All ETDs from UAB

Advisory Committee Chair

Jamez Braziel

Advisory Committee Members

Kerry Madden

Sue Kim

Mary Whall

Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

2011

Degree Name by School

Master of Arts (MA) College of Arts and Sciences

Abstract

"Nobody Knows How It Got This Good" is a collection of three interlocked short stories set in Birmingham, Alabama. Drawing heavily upon urbanism, economics, Marxism and Birmingham's social and urban history, as well as a varied literary tradition including authors as diverse as James Joyce and Barry Hannah, these lyrical narratives aspire to universal themes and concerns by exploring the particularity of place and subjective experience. The first story, "The Jaguars of Southtown," is narrated by a used car salesman. "Wells Fargo" is narrated by an executive investment banker on the anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash and "Tilting at Windmills" by a safety engineer who experiences a horrific industrial accident at the Powell Avenue Plant.

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