The Curse Of the Appropriate Man
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品牌: Lynn Freed
基本信息出版社:Harcourt, Inc.; 1 (2004年9月15日)丛书名:Harvest Original平装:208页正文语种:英语ISBN:0156029944条形码:9780156029940商品尺寸:20.5 x 13.8 x 1.5 cm商品重量:227 g品牌:Mariner BooksASIN:0156029944商品描述内容简介These fourteen short stories, written over the past ten years but never before collected, deal with the struggles between mothers and their wayward daughters, the often preposterous bonds that tie men and women together, and the complex games masters and servants play with one another. In spare, elegant prose, Freed delivers surprise after surprise as she shakes the truth from life. Whether it's her portrayal of a mother mired in senile dementia in "Ma," a young girl experiencing her first sexual encounter with an itinerant knife-sharpener in "Under the House," or a young woman incapable of loving conventionally in "An Error of Desire," Freed portrays the absurdity, the delusions, the dramas, and the dignity of her characters' lives. These masterful stories reinforce her reputation as one of our most fearless and sophisticated explorers of sexual and filial love.媒体推荐Women's relationships—with their mothers, their lovers, their culture and their own sexuality—are the subject of the 14 stories (written over nearly 20 years) in this fine collection. Freed, the author of five novels (The Mirror;House of Women; etc.), creates achingly real women and lovingly rendered misfits, and she reports straightforwardly and without judgment on their unconventional urges and questionable decisions. "Under the House" recounts a young girl's first sexual encounter with a traveling knife sharpener in the crawl space under her house and her subsequent memories of what should have been a traumatic event for her but was in fact something much more ambiguous. "The Widow's Daughter" tells of a young woman, possibly abused as a child, discovering and then flaunting her sexual power, much to her mother's horror. In the affecting title story, a middle-aged woman ponders how "half a lifetime of appropriate men can leave a woman parched for adventure." She dates two eccentric men but, finding herself still longing for the exotic, travels to Asia. On her way back, she meets a friend who's taken the opposite tack, marrying for convenience ("Quite acceptable, once you get over the death of the heart"). A few of these stories are schematic in their briefness, but most are quietly devastating and deeply resonant. --(Publishers Weekly)The apparent simplicity of each story belies the shocking power and underscores the soothing beauty resonating throughout Freed's luminous collection. United by women--some haughty, some humble, others imperious or innocent--the stories insinuate themselves into one's consciousness, to be revisited again and again in moments of quiet contemplation and utter delight. From the impervious arrogance of a recently widowed matron who now sees her manservant in a new light in "William," to a young girl's abrupt loss of innocence in "Under the House," Freed's stories dramatically yet subtly acknowledge the ever-shifting dynamics of our most essential relationships. Wives and lovers, mothers and daughters, Freed's women are complex amalgams of conflicting emotions, yet they all, seemingly, know their true essence and live their lives accordingly: witness Charlotte in "An Error of Desire," or Irma in "The Widow's Daughter." Whether celebrating love or contemplating loss, Freed delights by providing the reader with singular moments of unbridled surprise and poignant affirmation in a stunning and satisfying volume.Carol Haggas--(Booklist - Carol Haggas)
