Product Description

The stories of Mary Gordon return us to the pleasure of this writer's craft and to her monumental talent as an observer of character and of the ever-fading American Dream. These pieces encompass the pre- and postwar Irish American family life she circles in the early Temporary Shelter series, as well as a wealth of new fiction that brings her contemporary characters into middle age; it is their turn to face bodily decline, mortality, and the more complex anxieties of modern life. With their powerful insights into how we make do, both socially and privately, these stories are a treasure of American fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #270876 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-06
• Released on: 2007-11-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781400078080
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This book collects 41 tough-minded explorations into human hope, loss and failings by the award-winning author of six novels (including 1978's Final Payments), a memoir and a life of Joan of Arc. Her quietly desperate protagonists range from a mother unable to leave her child alone at school (in "Separation") to a 74-year-old widow who revisits Italy in search of her youth, only to face her mortality ("Death in Naples"). "My Podiatrist Tells Me a Story About a Boy and a Dog," although lighter in tone than many of the entries, concludes with a devastating comment on female desire and later life. Characters are frequently silent, letting their yearnings speak louder than they, and many of the people who inhabit this collection want nothing but to be left alone, if only because it's all that remains to them. Themes of Catholicism, Irish-American families and women struggling with self-image and convoluted relationships concern the deftly delineated characters. Gordon is a master of nuance. Gripping and memorable, this collection, half of which is new or uncollected work, is a study in human connection and the lack of it. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
For more than 30 years Mary Gordon has delivered incisive tales of Catholic guilt and immigrant woe, of women's worlds and lost fathers and hidden lives. In this robust collection, which recycles stories from an earlier book of short fiction but adds new and previously uncollected pieces, those familiar themes sound again. And who can resist them, put forth as they are with Gordon's consummate writerly grace?

Who can not feel for Lorna, the melancholy 70-something heroine of "Death in Naples," as she wanders the streets of the Italian city in her Ferragamos and wool slacks, worrying about how to fill her days? Abandoned on vacation by her son and daughter-in-law, who ditch her for a work emergency, Lorna tries to recapture the feelings she had when she and her late husband traveled to Italy. It can't be done, of course -- the world has changed, and she must confront her anachronistic existence alone.

Or try dismissing Joan, the ultracompetent school principal nun at the heart of "The Deacon," who wrestles with her distaste for Gerard, a useless, slightly stupid teacher in her school whom no one cares about. Except perhaps, Joan thinks, for God.

God hovers often in Gordon's writing, of course, but usually distantly, impalpably; no deus ex machina He, but a presence projected by the people (mostly women) who yearn for Him, such as Maria, the would-be Carmelite of "Temporary Shelter," whose Jewish father (like Gordon's) converted to Catholicism. And just as they're the ones to seek Him most avidly, the women are the ones most resentful when God fails to show up. Gordon's fiction is peopled by these unhappy women -- beaten down grandmothers, scarred adolescent girls, women grown to adulthood who still believe the past will come back and swallow them up.

It's serious stuff, all right. But not, thank Heaven, unrelievedly somber. Gordon's message is earnest, but her touch can be surprisingly light. Check out sweet Irish Kathleen's not-quite-dire predicament after she brings some friends from America home for a visit to County Clare in "The Baby." Or the sly foot doctor in "My Podiatrist Tells Me a Story About a Boy and a Dog." "I called the dog Brownie because she was brown," he deadpans, relating the story about the pet he found in the Adirondacks as a boy. "Even at that time I had a terrific imagination."

And so does Mary Gordon.

Reviewed by Zofia Smardz
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* A refined woman conceals rage within her heart. An elegant mansion harbors wrack and ruin. Gordon is fascinated with deception and contradiction and, therefore, writes potent and stealthy short stories that carry within their holds incendiary stories-within-stories. In one of the 22 new and uncollected tales in this spectacular volume, a woman reading Proust is suddenly assailed by memories of her flinty grandmother. In "City Life," a tale of Poe-like intensity, a woman morbidly ashamed of her parents' catastrophic ineptness hides her past behind a veneer of perfect domesticity. "Death in Naples," Gordon's shivery twenty-first-century variation on the Thomas Mann masterpiece, is one of several understated and eviscerating stories that contrast today's loud, fast, and tawdry world with the more gracious and contemplative ambience of a lost, or perhaps fabled, time. Brilliantly structured and psychologically acute, Gordon's full-bodied and engrossing stories about stoic women test our assumptions about faith and sacrifice, family and home, shame and dread. Nineteen sharp-witted tales from Temporary Shelter (1987) follow, including one that reveals the source for Gordon's most recent novel, Pearl (2005). In all, this is a preeminent and pleasurable collection by a writer of significance and spirit. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Thought provoking, engrossing, and unforgettable
Reading this hefty book of short stories that explores the traits and lives of everyday people is enough to wallop a reader in the gut. The tales are all too real. The characters are never seen through a kind pink haze; without softening, they show us --- in unflinching prose --- jealousy, possessiveness, despair, loss and more. And yet we cannot look away; Mary Gordon is describing us.

