Solly’s Corner

A Story

by Janet Burroway
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Spare, odd, beautiful story. Ending snuck up on me quicker than I expected, but it did fit.

As a native Floridian, I love the "other Florida" portrayal; a very clever story with a zippy ending.

There's nothing like real ambiguity (as opposed to contrived) to give me a charge of pleasure. The prose here is wonderfully spare and evocative.

A captivating story with excellent descriptions.

Great ending! I wonder what girl doesn't love her father more than her husband? I assume not many, which gives this story a marvelous universality.

What a wonderful sense of place! I loved how the story starts out all movement and pace, as if the scenery is flying by as seen through the car window. Then everything rolls to a stop as if to the point of view of Dana as she arrives at her destination.

Your e-mag has become the home of some of the best writing being penned today. I haven't been doing short stories for a couple years because the market is so tiny right now and the flood of submissions is so huge. But I will be delighted to get back to writing stories.

Beautiful writing! Poignant, precise, poetic, and very human. Very real. Beautiful.

Your writing makes me want to get back to my writing. The prose is beautiful and has a calmness about it. The descriptions were precise and interesting. The boy clerk and the old man at the store are well rounded for such a short piece. The fact that she is a widow and there is a death at the mill brings a depth of emotion and poignancy to the story, while suggesting questions of safety regulations and corporate responsibility. Watching the children going to school, the questions of race relations come up, bringing a sociological layer to the piece. The relationships are layered and interesting, the dialog clear and concise. I will enjoy the book even more I am sure!

If you loved "Solly's Corner," you'll really love Bridge of Sand, the book from which "Solly's Corner" is excerpted. I wish I could have had a notebook at hand to jot down each and every word choice, world view, and sensuous touch that only Janet would make. I wanted to relish every image and thought and feeling. There were rich chapters to wind up many story threads. I won't say what happened, but it was all truthful, all satisfying, even the fact that something had to be unsatisfying.

I glanced back at the paragraph where Dana first sees Cassius carrying his daughter Kinesha; Dana is swept with the beauty of them, so touching, so Janet Burroway. The book opens the mind to new hopes and reminds you of old ones. Janet Burroway has more than fiction to teach. Read Bridge of Sand.