The most un-put-downable short stories create an entire world. In The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Deesha Philyaw does it with gob-smacking prowess nine times. Whether it is a teenage girl crushing on the pastor’s wife, or a couple coping with their first winter up north exiled from all they love, or a self-possessed sexually-active woman who outlines lengthy rules for the married men “applying” for a passing entanglement, the reader is catapulted into their emotional and physical worlds. Her characters are Black women wrestling with both church culture and with private passions. Philyaw’s stories kept me awake and awed.
SOUNDS GREAT, AS ALWAYS. THANKS FOR POSTING Sheila
Posted by: Sheila Parks | 08 October 2020 at 12:15