The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories Overview & Chapter Abstracts for Teachers

Chapter Abstracts

Chapter abstracts are short descriptions of events that occur in each chapter. They highlight major plot events and detail the important relationships and characteristics of characters and objects. The Chapter Abstracts can be used to review what the students have read, or to prepare the students for what they will read. Hand the abstracts out in class as a study guide, or use them as a "key" for a class discussion. They are relatively brief, but can serve to be an excellent refresher of the text for either a student or teacher.

River of Names by Dorothy Allison | All the Way in Flagstaff, Arizona by Richard Bausch Abstract

* In River of Names, the narrator and her lover Jesse trade stories about their families.
* The narrator's family is filled with murderers and the murdered, rapists and the raped, horrible perpetrators and broken victims.
* ...
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