Creek Walk and Other Stories: and Other Stories - Softcover

Giles, Molly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 068485287X ISBN 13: 9780684852874

Publisher: Scribner, 1998

Synopsis

In this breathtaking and unforgettable collection of fourteen stories, Molly Giles introduces us to women struggling in the everyday, and in elegant, poignant, and achingly true prose, observes the human condition.

About this title

Review:

All of the stories in Molly Giles's second collection of short stories, Creek Walk are united by a common theme: the struggle of women to become visible in a world of men. In "The Writers' Model," the narrator sits in a room full of male writers revealing the most intimate details of her life in hopes that the men will one day translate them into fully rounded women on the page; in the end, of course, they don't. In "War" the main character is so alienated from her ex-husband that she does not even name him, referring to him only as "he." In the collection's most harrowing story, "Talking to Strangers," the narrator is literally invisible: brutally murdered and mutilated by a young man on a mountaintop, she speaks from the grave.

Molly Giles is a skillful writer and the women in Creek Walk leap off the page fully dimensional, their faults and virtues observed and interpreted. The men, however, are mostly ciphers: at best, unconsciously oblivious to the women in their lives, at worst willfully misunderstanding them. Still, Ms. Giles's elegant prose and memorable women make this collection a worthwhile read.

From the Publisher:

Critics agree: Molly Giles is a master storyteller. CREEK WALK AND OTHER STORIES shares arresting insights into the comic and tragic nature of life and the unflagging spirit to survive. The book's startling changes in styles, pace, and mood identify Giles as an astonishing and insightful artist. "...its best moments have a haunting resonance." (New York Times Book Review)

Giles is uncannily observant of women's lives, both the small details and the larger emotions that guide them. "Like Grace Paley, Giles writes exquisitely voice-driven stories." (Publishers Weekly) She artfully weaves tales of women struggling to emerge into their truest natures as they reach out, change their lives, and save themselves. These womendoctors, housewives, activists, students, and teachersbreak the old patterns that have held them back and kept them silent.

Verging on the surreal, Giles's "...powerful, honest storytelling" (Ms.) paints pictures of courageous women with an uncanny ability to pick up and go oneven if it's in the wrong direction. From love stories that include a woman who does everything right to seduce Mr. Wrong, and a jealous lover hunting through her boyfriend's house for "evidence" that can only destroy her, to stories around work and career in which a woman wonders why she was not promoted, and the members of a writing group struggle with envy then rise to the occasion when one of their members bursts into stardom, these stories are touching, sometimes alarming, and often funny.

Molly Giles is truly "...an undiscovered national treasure..." (Alan Cheuse, NPR book critic and author).

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 068485287X
• ISBN 13: 9780684852874
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144