Bliss and Other Short Stories (The Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction) - Softcover

Gilley, Ted

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803232616 ISBN 13: 9780803232617

Publisher: Bison Books, 2010

Synopsis

Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, this daring collection of nine stories introduces readers to an edgy vision and a world in which certainties are tested and found wanting. A Cambodian refugee negotiates the icy waters of American social and sexual life. A young couple seeks “peak experiences” to escape grief, only to discover that they’ve brought it along with them. A teenage girl, unable to face the imminent end of her grandfather’s life, risks her own life in an impulsive act. A man’s fragile hold on reality becomes the key to his finding, albeit through a terrifying labyrinth, his heart’s desire. The characters in Bliss and Other Short Stories must find their way to a truth that, though less than perfect, is one they can live with. Finding bliss, it seems, is as much about pain as about pleasure, and in Ted Gilley’s writing the discovery is always exquisite.

About this title

About the Author

Ted Gilley is a freelance writer and editor. His short fiction and poetry have appeared in such publications as New England Review, Northwest Review, Prairie Schooner, and many other magazines and anthologies.

Reviews

Gilley's debut collection offers admirably constructed narratives from which his troubled protagonists emerge bearing small, resonant victories. The narrator of "Vanishing World" is the youngest son of a suburban Connecticut family that blows apart in the 1960s: mom, unsure this is the life she had envisioned, has an affair; dad struggles to maintain a clientele for artwork falling out of style; one of his twin sisters is murdered; and the narrator experiences his first homosexual love affair while in the navy. In the beautifully depicted "White," a married couple recognizes in the space of a quick, explosive argument the fatal flaws in their relationship. The "lost" young woman narrator of "House of Prayer" becomes vulnerable to the proselytizing of her born-again Christian roommate at the same time she's shaken by her boyfriend's infidelity and her bipolar sister's psychotic episodes. Another lovable misfit redeems himself from misunderstanding in the title story by declaring: "All my life, I seem to have been mistaken for someone else." Telling, make-or-break moments are the crux of Gilley's stories, allowing his sharply etched characters to find unexpected purpose under fire.
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Gilley’s first short-story collection includes stunning tales about a Cambodian refugee’s awkwardness dating; a gay soldier’s dismissal and relationship with his mostly female family; an orphaned brother and sister adjusting to life without the friends and family they have left; and a young boy who won’t sleep outside after his first California earthquake. Each story is a small pleasure. The setting is not specified, but Gilley convincingly evokes a recent American past, perhaps the late 1970s, when people moved a bit more slowly, taking more time with thought and action. While many tales involve the quiet situations often found in contemporary American short stories, these stand apart, thanks to Gilley’s knack for effortless dialogue in whichever diverse, everyday situation he plumbs. This slim and striking collection recently garnered the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction. --Annie Tully

Edition details

• Publisher: Bison Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803232616
• ISBN 13: 9780803232617
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 136