Product Description

Sue Miller's stories from a chapter in the moral history of our time

Like Sue Miller's bestselling novels, this collection of short stories explores the treacherously shifting ground of erotic and family relationships with deftness and depth. The title story is about a young man who takes up successively with three daughters of the most fashionable family in town. In other stories, whose characters range from a young girl in the first blush of sexual curiosity to a stricken dowager whose seizures release a brutal and sometimes obscene candor, Sue Miller presents a compelling gallery of contemporary men and women with hungry hearts and dismayed consciences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4650139 in Books
• Published on: 1988-05-01
• Released on: 1988-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback

From Publishers Weekly
In this moving and articulate collection of 11 stories, the author of The Good Mother describes individuals trying, but failing, to connect emotionally in a society where "all the rules have changed." PW praised Miller's "insight into character and gift for describing contemporary relationships."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This collection follows the author's impressive debut, The Good Mother ( LJ 5/15/86). In the title story a young man tells the absorbing tale of his elder brother's involvement with three sisters of small-town social prominence. Other stories also reflect Miller's intense preoccupation with the delicacy of relationships among parents, children, wives and husbands, the married and divorced, lovers. "The Quality of Life" depicts emotional complexities within a family marked by separations and rivalries. "Tyler and Brina," "Travel," and "Expensive Gifts" all concern the tentative dependence and isolation of women, their strengths, the needines of their men. Readers of Miller's novel will again appreciate her fastidiousness and clarity, her sobering vision of the moral dilemmas of modern middle-class life. Mary Soete, San Diego P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Graceful prose and some cleverly kinky twists make for provocative reading." -- -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"[Miller's] writing is rich, her perceptions acute." -- -- Newsday

"[Sue Miller] has a genius for understanding sexual behavior, and for transforming it into art." -- -- Hilma Wolitzer

"Compelling...What [Miller] offers...is a distinctive sensibilitya candid exploration of the frail and gritty truths about trying to love without harm or reprisal." -- Boston Globe

"Graceful prose and some cleverly kinky twists make for provocative reading." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"[Miller's] writing is rich, her perceptions acute." -- Newsday

"[Sue Miller] has a genius for understanding sexual behavior, and for transforming it into art." -- Hilma Wolitzer

Customer Reviews

Short stories that focus on the darker side of love
With her stories of infidelity, divorce, and sexual harassment/assault, author Sue Miller delves into the darker side of love and relationships. In the title story of this book, she describes the desperate attempts of a boy from "the wrong side of the tracks" to reinvent himself as part of a local wealthy family, the Abbotts. He dates the three Abbott daughters in turn, with each relationship ending in a bigger disaster than the last one. (Fans of the movie, take note: this is NOT a love story, and the role of the younger brother--Joaquim Phoenix in the movie--is little more than that of the story's narrator here.) The next two stories, "Tyler and Brina," and "Appropriate Affect," address both the obvious and the more hidden costs of infidelity. Explicit photographs play a role in "Slides" and "Travel," while the stories "What Ernest Says," "Calling," and "The Birds and the Bees" cover even darker sexual subjects. The stories, while engrossing, are somewhat unpolished: the first story, "Inventing the Abbotts," could have easily been a novel on its own, and the final story, "The Quality of Life," seems to end abruptly and awkwardly. At 180 pages, however, this book is a quick read, and the reader is unlikely to feel that his or her time has been wasted.

An Intriguing, Charming, Refreshingly Good Read
I bought this book soon after watching the movie that shares its name...And I just have to say that the movie, "Inventing the Abbots", is not near as compelling nor as convincing as Miller's version. Not to mention, that the remaining collection of stories in her book are all astounding! The details she brings to her characters make every story in this book so heartfelt and poignant...It is a must-read for every serious lover of literature! For Miller is a novelist that brings these characters to life with such candor, and explores the frailty of human nature and the darkness that lies somewhere in us all.

Short Stories with a Pervasive Theme of Sexuality
This book is a collection of short stories by the Sue Miller, the author of The Good Mother: A Novel andThe Senator's Wife (Vintage Contemporaries).

There is a very pervasive sexual theme throughout this book - - on the sexuality present in most aspects of our banal, everyday existence. Oftentimes, our motives are pervaded by sexuality when we're least aware of its presence. Good vs. bad motives - - points of view - - shades of gray - - how our sexuality influences what we do - - how others see us - - These are the shared themes of these stories.