Bargains in the Real World: Thirteen Stories

ISBN: 0679463291

Author: Cox, Elizabeth

Condition: New

From Booklist The 13 stories by the author of Night Talk (1997) offer readers a glimpse into the lives of people who are faced with hard choices. However, the stories are so well crafted that many have had the life written out of them. Unfortunately, this muted tone means that for the most part the stories blur and blend into one another, despite their varied locales (although most frequently the South), time periods (including the 1940s, the post-Civil War era, and the present), and subjects. Only three stand out. In "The Third of July," Nadine's decision to leave her husband of 30 years is changed when she witnesses a fatal collision between a station wagon and a truck carrying chickens. "The Last Fourth Grade" tells the story of a fourth-grade teacher sent to prison for killing her husband, a pedophile. "Washed" describes the relationship between a soldier in the Gulf War and his girlfriend, a woman who wants desperately to believe that love is not a lie. Libraries that purchase fiction comprehensively will want this collection Nancy PearlCopyright American Library Association. All rights reserved Product Description In this finely crafted collection, acclaimed writer Elizabeth Cox examines the lives of common people and how they deal with life when uncommon things happen to them - how they accept their fate, sometimes choosing to move on, sometimes not. The stories, many set in the South, deal with questions of loyalty, betrayal, discovery, sexuality, death, birth, and the inner dynamics that drive the choices we make. The characters struggle with a complex mixture of kindness and violence, and their final choices reveal a flawed but finally compassionate humanity.Elizabeth Cox has an extraordinary talent for inhabiting her characters and capturing place, sense, and time. This commanding group of stories will prove unforgettable. From Publishers Weekly Children are forced to grow up fast in novelist Cox's collection of 13 simple, unsettling short stories, set mostly in the South. Against a backdrop of cozy domesticity, reckless acts, abuse and abandonment disturb but rarely destroy the lives of stoic, resilient girls and women. In "The Singers, 1949," Jenny, now an adult, recalls her molestation at age nine, which left her confused but sure of the act's significance ("I stood by the tree and tried to decide if I was different or the same"). In "Biology," 15-year-old Evie, a character from Cox's most recent novel, Night Talk, vows to change her promiscuous ways after she is jilted by her preacher lover, a grown man. Sex and religion mix again in "Saved," when 13-year-old Josie pledges to be a missionary and tries to simultaneously save and seduce a stranger. In one of Cox's strongest stories, "The Last Fourth Grade," a teacher in prison for murdering her husband accuses one of her former students, now a mother herself, of having encouraged the teacher's dead husband to fondle the former student as a child. Even the most benign narratives have dark undertones. A misunderstanding propels the protagonist of "Washed" into marrying a Gulf War veteran; a woman whose husband was killed in an accident comes to terms with his death in "A Sounding Brass." This is Cox's first story collection, and her succinct, subtle prose proves to be particularly well suited to the form. Too careful styling may muffle the stories' effectiveness at times, but Cox's talent for understatement lends the collection a quiet, burnished glow. Agent, Susan Lescher. (Mar. 9) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal There is an old-fashioned sensibility to Cox's storytelling. Bucking contemporary trends in fiction that rely on pop-culture references and shock value, Cox's gentle prose evokes a Southern warmth that is reflected in the setting of most of her stories. That is not to say that all is sunny in the world of her characters: sexual abuse and the early sexual experiences of young girls ar