Later the Same Day - Hardcover

Paley, Grace

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374184097 ISBN 13: 9780374184094

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1985

Synopsis

In this collection of seventeen stories, the author of "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute" reintroduces familiar characters whose perspectives have matured, but whose activities still center on family pursuits, community welfare, and future plans

About this title

Review:

Later The Same Day combines Grace Paley's talent for innovative short stories with her unwavering commitment to feminist peace activism. Her characters are heroic in ordinary ways - they talk, laugh, and think about the things that matter to them. They live normal, everyday lives yet remain awake and focused in their concern about the future, emanating wisdom, humor, disappointment, hope, and fear. These stories center upon an appropriately named character, Faith, who tells and listens to the stories of friends, neighbors, lovers, and strangers struggling to find hope and meaning in their sometimes shattered lives. As the story titles suggest, Faith's endless confidence in her friends and in the ordinary powers of "Listening" and in becoming a "Story Hearer" pave the way for radical transformation. In "Zagrowsky Tells," Faith runs into the old Jewish pharmacist whose drug store she and her friends once picketed because he refused to sell to black patrons. Now, years later, she listens to how the ordinary act of learning to love his half black, half-Jewish grandson has taught him to unlearn his racism. Throughout the collection, neighbors learn to listen to each other, husbands and lovers learn to hear women, women who are longtime friends and political allies validate each others lives, and strangers tell stories that need to be heard. For Grace Paley, these important ties of love, faith, and language are what create community. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Suzanne Sowinska

From Publishers Weekly:

In the 17 short stories collected here, Paley writes with verbal economy and resonance, pithy insights, and warmth and humor. The themes are familiar: friendship, commitment, responsibility, love, political idealism and activism, children, the nuclear shadow. PW greatly enjoyed these tales, stating: " 'Somewhere for me perfection is flowering,' says a character in one of these stories. Many readers will find perfection flowering here."
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0374184097
• ISBN 13: 9780374184094
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 211