Some Soul to Keep (Masterplots II: African American Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Joan California Cooper
- First Published: 1987
- Type of Work: Short stories
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The late twentieth century
- Setting: The United States
- Principal Characters: Superior, Jewel, Glenellen, Molly, Isobel, Birdie, Reva, Bessie, Mavis, Christine
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Philosophy or philosophers, Sex or sexuality, Murder or homicide, Twentieth century, Blindness or blind persons, Marriage, Prostitution or prostitutes, Poverty or poor people, Storytelling, Women, Self-confidence, Adoption or adopted children, Truthfulness and falsehood, Ku Klux Klan, Disabilities or physically challenged persons, Dentistry or dentists, Orphans or orphanages
- Locales: United States
The Stories
Some Soul to Keep is made up of five stories, all of which are sufficiently long and eventful to seem like miniature novels. All are told by female narrators and are intended to be read aloud so that the subtleties of the black dialect can be fully appreciated. These narrators are strongly opinionated and frequently interrupt their narratives to interject philosophical observations. Cooper violates many sacrosanct conventions of modern story writing. It might be more accurate to call these five short works “tales,” because they have an episodic quality...
[The entire page is 2348 words long]
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