Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4370623 in Books
• Published on: 1989-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 642 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The 39 tales in this uneven, mammoth volume span a career active since 1949. Cassill, editor of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction , favors drab protagonists who, attempting to escape the ordinariness of their Midwestern, small-town habitats, may pay for their revolts with their lives. He prefers description to action; and if the characters themselves do not hold emotion in check, the author distances it through flashbacks. At their worst, the stories are long and static. Many pieces are dated by self-conscious, once-daring attitudes toward such topics as interracial marriage. Yet Cassill's more memorable characters hint at an unexpected spirituality, such as the five-year-old in "The Covenant" who, after being forced to kiss his uncle's corpse in its coffin, conducts a funeral for his mother's doll. This potential for mysticism tinges even the more mundane selections with suspense. All but two entries here are previously uncollected.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A collection of 39 short stories that originally appeared in magazines such as Atlantic , Esquire , Epoch , etc. Besides being a writer, Cassill has edited several Norton anthologies of fiction.-- MR
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.