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Barbara G. Tucker is proof that exquisite storytelling can and does happen far from the massive New York City publishing houses with their army of gatekeepers and yes-men and women whose focus is less on craft and more on fickle trends in the market.  Her brilliantly-written novel, Lying In, which was published by Colorful Crow Publishing in 2024, explores the hardscrabble life of Cotella, called “Telly” by most, who once aspired to be a nurse but was forced to change course due to a rare condition that caused tumors to sprout all over her body.  Even before this began to happen, Telly is described as an ugly woman, but with these “knots” all over the place, her appearance suffers even more, causing those who do not know her to recoil in disgust. 

Lying In takes place against the terrible backdrop of the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 – a devastating event that even penetrated the countless hollers of Virginia Appalachia, Telly’s stomping ground.  While much of this page-turner follows Telly as she goes about caring for the families of women who just gave birth – women who are lying in – the plot is anchored by a particular family, the Goinses.  Telly arrives at their small ramshackle house in the middle of nowhere to find four unwashed and hungry kids and a sick woman in the bedroom, trying to give birth.  The situation is desperate from the beginning.  The husband is absent, and Telly quickly surmises that the woman has been infected with the illness.  In a delirium, the woman spews words that, at the time, do not make sense to Telly, but shortly afterwards, she expires, making Telly the sole caretaker of the children.  From this point, Lying In becomes a tale of remarkable grittiness in the face of impossible odds.  Telly perseveres.  Telly gets up in the morning and does the same the day after that and the day after that.  She keeps moving because she has to: for herself, for the kids, mostly.  Barbara G. Tucker gifts us with a story about the depths of the human heart and the power of the human spirit, and she does this, I hasten to add, in well-crafted prose absent any gratuitous scene that less tactful authors might jump to include. 

Ultimately, readers might be reminded of the lepers from the Bible.  They were outcasts before Jesus cleansed them of their ailment.  Telly’s condition only worsens throughout the book, but this is arguably a clever inversion of something else that is happening – something akin to being healed.  Telly finally finds her place in the world.  She finally secures a home.  To be sure, the ending underscores that victory even more, leaving readers much to ponder about the nature of their own life journey over and around “hollers” of a different sort. 

This, of course, is the power of a good story.  Novels like Tucker’s act as mirrors, which makes Telly’s condition all the more meaningful.  We could even take a reading of Tucker’s novel to a new level.  Telly’s “sin,” if you will, is worn on the outside.  What would we all look like if our sins were on full display for all to see, for all to be repulsed by?  Would we remain steady in our noble pursuits, defiant in the face of all that wants to bring us down like Tucker’s protagonist?  Telly faced many disappointments and had to live with the knowledge that every time she encountered a stranger, that stranger would react a certain way.  This could easily lead to loneliness and despair.  But she kept her work gloves on, so to speak, and in doing so, made a way for herself.  What she lacked in physical attraction, she made up for in usefulness and still found love: not romantic but one only a mother could possess.  I will leave it to you, dear listeners, to decide which is the more preferred.