SOURCE: A review of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories, in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 11, No. 3, Summer, 1974, pp. 319–20.

In the following review, Poindexter finds a thematic pattern to the stories compiled in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Six of the nine stories in this collection [Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories] were published earlier in little magazines, mostly Southern. All of them are alike in that they deal with small town or rural life in the South, although the setting does not carry any special regional significance.

What does run through these pieces is a similarity of theme that portrays the alienation and isolation of a heroine. Only the last story, “Ben Watts is Dead in Virginia,” and “The Spider Gardens of Madagascar” present a male as the central character. Violet Karl in “The Pilgrim” is isolated and ingrown because she considers herself...