The Widows of Thornton

by Peter Taylor

The eight stories and one short play that make up this book revolve around black and white families who once lived in the small town of Thornton, Tennessee. "The stories . . . are outwardly simple, but psychologically complex and powerful, and under the surface of events in the regions he knows best the author discloses the universal longings of the human heart."--New York Times.

Genres: Short Stories

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

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

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hurray for the extended short story, which seems to have lost its way in the 21st century (with the exception of Alice Munro, perhaps). Peter Taylor's ability to capture the female point of view remains uncanny (although I'm told he grew up in a house full of women). "The Dark Walk" is as fine a depiction of widowhood as I've encountered. Fans of Elizabeth Spencer will enjoy this collection.

[Wherefore Art Thou · Rating 4 out of 5]

These were all quite nice stories, some more memorable than others. I particularly liked The Dark Walk and how well it handled the psychology of moving from place to place, and how choices can be superimposed upon oneself by others, even when the motive was nothing other than selfishness.

Some of them don’t really have an ending beyond the story stopping, and while black people were treated with dignity for the most part, there were some casual racism moments, like when the n-word was used as an adjective to describe a hat. In 2024, that’s not a very helpful adjective, what did you mean by that Peter? I’m not googling that phase sir.