The Pedestal Magazine > Archives > ISSUE FORTY-THREE: Dec (07)-Feb (08) > Reviews >Surreal South...reviewed by Okla Elliott



Surreal South
Eds. Laura Benedict and Pinckney Benedict
Press 53
ISBN Number: 978-0979304972

Reviewer: Okla Elliott



Editors Laura Benedict (Isabella Moon) and Pinckney Benedict (Dogs of God) have created what is being billed as the first in a biannual anthology of literature that melds surrealism and southern culture (both terms being interpreted broadly). What is perhaps most striking, and risky, about the concept is how it explodes/expands surrealism (by grounding it) while also exploding/expanding southern literature (by freeing it). Critics of experimental or surreal writing often bemoan its lack of grounding to daily life, while critics of southern literature claim that it´s outdated or somehow detached from contemporary life, which is urban and digital, not pastoral and earthy. In effect, the marriage of these two categories of literature revitalizes both.

And for this first volume, they have gathered together an array of writers that rivals any New York press anthology. The heavy-hitters for this volume of the Surreal South include Andrew Hudgins, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee K Abbott, Robert Olen Butler, Chris Offutt, and Rodney Jones. These are some of the most lauded names in contemporary writing, and here we have them breaking all the rules, going surreal or sci-fi, or just plain weird. Fans and first-time readers of these well-known authors will be surprised by what they find here.

Then there are the up-and-comers. There´s Kyle Minor, author of the story collection In the Devil´s Territory (Dzanc Books, 2008), whose work has appeared in the Gettysburg Review, Mid-American Review, Southern Review, and Random House´s Twenty-Something Essays by Twenty-Something Writers. His story “The Truth and All its Ugly" uses all of the tools of psychological realism and traditional narrative to lend heartrending impact to this story set in Appalachia about a boy, the boy´s suicide, and his robot replica that breaks his mother´s heart. And there are equally impressive pieces from other early-career authors such as Benjamin Percy, author of the story collections Refresh, Refresh and The Language of Elk, and Jacinda Townsend, a professor in the MFA program at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

In the final analysis, this is an anthology that could have failed utterly, given the volatile mix of genre writing and high southern literature it attempts, but instead it shines. Surreal South is highly recommended for both readers of genre fiction (sci-fi and horror specifically) and for the lover of literary poetry and prose. It is also recommended for university library collections.
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