One theme running through the collection is the notion that the past is never truly gone. The first story, "City Life," brings us Beatrice, whose marriage to Peter is founded on the lie that her parents are dead and her upbringing was normal. In fact, Beatrice has no idea if her alcoholic parents in their filthy hopeless home are still alive. Her life with Peter and her children is disrupted when they move from their restored farmhouse in the country into a New York City apartment. Beatrice meets her past there, and she can no longer deny its power over her life.

The underbelly of love is another premise in many tales, such as "Separation," in which a mother struggles with society's expectation that her young child should bond with others besides herself. The author poses a question: How powerful is the force of maternal possessiveness? In this chilling piece, we see the extreme, which is strong enough to warp lives.

The world constantly changes, as does our place in it. In "Death in Naples," a family jaunt to Naples leaves an elderly widow searching for both her own autonomy and landmarks of her past happy travels with her late husband. Her quest leaves her lost in a world in which she feels misplaced.

Catholicism is the underpinning of many of these stories. In "The Deacon," a nun, Joan Fitzgerald, encounters a trying spiritual challenge in the form of an inept teacher in the parish school in which Joan is principal. The teacher, Gerard, is the one person Joan feels she cannot stomach. Yet fate (or Gerard would say "God's will") pushes them together in a solitary meal during which Joan must make a difficult spiritual choice.

In "Bishop's House," Lavinia seeks solace at the home of elderly friends. Another guest, also recovering from an ended romance, tries the patience of everyone in the house. Lavinia discovers, in a double twist of revelation, that no one is as they appear.

Revenge is served in "Cleaning Up" --- but instead of being punishment for wrongdoing, it strives to chastise an unbearable act of charity. The multilayered story acknowledges the deeply hidden rationale of a seemingly irrational action.

In "Walt," the main character is stuck in a spider web where she considers the ultimate and unforgivable cruelty: her own, toward someone who loves her. The impulse to squelch him survives decades. She can't stop yet she can't live with her actions.

THE STORIES OF MARY GORDON is not a light read, jabbing sharp, unrelenting elbows into the reader and whispering, "Do you recognize yourself?" The following passage in this collection's "Storytelling" struck a chord with me. A new acquaintance is speaking to the main character, who is a writer:

"Are all your books depressing?" asked Jean-Claude.

"I think I write about life as it is."

The tales Mary Gordon writes are about unadorned lives. While they are sometimes bleak, they are also thought-provoking, engrossing and unforgettable, making THE STORIES OF MARY GORDON a challenging and rewarding read.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon

Stunning short stories
Reviewed by Shawn Remfrey

This engrossing collection of tales is a must have for everyone's bookshelf. Each short story is exquisitely written and well-crafted with Mary Gordon's personal style. Whether the reader is wanting a quick entertaining story, or in-depth literature to study, Mary Gordon delivers.

Each story deals with the human condition; thoughts, emotions, actions and where each of those leads us. The most popular theme throughout the book is disillusionment. There are also tales of hopelessness, depression, alcoholism. My favorite two stories involve an elderly woman forced to see her favorite place through the eyes of her daughter in law, and a woman forced to look at her husband through her own eyes. These stories give each person a chance to examine his or her own life.

Mary Gordon's characters are alive and become dear. Vivid imagery helps lose oneself in a world that could easily belong to anyone else, too. In a space of five to ten pages, an entire story unfolds, leaving a sense of completion. Through one snippet of a character's life, the reader has a sense of that person's past, future and all that makes them up.

At first I was skeptical about Mary Gordon's talent, having never read anything written by her before. I quickly learned that you truly can't judge a book by it's cover. I was captivated from story to story. Each character, literally, made me identify and sympathize with them. This collection kept me in emotional turmoil until the end. I fully intend to search for every Mary Gordon book I am able to find and spread the word about this gem.

Mary Gordon comes from an interesting heritage mix of Jewish and Irish Catholic. Most of her stories reflect her upbringing. She currently teaches composition and creative writing at a community college. Mary Gordon's most recent published book is Circling My Mother: A Memoir. This nonfiction book tells the story of her mother as Mary was growing up. In 1996 Mary Gordon wrote a similar book in her father's memory, The Shadow Man.

Armchair Interviews says: Wonderful to know about a first-rate book of short stories.

Celebrating the Imperfect
Mary Gordon's stories deal with the travails of modern life - of individuals who grapple with the business of family, marriage, and identity.

Her protagonists are mostly women, Irish American, newly-displaced and carving a new identity at various stages of realising or witnessing and coming to terms with their American Dream falling to pieces, having a second go at their marriages, being disappointed with their children, etc.

Some characters that stand out for me include the well-meaning elderly widow who tries to cheerfully face the increasing irrelevance of her existence in `Death in Naples', the efficient nun and principal who tolerates an incompetent teacher and find herself mistakenly playing out the role of friend and supporter despite her less noble intentions in `The Deacon', and the long-suffering husband who holds onto a promise he made to his demented wife, despite his inability to cope with her deterioration in `Mrs Cassidy's Last Year'.

Always graceful and written in careful, delicate strokes, Gordon's stories will touch those that celebrate the honest and the frail but frustrate the cynical and those impatient with evidence of human weakness.