In the Miro District

by Peter Taylor

In this magnificent collection of eight exquisite short
A Tennessee man ponders his sister's marriage -- and his parents' strange participation in its undoing.
A country cousin staying with relative in Nashville becomes her own most severe -- and tragic -- critic.
A writer discovers the true meaning of heroism in a visit to his elderly mother.
And in the masterful title story, a teenage boy provokes his grandfather to a move neither could have expected.

Genres: Short Stories

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor was a U.S. author and writer. Considered to be one of the finest American short story writers, Taylor's fictional milieu is the urban South. His characters, usually middle or upper class people, often are living in a time of change and struggle to discover and define their roles in society.
Peter Taylor also wrote three novels, including A Summons to Memphis in 1986, for which he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and In the Tennessee Country in 1994. His collection The Old Forest and Other Stories (1985) won the PEN/Faulkner Award. Taylor taught literature and writing at Kenyon and the University of Virginia.

Reviews

[Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been a while since I rated anything this well. Why this collection of stories? It describes Nashville in the first quarter of the 20th century: a magical point of transformation from the Old South to what was to become. The language is reflective of the times. You can almost taste it. You can feel that juxtaposition of what was, the elegance and slowness of time, and what will be. What is “The Miro District”; the last story in the collection and my favorite will tell you. Four of these stories are standard prose, four are told in a narrative verse. At first I was taken aback by the narrative verse, but I ultimately found it no more difficult to read than standard prose, but was not sure it added that much to the experience for me. I do not recommend this collection of stories to everyone. I expect some would simply be bored by it. But if you read and enjoyed Faulkner’s The Reivers and other similar stories that contrast life in small-town South versus life in big-city South, you might very well enjoy a view from the other side.

[Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nashville, locals like to say, is a small town disguised as a big city. As growth explodes in Music City, it can still feel like a little insular. That feeling is captured in this collection of stories and poems by Peter Taylor. Each story shows people in the course of making discoveries that often upend their lives. Standing out as the best of a strong group is the title story, where a boy in 1925 Nashville has a confrontation with his Confederate veteran grandfather, a man with whom he has never been close. While many of these stories have humorous moments, they are full of the feeling of loss that marks so much of the best of Southern literature. Peter Taylor is thought of as a master of this form of storytelling, especially with his short stories. Pick up this collection and see a master at the top of his powers.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Peter Taylor’s work has often been compared to Chekhov, several critics have simply viewed him as a Southern regional writer of memoir stories. I'm not sure where he'll ultimately land in the pantheon. Given that I haven't revisited his work since the recent controversy over the Confederacy and the South's continued reckoning with history, I have to admit I approached reading this collection with some trepidation. While Taylor wrote from the perspective and heady pedestal of genteel privilege, I think it can still be acknowledged that his work was hardly conventional. Throughout his stories and novels, he remained a keen observer and critic of the very class in which he existed. Yes, there were several cringe-worthy moments in reading these stories in 2022, but as a whole, I still found them ultimately rewarding, and at times even fresh in ways I hadn't expected. Taylor veers into sexuality and even deviates into Southern Gothic territory at one point(“The Hand of Emmagene”), and several of the stories here are experimentally written in verse form. One could argue that the title story (about a grandfather who fought in the Confederacy at age 16) remains, at its heart, a story about trauma, and its lasting effects on individuals. “Likely I’m the onliest man or boy who ever called Bedford Forrest a son-of-a-bitch and lived,” Major Basil Manley says at one point. I have no idea what Taylor would say in 2021 about the removal of the statue of Bedford Forrest from the state capital of Tennessee (he died in 1994), but after reading this, I like to think he would’ve also come down on the right side of history.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good short stories & enjoyed the ones in verse. Bravo’s Southern Charm wishes it was Taylor’s setting & characters. Crisp writing with jarring diction taking you back to the “genteel South.” Never heard of Taylor before this read; glad I read this: a nicer Updike of sorts.

[Arnie Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are stories of Nashville in the 1920s, a time when Southern aristocracy was slowly disappearing. Few of the Confederate soldiers are still alive and the world is changing. Taylor explores this time and place in a style all his own.

[Gu Kun · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read four of the eight stories: the first three, and the last and longest one, the title story. Then I'd had enough of a taste. Well-written, in good plain unembellished English, with a subject matter that is interesting enough - human frailty leading to the deterioration of relationships; but somehow they didn't grab me, and I found myself getting impatient towards the middle. These tales are simply not on a level with those told by, say, Erskine Caldwell or (my idol) John Steinbeck.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, but not as much as I thought I was going to after reading the first story. His writing is excellent, his characters well constructed and 'sense of place' is on-point, and yet, I never really found my groove with this collection. Yes, I enjoyed it, but I doubt that I will read it again. Although, it had made me very interested to read A Summons To Memphis.

[Jo Ann Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to wonder how I've missed Peter Taylor all these years--lovely stories about the South during the early twentieth century.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful....love the poems