The Balm of Gilead Tree: New and Selected Stories

by Robert Morgan

Fiction. Robert Morgan has had four NEA Fellowships as well as Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships. Ten powerful new stories are collected here for the first time and seven are reprinted from his two acclaimed earlier collections. Morgan has a deft touch for the nuances of family ties, and his characters in this realistic, evocative and often lyrical collection are formidable and well-drawn -- Publishers Weekly. This beautifully crafted collection ... a procession of tales rich with narrative detail and character, told in language as plain and deep as the hills, the whole weighted with an awareness of death that looms over the the struggle for a meaningful life -- New York Times Book Review.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

344 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Robert Morgan is an American poet, short story writer, and novelist.

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Reviews

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some new stories and older stories worth revisiting. Robert Morgan is a national treasure. I feel the weight and emotions these characters are feeling, I think about the stories for days. They are so uniquely Appalachian, so shocking in the everyday brutality of life. The phrases and sections are beautifully crafted, like this,

"Lorna had never understood the sharpness of her tongue. It was a habit she had developed as a teenager, and it had grown on her over the years. She did not realize how she sounded. He had thought of recording her on tape and then playing it back to her. She would be astonished at the harshness in her voice, at the belittling tone of her comments. She knew how to be polite in public, and with her friends from church. It was only with him, and with her sisters, that side of her came out. But she was mostly a good woman, though he had not meant to spend his life with her. That was why he seemed so tolerant, why he almost never quarreled. If he let himself go, who knows what he might end up saying. He might let it out that he never wanted to marry her, never wanted to be with her. It would tear away whatever grace their life had had, pull down the scaffold and show how badly fitted and supported the really were. It would ruin her opinion and pride in herself. His very lack of feeling for her had been the essence of his devotion and patience, which so many friends had praised, especially at times when other friends had divorced."

The author is just brilliant. I am so thankful that he writes. He has elevated my life, and I'm sure the lives of countless others.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Morgan always has an interesting way writing " real" people. I liked this collection of stories.

[Rachel Doll · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories retains the same setting for all of them. Characters and thus issues change as does time. As an avid, before bed, reader these short stories were perfect to read just before bed. I would highly reccommend if you are into:

Folksiness
Short Stories
Appalachia

[April Marcuz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite of his. :(