If you are unfamiliar with the brilliant writing of Diane Oliver, you are not alone. An Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate, Oliver’s life was cut short at just 22 when she was killed in a car accident. Talented beyond her years, Oliver rendered life in the US South with an ease and an understanding that brought the intricate complexities of integration front and center. These are lyrical and layered stories exploring the full range of women’s lives.

Another collection of short stories that has blown me away. All the more amazing because Diane Oliver wrote these prior to her death in 1966 at the age of just 22. The introduction by Tayari Jones exalts the stories and Oliver’s writing and asks why she is not often included in the lists of famous and influential Authors from her time. Described as “crisply told and often chilling tales that explore race and racism in 1950s and 60s America”, I had to request it from @netgalley and was thrilled when I was approved.

Each story captured my imagination and attention and held me throughout. They are written simply, factually, but with huge insight into the times. She does not shy away from any topic, but also writes about the mundane day to day occurrences in a way that make you reflect and ponder. I was so tense reading some of them that I was gripping my kindle and making my knuckles sore.

My personal favourites were "Mint Juleps not Served Here" – sooo good. It’s about a family sick of racism so they’ve built a home for themselves deep in a forest away from people, and what happens when they have a visitor of a ‘do good’ welfare woman trying to get them to enrol their child in school. And ‘Neighbors’ which, using Ruby Bridges as inspiration tells the story of the night before a little boy is due to be the first child to integrate an all white school. It is told through the eyes of his big sister who is fearful of how this will be for her little brother. It is a not often looked at angle, and even in the introduction Tayari Jones mentions how it was an important first step towards desegregation in schools and although we’ve all seen the pictures of the little girl being escorted into the school, no one shows the inside which was empty as other parents had kept their white children home. No one talks about how it would have felt for Ruby or her family being that first one at such a young age.

Also – look at that cover!!! What a work of art. It is frameable.

Thank you so much @netgalley for my gifted ebook. I loved it and would highly recommend to anyone.

I absolutely loved reading this book of short stories. I was completely drawn into the topics and could not stop reading it.