It seems unlikely that such a hodgepodge could offer the thoroughness of a traditional autobiography, but Small Town Girls does. The book’s format is an apt reflection of its themes. Like the best of Ms. Phillips’s fiction, its structure mimics the fracturing of modern American life as she has witnessed it ... Both epic and intimate ... This has been her literary project: to remember, to revive, to conjure, to connect, in images shuffled and shaped into stories.
Lovely, multifaceted ... Phillips brings to this memoir the kind of resonant details and sharp insights that have enriched her fiction ... At once nostalgic and clear-eyed.
Rich with evocative descriptions of her hometown, Buckhannon, W.Va. ... Her love and respect for the people and their pasts, and for the splendor of the landscape give the writing at times the feel of a meditation, one that is ideally served by the eloquence and precision of the author’s prose ... Brilliantly detailed ... One of the finest descriptions I have read of how a fiction writer’s mind works.
Quietly devastating ... Like much of her work, Small Town Girls is worth savoring and is deeply satisfying. Though it may be less cohesive than a linear memoir, it nevertheless retains the intimacy that we expect from the book’s title ... In the end, Small Town Girls offers a masterclass in the art of the personal essay, one that reminds us of the tools at our disposal to negotiate our confidences, our memories, and our secret lives.
Phillips’ essays treat the reader to a mosaic of her voices: humorous, scholarly, pensive, nostalgic. A sparkling introduction to the author for those who don’t know her, and a peek behind the scenes of her life for those who do.
A powerful essay collection about Phillips’ personal 'somewhere', the tiny Appalachian town she left physically but never in spirit ... Though Phillips’ written experience is specific, the themes of golden nostalgia coupled with an itch to find ourselves in the great big world is universal among the small town girls.
Phillips’ prose is unflagging in its beauty and rhythm, and the memoir-leaning pieces have a special glow, infused with her profound nostalgia for her Appalachian childhood ... West Virginia has no more eloquent and grateful daughter. Boy, can she write.
Pulitzer-winning novelist Phillips (Night Watch) takes a lyrical look at her West Virginia upbringing in this wonderful memoir-in-essays ... Equal parts wistful and pragmatic, Phillips’s autopsy of rural mid-century America doubles as a haunting and insightful self-portrait. Even readers unfamiliar with the author’s fiction will be riveted.
