."