Living with Stories: Telling, Re-Telling and Remembering. Edited by William Schneider. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2008. Pp. 175, illustrations, photos, notes, bibliographies, index, ISBN 978-0-87421-689-9)

There can be no doubt that it is difficult to speak comprehensively about a book which contains a variety of essays from a selection of authors, but the task is made even more complicated when these works are drawn from different academic fields. While many different approaches are used in Living with Stories: Telling, Retelling and Remembering, all of the writings are drawn together by a shared interest in narrative. Showcasing work by scholars in the areas of folklore, history and anthropology, the book seeks to determine not only what makes people relate narratives, but even more importantly, the process by which they are repeated and the forces which might change them. Diverse topics are brought together in this book under the collective heading of oral history, which editor William Schneider explores in his introduction, noting the long-standing prejudice in many academic fields against this kind of account, which “couldn’t be proven by empirical evidence” (3) and thus, was merely the poor cousin of written documentary sources. Within the covers of this work, however, the fluidity of oral history is understood and actively embraced. This book recognizes that the purpose of these accounts is not necessarily to relate history exactly as events occurred, but to relate events in a culturally relevant way which is appropriate for a particular context. As Schneider notes, “Each telling adds new dimensions to our understanding and interpretation” (7). Of course, in such a collection as this, some pieces will be stronger than others and some will appeal more to particular individuals. I found Holly Cusack-McVeigh’s examination of a Yupik etiological narrative to be particularly interesting as it traces the way in which a narrative was used to educate her, as an outsider, in the ways of Yupik culture. Similarly, Aron Crowell and Estelle Oozevaseuk’s collaborative ethnography of Yupik narrative is intriguing for showing the way in which narrative seeks to teach morals about appropriate conduct rather than attempting to give an accurate history of the St. Lawrence Island epidemic of 1878-1880. An accurate transcription of the narrative in both Yupik and English gives the flavour of the storytelling style and underlines the different styles which storytelling takes in different cultures. In addition, Living with Stories recognizes the different forms which narrative can take – that it is not merely storytelling for an audience. For instance, Kirin Narayan examines women’s songs in India in the context of wedding celebrations, looking at how they are transmitted and the importance they have in relationships between women. Joanne Mulcahy takes narrative to the everyday level, examining the role of metaphor in the narratives told by Eva Castellanoz as she seeks to inspire others. Sherna Gluck, however, examines narrative as a way of talking about political history, namely with reference to Palestinian women’s narratives. She notes that these narratives vary depending on the political realities at the time of telling, reflecting just one of the many influences which may shape the narratives we relate. Of all the essays in this book, I feel that Gluck’s is the weakest, though this may merely reflect my own academic interests as a folklorist, as opposed to Gluck’s as an historian. So much space must be devoted to providing the political context for these narratives that I feel the actual stories and the people that tell them have become somewhat lost. While context of all varieties is undoubtedly valuable, indeed essential, to understanding narratives, in this instance, an appropriate balance does not seem to have been struck. Lorraine McConaghy’s approach is very different to others in this book, providing an account of the …