Stardust, 7-eleven, Route 57, A & W, And So Forth: Stories - Hardcover

Lear, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394579984 ISBN 13: 9780394579986

Publisher: Knopf, 1992

Synopsis

A collection of eight short stories that offer a liberationist view of life in the South features "Ironman," "Solace," "Hot," "Graceland," "After Memphis," "Believe Me, Mr. Phoebe," "Licensed for Private Exhibition Only," and "Powwow."

About this title

Reviews

Lear's lyrical first book, a collection of eight stories, transports readers to languorous Southern towns where families find air-conditioned comfort at the local Dairy Queen and the mail's daily arrival is viewed as an event. The descriptions here are remarkably synesthetic: we seem surrounded by the thick air of a motel room, where a vacationing group bickers and eats greasy fried chicken; we are immersed in summer sun on a lawn where a man and his pack of hyperactive dogs congregate; we feel the humid air and the coolness of ice cream while sluggishly lounging in a living room. Throughout, there is a sense of time relentlessly oozing by, of kids growing up and of individuals adjusting to adversity. Healthy people frequently witness or experience the fragility of the infirm; for instance, in "Ironman," an athletic woman sustains an injury that tempts her to relinquish goals and surrender to a drab life with her estranged husband, while in "Graceland" a dissatisfied city dweller fearfully suspects her own life might not improve with either time or experience after visiting a terminally ill, elderly friend. Mortality, boredom and change are explored in a collection whose leisurely pace contrasts with its characters' desperation.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Eight short stories that strain after the colloquial in familiar ways: occasional sparkle and one gem in a mostly uninspired debut. Lear has it down pat: the neo-literary non-literary voice with its awkward syntax, likes, you knows, the sudden unmoored entry into stories, and narrators who tell their lives flat out (``How it usually goes in the mornings is...'') with cute assessments (``The way we are is a couple....''; ``Boredom is what I tell myself I feel''). In the novella-length ``Solace'' (which provides the collection's title: Stardust, 7-Eleven, etc., being the names of the protagonist's dogs), musician C.W. tries to live out a beer- commercial-inspired vision, taking his aspiring trumpeter son and two sexy divorc‚es on a weekend gig; the son--resentful of losing practice time--turns hostile while the women--left in front of the hotel TV with nothing to do--soon, like the reader, grow bored. Characters, dropped into situations touching on life and earth, remain essentially unchanged. In ``After Memphis,'' the lively responses of southern children moving to Yankeeland and a plot involving snakes get lost as the story goes on too long. Only ``Angels''--about the funny, tender but ephemeral relationship between a woman who's recently had a mastectomy and the actor working briefly as her handyman--manages to be contemporary, quirky, and moving. Lear subordinates depth and plot to style, which might work if the style were not by now so familiar. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394579984
• ISBN 13: 9780394579986
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 161