The Gold-Plated Scarab and Other Stories
By Norman McMillan
Illustrations by Maya Metz Logue
The Gold-Plated Scarab and Other Stories is a collection of short stories set in the South. The characters face a wide array of challenges, and they all struggle in their own ways, sometimes comically and sometimes gravely, to cope with them.
“These stories are sly and thoughtful slices of life with embedded truths throughout. A recurring theme involves understated conflict between more worldly and sophisticated characters and less refined members of their community. In the title story, a woman who founded a group for seniors finds her authority challenged by a newcomer, a former military officer with other ideas for how Seniors in Action should spend its resources. In another story, a recently widowed man surprises himself as his reluctant tolerance of a snobby married neighbor begins to turn lustful. “Goodly States and Kingdoms” becomes an entertainingly tense theological discussion amidst lemonade on the patio when a “sanctified” holy roller barges on the scene to witness to an elderly Episcopalian woman and her Baptist companion.” -Edward Journey