The Importance of Stories

Wingate scatters several acknowledgments of the importance of both oral and written stories through the course of her novel The Book of Lost Friends. Mattie and Hannie recite the names of their lost relatives, an oral story used to help them remember where each family member went and who bought them. Granny T dresses in costume to tell Benny’s students the story of Hannie, her grandmother, and her role in the library. Benny and LaJuna bond over the books left at Goswood Grove with no one to learn from them or enjoy them.

Mittie starts early teaching Hannie the importance of stories as she makes up a chant to help them remember where all of their relatives have gone. Hannie narrates: “Every chance there is, Mama says them words in my ear - who’s been carried away from us, and what...