Hannah sets his characters against an established order, a background of normalcy, in which the freakish, the nonconformist, and the unusual is at the forefront. Implicit is the assumption that the polite and genteel nature of society, especially Southern society, is only a thin veneer. Behind it are grim realities and sordid existences that belie the cheerful, complacent face of society.

Most of the stories in Airships employ a contemporary Southern setting.

Hannah's image of the New South still owes much to the Gothic traditions of Southern fiction. Junk cars replace cypress moss, but the New South carries the weight of the past.

Several of the stories in Airships are set during the Civil War and focus on individual humanity of characters caught up in gruesome battles. Combat, and violence in general, is never an impersonal or abstract action in Hannah's fiction. All of the Civil...