The linked stories in Monic Ductan’s collection Daughters of Muscadine, set vividly in a small Georgia town, make up an auspicious debut.
Chapter 16 wrote of the book:
“Recurring characters and themes in Monic Ductan’s debut story collection, Daughters of Muscadine, recall the vines of their fictional setting’s namesake. These linked stories reveal the entangled historical and psychological legacies at work in several generations of Black families in Muscadine, a rural town in northeast Georgia. The links among these touching stories are subtle but effective, accumulating in our minds as we read. Thanks to Ductan’s detailed command of her setting and the compassionate clarity she brings to her narrators, we easily grow attached to a wide range of Muscadine’s Black daughters and sons.”
In her own words, here is Monic Ductan’s Book Notes music playlist for her story collection Daughters of Muscadine:
My book is set in small-town Georgia, with eight of the nine short stories taking place in the same Georgia town called Muscadine. The stories span a broad period of time. In the first story, a boy tells the story of his great-grandma, a woman who was lynched in the 1920s. I have a few stories set in the ’80s and ’90s, a story from the ’50s, and the most contemporary one is set during the coronavirus pandemic. The list below contains songs that remind me of specific eras, topics, and also different moods that I feel would suit the tone(s) and mood(s) of my book.
“Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman
I love the story Chapman tells. It’s about a young person who wants to escape their small-town life of poverty. Several of my characters can relate to that feeling, but perhaps none more than the protagonist in “You Can Have It.” Her best friend has recently died, she’s lonely, and she’s trying to decide if she wants to leave her town to pursue college. Of course she should, but the problem is that she doesn’t feel quite good enough for college, and she fears leaving Muscadine.
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver
In my story “Gris-Gris,” a group of teenage basketball players drive through their rural town collecting debris from a recent tornado. I think the John Denver song is the perfect one to listen to while riding over country roads on the back of a truck. (Yes, I know that riding on the bed of a pickup is dangerous and probably illegal now, but I grew up in the 20th century. Those were scary times.)
“Then He Kissed Me” by The Crystals
This song is directly mentioned in “Kasha and Ansley,” a story about sisters who grow up in the last part of the twentieth century, and they love hearing The Crystals’ song in the movie Adventures in Babysitting, one of their favorite films.
“Come on Up to Bright Glory” and “On My Journey Home” (unknown artists)
These are two spirituals I remember from my Baptist church days in Georgia. Because the stories in my collection are very Southern and many of these characters are church-goes, I had to include these spirituals. Also, “Come on Up to Bright Glory” was changed during the Civil Rights Movement so that the lyrics became, “If You Miss Me from the Back of the Bus,” and you can hear a great version of it on YouTube sung by Betty Fikes. That’s such a quintessential Civil Rights song, and it fits perfectly with my story “June’s Menorah,” about a young black girl who grows up in the Civil Rights era with an older brother and an alcoholic father.
“With a Little Help from My Friends” (Joe Cocker version)
I love the bluesy, soulful sound of these vocals. Also, some of my stories are about friendship, especially “Gris-Gris,” and I feel this song is applicable.
“Aw Naw” by Nappy Roots
My characters are working-class Blacks from the rural South. Their speech is a mixture of Black and country. What I love about “Aw Naw” is that the rappers are Black rural people, and you hear that in their dialect and their lyrics.
“A Little Bit Stronger” by Sara Evans
For me, this is an anthem about a strong woman who has recently experienced heartache. It’s not really about the heartache itself; it’s about conjuring the strength to move on from that heartache. Dontana McPherson-Joseph wrote in Foreword Reviews that to be from Muscadine is to be a little sad, and I agree with her. There’s an overall melancholy mood in most of these stories, but we also get glimpses of these characters’ strengths. I think Sara Evans’ vocals capture those feelings.
Monic Ductan teaches literature and creative writing at Tennessee Tech University. Her writing has appeared in a number of journals, including Oxford American,Good River Review, Southeast Review, Shenandoah, Appalachian Heritage, and South Carolina Review. Her essay “Fantasy Worlds” was listed as notable in TheBest American Essays 2019.