OK, I loved seeing this book on the shelf. I'm a college student and it is really great to see something about your homeland, amidst all the stuff from NY, California, and those rambling novels about new England angst. What I have read so far does bring it all back, and more, the real description, (porkchop bones in the dust, next to the trailer stoop of cinder blocks.) (Hunting in the powerline cuts.) But it is also wearying, just as it was when I was 12 and picked up "Shilo," the book that had just won the Newberry medal, and once again found people who didn't own microwaves, cursed outsiders, and hunted. While I know that for many years it was a WV county (my own, actually) that had the highest rate of domestic abuse per capita in the nation, their is a TON more to the state than these things. But I won't level that kind of tirade against Pancake; any WV writer has to make their peace w/ these things, and she does it valiantly. she is damned good and highly serious. And she has real poetry, and her people really do live in West Virginia. I guess I just wonder about the waitresses who aren't living in shacks, those who never farmed, and the old people who give up their roots and go live in Mrytle beach. The silent, less colorful but more mysterious characters that make up a majority in the mountain state. The heart of West Virginia has moved on, I think, from the shock that it felt, being isolated and abused (for the coal) on the east coast. It is the less dramatic shock now of keeping the home fire's burning, when your kids are moving out of state, and the rivers still flood and you watch TV and you don't feel like eating jerky. And you live in a development.
If you are Pancake and reading this, I want you to know that somebody from Randolph and Kanawha and lately Berkeley county feels for you, because you have done the hard thing, and made something beautiful. The rest of my complaits are more a lament that other West Virginians don't lift the pen.

This is a collection of raw yet vibrant stories -- an increasing rarity in a world where the "novel in stories" or the "girl's guide to stories" are the big market sellers. This is a book that should be read slowly, allowing the reader's own emotions to rise and fall with Pancake's stark yet skilled prose. More than once I had to set the book aside, only to be drawn back to a world where often it seems that nothing more can possibly happen -- the flood is over, the baby has died -- but you come away with the feeling that something might happen. That something MUST. I highly recommend this book.

"Given Ground" is a phenomenal collection of short stories that anyone who loves literature should read. Though I am sure she would humbly disagree, Ann Pancake is true master of the craft of fiction. From its characterization, to its amazingly complex symbolism, to its beautiful language, Pancake's "Given Ground" is one of the best new books on the market. Each story, especially "Jolo", will profoundly impact anyone who takes the time to seriously read them. I recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn more about writing fiction.
Dr. Pancake, if you read this, congratulations on your wonderful book. And, thank you for the example that your book is for all of us who have had the fortune of participating in your creative writing workshops.