I Got Somebody in Staunton by William Henry Lewis

I Got Somebody in Staunton, stories by William Henry Lewis (Amistad): In his second collection, Lewis sketches out a complicated and often mesmerizing view of black America with lyrical, sensual language. Traveling up and down the paths of the Great Migration, from South to North, from small towns in Tennessee to Bed-Stuy, these ten stories brim with the sounds of chickadees and wrens, the smell of honeysuckle and kudzu. They trace abandonment and betrayal, love and lust, and, always, they remember history. The title story has a young professor agreeing to give a ride to a white woman he meets in a bar, but as they drive through the countryside, her brazen behavior—attracting the attention of some local rednecks—makes him recall his uncle's lectures about lynchings. Yet to conclude that Lewis's stories are grim would be wrong. His work conveys a crackling sense of humor and a seductive nostalgia: "The heat of the day had long given up, and the air was sweet, the way it is at four in the morning, when only drunks and lovers take notice." —Don Lee