Home Remedies
by Angela Pneuman
Published by A Harvest Book
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Reviewed by Laura Langer
Short stories are a very American genre, and Angela Pneuman takes this genre to a very particular American place: Kentucky. In her stories, young girls try to cope with their mother’s divorces, there is always a preacher in the background or foreground, and even childhood friendships are complex and demanding.
The title story features Lena, sick with strep throat, and Mrs. Shefferd, the woman who comes to take care of Lena during the day while her mother June is at work. June is suffering through a divorce and trying to keep her daughter close to her and far away from her ex-husband and his new familiy. Lena, exhausted from balancing between her parents, turns to Mrs. Shefferd for the simple relief of someone who is both ordinary and exotic. She is ordinary because she feeds Lena chicken soup and medicine, but exotic through the stories she tells of her mother Hat, and the tradition of home healing she learned from her.
There is an undercurrent in this story, and in most of the stories in the collection, of something unbalanced or slightly menacing. Divorce can unbalance the best of families, and perhaps menacing things at a slight distance are a relief from the terror of pacing out the territory between two estranged people who loved each once and no longer do.
Pneuman’s prose is filled with sharp images, and her portrayal of the lives of young girls is so clear that even decades later, the reader can feel once again what it is to try to stay close to those we love while carving out our own place in Life. The pain of the mothers is as poignant as the discomfort of the daughters, and Pneuman favors neither—which is a tough line to maintain.
It would be interesting to see how Pneuman takes on a different subject—one without divorce, depression, evangelistic ministers and down-on-their luck families. She’s a talented writer and she handles the short story with confidence.
Armchair Interviews says: If you’re looking for memorable writing and a sharp-eyed view of a people who are not often represented in fiction, try Home Remedies.