Reviewed in Kirkus

Deeply affecting in their simplicity and sincerity, these 20 interlocking pieces by retired teacher/poet Coberly, set in her hometown in West Virginia, reveal an abiding sense of community even as their characters suffer through the inevitable changes brought by time.

The stories begin before World War II in hill-country Hamlin, county seat of Galloway. Typical is young state trooper Will McCoughlin, who finds a place first by defending children and mothers against philandering and drunken husbands, then by getting involved with one of them, with deadly consequences (“Will’s Valentine,” “In Which Murder is Done”). War comes early to Hamlin, four boys-turned-Marines disappearing in the fall of Bataan, one of them the beloved of Ruby Louise, who’d given him only one night of love before he went away (“Night-Blooming Cereus”). Another of the missing, Clint, had eyes only for Nada Jo, who is crushed when he is reported missing but finds happiness with Clint’s best friend, Hayes (who came back with only one eye)?until Clint is found alive in a Japanese POW camp (“Early Transparent”). Time passes, and while Ruby Louise and her neighbor Alma Ruth never marry, they are influential in helping others find a place in their midst. When a hippie community homesteads a nearby hilltop, Ruby Louise teaches them about food while they teach her about women’s rights and Vietnam (“The Fellowship at Wysong’s Clearing”), so that later, when one of the women, now the high school principal, is accused of being a Communist, she can use hercommunity knowledge to ensure that cooler heads prevail (“The Handywoman”). Vital as these women are, age takes its toll, and Ruby Louise one day has to carry on without her dearest friend (“The Death of Alma Ruth”).

The homespun nature of these sharp-sighted little tales only enhances their warmth and wisdom; not only are the people in them ones we’d like to know, but somehow we’re made to feel we really do.

Kirkus