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Top:Arts and Humanities:Literature:Books
If you have been an avid reader of The Atlantic, The Quarterly, Mademoiselle, or TriQuarterly, some of the six stories may seem familiar, as they were previously published. If, on the other hand, you don't read these magazines (I don't), you will be able to enjoy these stories afresh. "The Pleasure of Her Company" is the story of the woman next door who becomes fascinated with the married couple next door, only to find that she will always be the outsider. "Lily" tells us of the visit that two old college friends (now married) pay to Lily. The couple's relationship is in trouble and so is the visit, as we watch three people try to get used to the way things aren't anymore. In "Jeffrey, Believe Me" we get to read a disturbing letter that slowly reveals the real story through a series of allusions to previous events. Nothing is quite what is seems between the writer and Jeffrey.... "Long Distance" shows us a piece of the life of Kirby Christianson, a man who travels through a blizzard to spend Christmas with his brothers and their families. In the process, he receives some startling insight about himself and his thwarted long-distance relationship. "Dynamite" is a delicious first-person mini-biography of a woman who has been simultaneously running toward and away from her past and present as a fugitive from justice. The novella "The Age of Grief" is a wrenching first-person meditation by a man who is certain that his wife is in love with someone else. If you're an aged thirty-something married professional with a family, this may strike some painfully familiar chords. The timeline spans only a couple of weeks of time with frequent journeys into past memories af what it used to be like. The novella is beautiful and awful at the same time as the reader's sympathies flip-flop between husband and wife. Just as when I read A Thousand Acres, I found myself wanting to yell at the characters for their stupidity and then chastising myself when I realized that I might well have acted similiarly. Page created 1/16/97. |
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© 1995-2004 by Michael Heggen. All rights reserved, except as noted. |
