From Publishers Weekly:
Bittersweet, intoxicating language infuses Wieland's ( The Names of the Lost ) first collection of short stories. Though at first glance these 10 tales appear to be nearly naive depictions of contemporary life, they are in fact bound together by a dense net of sophisticated wordplay: images, metaphors and allusions recur, giving the narrative the emotional pull of dream logic. A deadpan sense of humor makes its presence known as well. In "Called By Name," a woman recalls driving west in her truck: "I was learning Spanish from Berlitz tapes. Speak Spanish Like a Diplomat! the plastic tape cases said. All I had to do was Speak Spanish Like a Librarian! I wondered what the difference was, and I still do." Wryly romantic, "Aisle Help" stars a matchmaker and marriage specialist on the run from matrimony. "Tommy Wadell" and "Who It Really Was," both set in Atlanta, revolve around teenage girls' doomed relationships with boys their parents are sure to disapprove of. Grief, love and sexuality fairly blaze from the pages of "Lessons and Carols," the wrenching, intricately wrought account of a teenager coming to terms with the aftermath of her father's death. The collection sweeps to a close with the title story, an ambitious, meticulously constructed meditation on such seemingly disparate topics as passion, whales and mapmaking. Playful, challenging and heartfelt, these stories offer many discoveries to savor.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews:
In spite of an innocuous title, Wieland (The Names of the Lost, 1992) employs rich shapes and colors, finely hewed thematic details, and a heart full of a rebel's sympathy in the ten long stories collected here. Most fan out from Brookhaven, Georgia, where early stories depict the lives of the town's insurgent characters, including a proper young schoolgirl with a crush on a sweet redneck boy; a kindly, well-liked widow discovered by her daughter to be having an affair with a black lumberyard worker who helps the daughter build treehouses (``Lessons and Carols''); and the founder of a brides' consulting service who refuses to marry the man who underwrote her business (``Aisle Help''). Later stories move from Georgia to Texas and California but sustain their pungent sense of rebellion as a centrifugal force, even in diaspora: a grown Georgian daughter spirits her father away from his circling creditors in St. Louis (``Close to Falling''); a pregnant teenager runs away to Texas and learns to shoot (``Called by Name''). And, in the long, richly modulated title story, two hill-country teenagers enact the classic case of a doomed love affair as they roam from Texas to Utah and then the Oregon coast, looking for jobs, a home--a safe place to land. Well-crafted and original--a welcome short-story debut. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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