White Boys and River Girls: Stories

by Paula K. Gover

Paula Gover likes to catch her people just as they are about to risk one last chance at love. And, in the hands of a writer who intuitively understands the nuances of intimate conversation as well as she does the deepest roots of motivation, even those characters with the most to hide end up relinquishing their secrets.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

225 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 1995

Reviews

[Rachel Jackson · Rating 1 out of 5]

With each story in White Boys and River Girls I kept waiting for there to be some connection, some theme, some moral that wound all of them together, not necessarily the characters but some overarching trend that each story was about. That never came. Instead, the stories were centered around weird middle-age love stories especially involving second marriages, second loves, teenage children, racial relationships (but not even ones with morals) and a lot of misogyny and sexualizing toward female children. The only decent stories were“Bastard Child,” which didn’t even become decent until the last few pages, and "Chances With Johnson," which was the last story, too little too late on quality. All the stories were strange, lacking self-respect, lacking a semblance of any real story beyond characters who either hate each other or treat each other with indifference. What was the point of it all? I don’t know.

The blurbs on the back cover of this book claim that Paula K. Gover should be compared to Flannery O’Connor for her depictions of southern life. What an insult to Flannery O’Connor.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good writing, and good descriptions of people living hard lives. Each one was hard to read with the content, but the writing made each impossible to stop reading.

[Joseph Koffel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a beautiful collection of short stories, 5/5 little library find

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

White Boys and River Girls by Paula K. Gover (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 1995) (Fiction). This is a short story collection; most are set in Savannah. I read 7 of 9. I kept waiting for them to get better. My rating: 3/10, finished 2006.