Herself in Love and Other Stories - Hardcover

Wiggins, Marianne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670815527 ISBN 13: 9780670815524

Publisher: Viking, 1987

Synopsis

Book by Wiggins, Marianne

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

As evidenced in this provocative collection of short stories, Wiggins seems able to change mood and locale, voice and narrative point of view, with dazzling skill. These 14 tales have a fine variety, but the best are those that involve characters who speak in regional patois and idiosyncratic turns of phrase. In "Ridin' Up Front with Carl and Marl," a trio of Southerners encounters a hardbitten photographer from Massachusetts who tells them, "You people have no sense of what life's really like"; but she's wrong. "The Gentleman's Arms" takes place in England, where would-be lovers united after 20 years encounter a monumental let-down, and at the end, a poignant moment of insight. "Stonewall Jackson's Wife" herself is the ghostly narrator of that story, which surges with sadness. The narrator's colloquial speech places "Insomnia" squarely in the '80s; her wry, bitter voice is oddly and immensely affecting. That same bitterness unmitigated by humor is not so successful in "Quicksand" and "Pleasure"; and one tale, "Among the Impressionists," is too quirky. But the title story, which ends the collection, embodies Wiggins's best skills: her ability to illuminate commonplace truths with a precise, clarifying vision. Wiggin's stories do not give up their secrets easily; but their subtle unfolding can cause chills along the reader's spine.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0670815527
• ISBN 13: 9780670815524
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 183