THE STORIES THAT SHAPE US: Contemporary Women...

THE STORIES THAT SHAPE US: Contemporary Women Write About the West edited by Teresa Jordan & James Hepworth (Norton: $14, 393 pp.). The authors in this anthology reflect on the dichotomy between the star-spangled image of the American West and the often darker reality. Linda Hasselstrom recalls a legacy of violence in “Why One Peaceful Woman Carries a Pistol.” Kathleen Norris discovers a sturdy religiosity among the inhabitants of a flyspeck South Dakota town in “Getting to Hope,” while Dorothy Allred Solomon reveals the unhappiness of her polygamous Mormon relatives in “Sister-Wife.” “Stories” adds interesting but seldom-heard voices to the ongoing attempt to redefine the West.