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Sebastian Ritscher |
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STARTING OVER
Stories
One of the masters of American short fiction—author of The Light in the Piazza—returns with a new collection of stories.
Upon the release of her first novel, Fire in the Morning, in 1948, Elizabeth Spencer was immediately championed by Robert Penn Warren and Eudora Welty, setting off a remarkable career as one of the great literary voices of the American South. The range of her career, which began in the first half of the twentieth century, is nothing short of remarkable, including nine novels, five short-story collections, a memoir, and the acclaimed Broadway adaptation of her classic novella, The Light in the Piazza, in 2005, which attracted yet a new generation of readers.
After a hiatus of more than a decade, Spencer returns with these nine new stories—all written after the death of her beloved husband—and to many of the themes that have defined her work, particularly the deep emotional fault lines and unseen fractures that lie just beneath the veneer of normal family life. The characters in Starting Over, whether balancing family with a visit from a rarely seen relative or starting a new job following a divorce, often find themselves dealing with the shifting of familiar terrain that once seemed so steady. They have suddenly reached a rupture in their lives—often caught between memories of the past and an unsettled present—and find themselves having to start all over again.
But more than memory, it is the subtle divisions and re-formations in the ever shifting landscape of contemporary family relations that Spencer excels at portraying, in stories like “Sightings” where a troubled daughter suddenly returns to the home of the father she accidentally blinded during her parents’ bitter separation; in “Blackie,” where a divorcee’s assured place in her second marriage and family is traumatically upended when her only son from her first marriage comes to live with her, causing a harrowing confrontation with her stepchildren and father-in-law; and in “The Wedding Visitor,” where a cousin travels home only to find himself entwined in the events leading up to a family wedding. In these stories and six others that are collected in Starting Over, Spencer reveals the flawed fabric of human relations and affirms her stature as one of the outstanding living writers of the American South.
Elizabeth Spencer is the author of nine novels, five collections of short stories, a memoir, and a play. She is a five-time winner of the O. Henry Award for short fiction and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in North Carolina.
After a hiatus of more than a decade, Spencer returns with these nine new stories—all written after the death of her beloved husband—and to many of the themes that have defined her work, particularly the deep emotional fault lines and unseen fractures that lie just beneath the veneer of normal family life. The characters in Starting Over, whether balancing family with a visit from a rarely seen relative or starting a new job following a divorce, often find themselves dealing with the shifting of familiar terrain that once seemed so steady. They have suddenly reached a rupture in their lives—often caught between memories of the past and an unsettled present—and find themselves having to start all over again.
But more than memory, it is the subtle divisions and re-formations in the ever shifting landscape of contemporary family relations that Spencer excels at portraying, in stories like “Sightings” where a troubled daughter suddenly returns to the home of the father she accidentally blinded during her parents’ bitter separation; in “Blackie,” where a divorcee’s assured place in her second marriage and family is traumatically upended when her only son from her first marriage comes to live with her, causing a harrowing confrontation with her stepchildren and father-in-law; and in “The Wedding Visitor,” where a cousin travels home only to find himself entwined in the events leading up to a family wedding. In these stories and six others that are collected in Starting Over, Spencer reveals the flawed fabric of human relations and affirms her stature as one of the outstanding living writers of the American South.
Elizabeth Spencer is the author of nine novels, five collections of short stories, a memoir, and a play. She is a five-time winner of the O. Henry Award for short fiction and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in North Carolina.
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Book
Published 2014-01-01 by Liveright/Norton |
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Book
Published 2014-01-01 by Liveright/Norton |