Customs of the Country | Customs of the Country

At a glance:

Author: Madison Smartt Bell
First Published: 1988
Type of Plot: Domestic realism
Time of Work: The 1980's
Setting: Western Virginia
Principal Characters: A young woman, Davey, Patrick, Susan
Genres: Short fiction
Subjects: Virginia, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Parents and children, Abused persons, Twentieth century, Rural or country life, 1980’s, Child abuse, Domestic violence, Substance abuse, Single parents or single-parent families, Lower classes, Drug addiction or addicts, Apartment houses
Locales: Virginia

“Customs of the Country” is narrated by a woman whose attempts to recover custody of her son lead her to settle temporarily in the rural Virginia countryside near Roanoke. The woman does what she believes to be all the right things to convince authorities of her fitness as a mother, hoping that the child will be removed from foster care and returned to her. She rents a small apartment in a cluster-housing development, where through the thin walls, she is able to hear her neighbors quarreling. Occasionally, she hears a man beating a woman, but she does nothing to...

Customs of the Country | Customs of the Country

At a glance:

The Story

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