Little Back Room

Little Back Room begins with the sojourn of country teacher Cinderella Marvelous Green. “Teacher Green has arrived in one piece, praise God and God Save the Queen.” The book continues with the short story, Shape a Stone, in which the local constable asks young Elah, “So you here fe see baby killah?” In the entertaining ZanesvilleDotCom,Selma doesn’t let her mother know she is sending her – and her daughter’s – photo to a man she met in a chat room. As soon as she meets the man, she thinks, “When he smiled, I knew right away why they called him Bucky.” Young Elah makes a re-appearance in Breakfast Time when she confesses as many sins as she can remember, writes them down, then destroys the note when she finds out she is not dying, but simply menstruating. In Roomates, we discover the book’s namesake, as an older Elah moves into her own independence, and her cousin, Nell, moves into the little back room. Elah’s newfound independence, however, comes with a price.