Grass Widow Making My Way in Depression Alabama

"[With] twinkling humor, sharp insight, welcome forthrightness, telling allusiveness . . .Grass Widowis a well-told, high-spirited, but well-tempered story. . . . Affectingly personal, [it] is also a valuable document of and for cultural history."--Bert Hitchcock, coeditor ofAmerican Short Stories(7th edition) "A great read."--Philip Beidler, editor ofMany Voices, Many Rooms: A New Anthology of Alabama Writers Thirty years old and recently divorced, Viola Liddell comes back to her home state with her young son determined to survive, during the depths of the Depression. Unable to earn, borrow, or beg enough money to support herself and her child, Liddell uses her family connections to secure a teaching position in Camden, Alabama. Even though an older sister's status within the community helps her land the job, Liddell is warned that she must be very careful as she navigates the tricky social terrain of small town life, particularly when it comes to men. Liddell narrates the obstacles she faces as a single mother in the 1930s Deep South with self-deprecating humor and a confessional tone that reveal both her intelligence and her unapologetic ambition. Despite all the restrictions on her behavior and the crushing reality that she has become "the biggest nuisance in the family" because of her past, Liddell cheerfully and successfully builds a new life of respectability and hope. Viola Goode Liddellwas born in Wilcox County, Alabama, in 1901, and died there in 1998. She wrote short stories for a number of periodicals, including theGeorgia Reviewand theSaturday Evening Post,and is the author ofWith a Southern Accent.Liddell, Viola Goode is the author of 'Grass Widow Making My Way in Depression Alabama', published 2004 under ISBN 9780817350901 and ISBN 081735090X.