Mountain Passage & Other Stories (review)

children, discipline, the growing-up process, the choice of mate, the establishment of new family units, and the problems associated with the care of the elderly, all ring remarkably true. Yet "modernization" has modified mountain tradition, and Beaver has given us a clear sense of what industrialization has done to and for her communities, as both men and women have found jobs away from the traditional farm. A shortcoming which has been noticed by some I have spoken with, is Beaver's complete lack of any treatment of mountain religion. She does ignore the role of the church in the Appalachian community! Her particular three communities may not have had strong churches, though that would be unusual in Appalachia's "most religious area" of Western North Carolina. Beaver devotes a whole chapter to "Foreigners," or those who have moved into her communities since 1960. First came the "summer folk," then the "back-to-thelanders ." And both brought significant change with them. Beaver insists that, at least in her three communities, the "back-to-thelanders " have had the most significant impact on the community itself. This chapter is, to my knowledge, the best treatment of this phenomenon available. I found it most helpful. John Stephenson noted the importance of change in the Appalachian community quite early in Shiloh (1968), but Beaver's treatment is much more comprehensive, and has the advantage of nearly twenty years during which this change has operated. The last chapter, on "Community, Past, Present and Future," (the only part of the study previously published, Appalachian Journal, vol. 5, no. 4) continues Beaver's presentation of the Appalachian community in process. Concerning the past, she makes no startling judgments about what that past truly was, but presents most convincingly what the perceived past of Appalachian histories has been. The mountains present a harsh environment , but it is a beautiful one, and one that can provide a creative nexus from which to view the uncertain future we all face. Community has been a major concern lately for many both inside and outside the region. Robert Bellah's recent Habits of the Heart, which is a comprehensive (and anecdotal) study of modern middle-class, white American society, presents a troubling picture of the rise of "radical individualism." This individualism , Bellah claims, has so eroded our institutions, values and sense of community, that American society has become dominated by "self-awareness," "self-help," and "selfassurance " groups. Even religion, Bellah and his team found, has become a therapy for individuals seeking peace of mind or a source for spiritual highs. And even government policy in the 1980s, they claim, has encouraged unfettered individual achievement to the point of sanctifying greed to a dangerous degree. Finally, Ron Eller's Presidential Address to the Appalachian Studies Conference in 1986 (see Appalachian Heritage, Fall, 1986, pp. 45-51), which Charlotte Ross calls his "finest work" {Appalachian Heritage, Fall, 1986, p. 51), is a plea for Appalachian community. Eller is optimistic about the growing strength of community in the region, especially as we are able to piece together the "collective memory" of what we have been. Besides the labors of historians of the region, we can uncover this memory through oral history and folklore. But such studies as Pat Beaver's will also contribute materially to this process of recovering our past by probing the understandings of those who have lived their lives in Appalachia's communities. Pat Beaver has provided us with a useful and insightful study of Appalachian community , one of the best we have available, and certainly the most up-to-date. —Richard B. Drake Barker, Garry. Mountain Passage ? Other Stories. Berea, Kentucky: Kentucke Imprints, 1986. Paperback, $9.95. The two dozen stories in this second collection by short story writer and novelist Garry 87 Barker are all set in northeastern Kentucky hill country, for the most part in Caney Creek, Creech Holler. The first twelve stories deal with a number of characters from this community—an illiterate but adept tinkerer; a moonshiner; a man who makes his living "consoling" local widows; a man and woman who, having dated in high school then drifted apart into jobs, marriages and children, meet awkwardly almost...