SOURCE: Price, Joanna. “Shiloh, and Other Stories.” In Understanding Bobbie Ann Mason, pp. 20–53. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

In the following essay, Price examines Mason's use of central themes and metaphoric images to illustrate how the characters in Shiloh, and Other Stories adapt to changes in their daily lives and in their landscape.

Mason's first collection of short stories, Shiloh, and Other Stories, was generally well-received by critics. Robert Towers observed that Mason “is one of those rare writers who, by concentrating their attention on a few square miles of native turf, are able to open up new and surprisingly wide worlds for the delighted reader.’¹ Anne Tyler recognized Mason as already “a full-fledged master of the short story.” Tyler applauded Mason's compassionate treatment of her characters who, although feeling “bewilderment” at the changes that confront them, nevertheless try to adapt to them with an “optimistic faith...