Items related to Iron Shoes: A Novel
Synopsis
A "master of the short story" turns her attention to the novel, crafting a chilling debut about Kay Sorenson, a forty-year-old woman who searches for her identity as her own family begins to unravel around her. A first novel.
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Review
Marooned in a loveless marriage and on the cusp of a full-blown midlife crisis, Kay Sorensen hardly needs the additional grief of tending to a dying parent. Tribulations compound however: as she frets over her manipulative and fading mother, Ida, she must also reckon with her father's indifference, her husband's insufficiencies, and--she fears--her own squandered potential. Such is the treacherous and often bitterly comedic territory Molly Giles wanders in her first novel, Iron Shoes, where the Northern California semi-serenity fails to allay one family's apparent disintegration.
As Kay puts in her part-time hours paging at the local library, she ponders her as-yet-undiscovered true calling and indulges fantasies of an affair. It's almost a relief to be distracted from her immobilizing frustrations by her mother's decline. Full of bitter and contentious self-pity, Ida trudges downward gracelessly. Her death provokes ever-worsening pangs of self-doubt in Kay, as she and her condemnatory father fumble to make sense of their relationship. Kay is pushed toward both revelation and decision: "If you can clean up the mess outside then maybe the mess inside will straighten out too," she opines. It's the "maybe" that muddles her tidy formula.
Iron Shoes is alternately sobering and breezy as Giles moves from the more unpleasant inevitabilities of Kay's world to the often absurd stratagems of family reconciliation. An ensemble cast enlivens things as well: Kay's sexy and audacious friend Zabeth counsels her and--just maybe--is coming on to her father, and her husband Neal is obsessed with a healthful diet but forgetful even of how many years he and Kay have been married. If at times the heroine's travails seem something of a caricature of fortysomething despair, Giles picks up the slack with a few well-placed narrative sleights of hand. Throughout, Kay's bafflement at other people's apparently well-manicured lives rings at perfect pitch. --Ben Guterson
About the Author
Molly Giles is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas and the author of two short story collections, Rough Translations and Creek Walk and Other Stories. She has won several awards for her writing, including the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Boston Globe Award for Short Fiction, and the Small Press Best Fiction/ Short Story Award.
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- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0684859939
- ISBN 13 9780684859934
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Edition number1
- Number of pages240
- Rating
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Iron Shoes A Novel
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Iron Shoes
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ISBN 10: 0684859939
ISBN 13: 9780684859934
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Iron Shoes: A Novel
Published by
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ISBN 10: 0684859939
ISBN 13: 9780684859934
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Hard Cover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. CH5 - A tight, clean, sound copy in black paper covered boards quarter bound in textured olive green paper with metallic green lettering on the spine with very minor overall shelf wear plus the dust jacket mylar sleeve endflaps are glued to the front and back fixed endpapers plus there are the usual library stamps, marks, and label on the top outside paper edges and front free endpaper. The dust jacket shows no visible signs of wear plus the front and back mylar sleeve endflaps are glued to the fixed endpapers plus it is still in the original library mylar sleeve. A novel about a woman's spirited search for identity and meaning following her family's disintegration. The author is a winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Boston Globe Award for Short Fiction, and the Small press Best Fiction/Short Story Award. By the author of "Rough Translations" and "Creek Walk and Other Stories." 239p. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. Seller Inventory # SCW08384
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Iron Shoes: A Novel
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Iron Shoes: A Novel
Published by
Simon & Schuster, New York, New York, USA, 2000
ISBN 10: 0684859939
ISBN 13: 9780684859934
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Bookmarc's, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hard Cover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. CH5 - A tight, clean, sound copy in black paper covered boards quarter bound in textured olive green paper with metallic green lettering on the spine with very minor overall shelf wear with the usual library stamps and pocket on the top, bottom, and right outside paper edges and the front free endpaper. The dust jacket shows no visible signs of wear plus it is still in the original library plastic sleeve. A novel about a woman's spirited search for identity and meaning following her family's disintegration. The author is a winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Boston Globe Award for Short Fiction, and the Small press Best Fiction/Short Story Award. By the author of "Rough Translations" and "Creek Walk and Other Stories." 239p. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. Seller Inventory # SCW11392
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Iron Shoes A Novel
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
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Iron Shoes: A Novel
Published by
Simon & Schuster August 2000, 2000
ISBN 10: 0684859939
ISBN 13: 9780684859934
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