The Rose City - Softcover

Ebershoff, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753813211 ISBN 13: 9780753813218

Publisher: W&N, 2002

Synopsis

A collection of stories by the author of the widely acclaimed novel THE DANISH GIRLFrom the author of THE DANISH GIRL comes David Ebershoff's first collection of short fiction, THE ROSE CITY, seven finely crafted stories about young men finding a place in the world.Set in contemporary California and Boston, the stories each recount a moment in their protagonist's life when the world begins to shift beneath him: the boy who breaks into a gay man's house to see how he lives; the shy teenager who tries to starve himself away; the tennis tutor who learns too much about the family for whom he works; the strange boy named Chuck Paa who finds employment among the dying. The title story is about an unemployed actor at the end of his youth whose life in Southern California is filled by delusion, and a perpetual search for love.

About this title

Review:

The characters in David Ebershoff's spare, acid-etched stories are the loners holding down bar stools in the afternoon, the trolls that pretty gay boys learn how to avoid, men on whom fortune never smiled, or smiled only once, so briefly and dazzlingly, that they forever look backward. Often, though, their defining moment is not a happy memory. The protagonist of "The Dress" recounts being trapped in a woman's dress at the age of ten, having knotted the sash too tightly around his naked waist, an incident that cost him his father's love. Roland Dott, the mentally unstable main character of the title story, was rejected by his high school idol after delivering a bathroom blowjob, and consoles himself for forty years with an exaggerated sense of self worth. Much of the poignancy of Ebershoff's vision comes from his positioning of his characters in a hostile and uncomprehending world, rather than in a gay universe of cocktail parties, stylish hair, and flippant rejoinders. These are unconsoling stories, well crafted and hard to forget. --Regina Marler

About the Author:

David Ebershoff is the publishing director of the Modern Library, a division of Random House, Inc. He is the author of the international bestseller The Danish Girl and visiting lecturer at Princeton University.

About this edition

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0753813211
• ISBN 13: 9780753813218
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240