Hennessee, Alison EmiliaThis collection of short fiction includes four stories. Though the situations and characters in each are unrelated, the collection as a whole treats recurring thematic interests: individual and shared origins; tension between loving one's home and needing to leave it; childhood and parenthood; and the American South. The stories are ordered to create a chronological arc from wild uncertainty of childhood to the measured acceptance of late middle age.enThesisFine artsAmerican literatureAmerican Southchildhoodfictionoriginsshort story