Miss Kansas City (Michigan Literary Fiction Awards) - Hardcover

Frank, Joan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0472115758 ISBN 13: 9780472115754

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 2006

Synopsis

Miss Kansas City is the story of an improbable friendship, set in the tumultuous mid-80s dotcom California, where youthful greed and blinkered innocence arrive intertwined.
 
Friendless and reclusive, Alex Blue commutes two hours each way to a job that serves mainly as a place to bide time, until one day she meets the wealthy, worldly―and married―owner of a high-concept Bay Area lifestyle company. Meanwhile, the melancholy and closeted Morton Levi, yearning for a loving partner but stung by prior experience, lives a secret life outside the software information company he manages with a steady, efficient hand―the same company where Alex works.
 
As ominous rumors of mergers and layoffs swirl, and Alex and Mort are pushed to the emotional brink by the vagaries of love, they find themselves forging an unexpected alliance. Miss Kansas City is a moving exploration of the notion of possibility, and of a seasoned hope that can emerge on the other side of loneliness and loss.
 
Joan Frank is the author of the story collection Boys Keep Being Born, which was both a Bay Area Book Reviewers’ Award and Paterson Fiction Award finalist. Her stories appear in many journals and anthologies, including The Antioch Review,The Iowa Review, and Salmagundi. She is a MacDowell Colony and VCCA Fellow, Pushcart Prize nominee, recipient of a Barbara Deming Grant, and winner of the Iowa Fiction Award and Emrys Fiction Award. She lives in Northern California. Miss Kansas City is her first novel.

About this title

About the Author:

Miss Kansas City is the story of an improbable friendship, set in the tumultuous mid-80s dotcom California, where youthful greed and blinkered innocence arrive intertwined. The friendless and lonely Alex Blue commutes two hours each way to a job that doesn't suit her yearnings or talents, until one day she meets the dashing millionaire - and married - owner of a Bay-area lifestyle company. Meanwhile, the lugubrious Morton Levi, ready for love but afraid of the consequences, lives a secret life outside the software information company he manages with a steady, efficient hand - the same company where Alex works. As Alex and Morton's lives begin to unravel, their stories also begin to intertwine. They each learn the danger of keeping too many secrets as they are pushed to the emotional brink by the events that must inevitably unfold. Joan Frank is the author of the story collection Boys Keep Being Born, which was both a Bay Area Book Reviewers' Award and Paterson Fiction Award finalist. Her stories appear in many journals and anthologies, including The Antioch Review, The Iowa Review, and Salmagundi. She is a MacDowell Colony and VCCA Fellow, Pushcart Prize nominee, recipient of a Barbara Deming Grant, and winner of the Iowa Fiction Award and Emrys Fiction Award. She lives in Northern California. Miss Kansas City is her first novel.

Review:

"Miss Kansas City is an utterly convincing portrait of a world at once specific to its time and place, and yet also universal. Both heartbreaking and redeeming." - Eileen Pollack, judge, Michigan Literary Fiction Awards "...a marvelously satisfying story of friendship and love, and a braided exploration of relationships in our time and place. With precision, wit, and compassion, Joan Frank has provided us with an odyssey into the heart - a gorgeous meditation on what it is to be in love, and alone...." - Laura Kasischke, judge, Michigan Literary Fiction Awards"

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0472115758
• ISBN 13: 9780472115754
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264