O Careless Love: Stories and a Novella - Hardcover

Dodd, Susan

3.82

11 ratings by Goodreads

9780688169992: O Careless Love: Stories and a Novella

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688169996 ISBN 13: 9780688169992

Publisher: William Morrow, 1999

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Settings ranging from a desolate island in winter to a broken-down city bus at rush hour are the locale for love's unlikely -- and often inconvenient -- landings in these ten diverse and uncommon stones. An eccentric endodontist repairs a patient's freshly broken heart while performing a root canal. A Haitian woman charms snakes into keeping her company in an urban cave as she safeguards her grandchildren's sleep. A shy illustrator subsists through a long Vermont winter on occasional glimpses of a man in a blue pick-up truck.

Whether Dodd's characters are on the lookout or on the lam, love is what maps their migrations. An enduring species, they scavenge wherever scraps of hope may be found. The sound of their yearnings, muted and distinct, will linger in the reader's heart.

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About the Author:

Susan Dodd, who has taught at Harvard and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, is the author of four critically acclaimed books. Her work has been honored by the Friends of American Writers, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Faulkner Society, among other organizations. She lives in Ocracoke, North Carolina.

From Publishers Weekly:

A dazzling range of characters and settings, a compassionate understanding of the human search for connection, a zest for negotiating the contemporary sexual battlefield, a keen ear for snappy, tart dialogue and a felicitous use of language distinguish Dodd's (The Mourner's Bench) new collection. These nine short stories and one novella explore romantic love, parental and filial love, and love as companionship, but they have in common an ability to surprise, amuse and touch the heart. Even when love is lost or unrequited, there is nothing lugubrious about these tales, buoyed as they are by conversational exchangesAoften sassy, wisecracking and boldAthat ring so beautifully that one yearns to read them aloud. The novella, "Ethiopia," is one of three stories where a black male protagonist and a white woman, both writers, take tentative steps toward love, and Dodd's turnabout plot, where each is almost destroyed by lack of self-worth, is spun with measured lucidity. A sub-theme conveys Dodd's concern for poor and homeless people, which she echoes in two other stories. "Adult Education," in which a black mail carrier and a white house cleaner meet on a bus in New Haven, is the only story where hope burns most strongly at the end. One of the three most affecting tales, "What I Remember Now," set in Vermont, is a beautifully controlled depiction of a tentative love affair between Junie, an illustrator accustomed to solitude, and Barter, a taciturn man who seems her destined soulmate but is not. Set in Boston and Cambridge, "So Far You Can't Imagine" and "Lady Chatterley's Root Canal" feature vulnerable protagonists searching unsuccessfully for romantic connection. In the first, a stressed professor opens the emotional gates for the questing Howard Schachter; in the other, the instrument of epiphany for Margaret Chatterley is a wiry old dentist whose repartee is as sharp as his drill, but whose heart is tender. While the remaining stories do not establish such clean cuts to the heart, the collection is a standout. Author tour. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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