CRITICISM

Fuller, Jack. “Bobbie Ann Mason Sees Reality on Sale at K Mart.” Chicago Tribune (19 February 1989): sec. 14, p. 1.

Fuller criticizes Mason for populating her stories with clichéd characters and situations in this review of Love Life.

Gunn, Drewey Wayne. “Initiation, Individuation, In Country.” Midwest Quarterly 38, no. 1 (autumn 1996): 59–73.

Gunn compares the journeys of Samantha and Emmett in In Country with those of traditional heroine and hero figures.

Henning, Barbara. “Minimalism and the American Dream: ‘Shiloh’ by Bobbie Ann Mason and ‘Preservation’ by Raymond Carver.” Modern Fiction Studies 35, no. 4 (winter 1989): 689–98.

Henning discusses Mason's and Raymond Carver's translation of the American Dream in their short stories.

Johnson, Diane. “Southern Comfort.” New York Review of Books 32, no. 17 (7 November 1985): 15–17.

Johnson offers an analysis of In Country and Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist providing comparisons between the two works.

Lohafer, Susan. “Stops on the Way to ‘Shiloh’: A Special Case for Literary Empiricism.” Style 27, no. 3 (fall 1993): 395–407.

Lohafer discusses results of a study of literary empiricism in Mason's “Shiloh.”

Lupack, Barbara Tepa. “History as Her-Story: Adapting Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country to Film.” In Vision/Re-Vision: Adapting Contemporary American Fiction by Women to Film, edited by Barbara Tepa Lupack, pp. 159–92. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1996.

Lupack offers a detailed critical look at the film adaptation of the novel In Country.

Montrose, David. “Signs and Wonders.” Times Literary Supplement (15 October 1993): 20.

Montrose criticizes the pacing, content, and length of Feather Crowns.

Rhett, Kathryn. “Country Folks.” Chicago Tribune (30 May 1999): sec. 14, p. 5.

Rhett offers a positive assessment of Mason's memoir Clear Springs.

Ryan, Barbara T. “Decentered Authority in Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 31, no. 3 (spring 1990): 199–212.

Ryan analyzes the lack of an authority figure in the life of the heroine in the novel In Country and the character's quest for identity.

Ryan, Maureen. “Stopping Places: Bobbie Ann Mason's Short Stories.” In Women Writers of the Contemporary South, edited by Peggy Whitman Prenshaw, pp. 283–94. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1984.

Ryan discusses the characters in Mason's Shiloh, and Other Stories and their sense of being overwhelmed by rapid changes taking place in their lives.

Smith, Wendy. “Bobbie Ann Mason.” Publishers Weekly 228, no. 9 (30 August 1985): 424–25.

Mason discusses her career and the point of view of the publishing industry.

White, Leslie. “The Function of Popular Culture in Bobbie Ann Mason's Shiloh, and Other Stories and In Country.” Southern Quarterly 26, no. 4 (summer 1988): 69–79.

White examines popular culture and its impact on Mason's characters in Shiloh, and Other Stories and In Country.

Additional coverage of Mason's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: American Writers Supplement; Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Vols. 5, 42; Beachum's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: Biography and Resources, Vol. 2; Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography Yearbook; Contemporary Authors, Vols. 53–56; Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vols. 11, 31, 58, 83; Contemporary Novelists; Contemporary Southern Writers; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 173; Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook, 1987; DISCovering Authors 3.0; Exploring Short Stories; Literature Resource Center; Major 20th-Century Writers, Eds. 1, 2; Novels for Students, Vol. 4; Reference Guide to American Literature; Reference Guide to Short Fiction; St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers; Short Stories for Students, Vols. 3, 8; and Short Story Criticism, Vol. 4.