SOURCE: Burke, William. “Bloodline: A Black Man's South.” CLA Journal 19, no. 4 (June 1976): 545-58.

In the following essay, Burke views the five stories in Bloodline as “the record of changing race relations in America.”

One of the finest collections of short stories published in the past few years—Bloodline by Ernest Gaines (New York: Dial Press, 1968, to which all page numbers refer)—has gone generally unrecognized by literary critics in spite of its praise by reviewers, and it is time to give the volume recognition. The five stories in the collection demonstrate their excellence in two ways: they are human stories—moving, humorous, ironic; and they are symbolic—which tradition tells us is a quality of all great literature. Several of the five stories, usually “A Cold Day in November” or “The Sky Is Gray,” have appeared in various anthologies, but this kind of exposure is insufficient. As compelling...