First, Body: Stories - Softcover

Thon, Melanie Rae

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805055401 ISBN 13: 9780805055405

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1998

Synopsis

Winner of the 1997 Whiting Writers' Award
One of Granta's "Best Young American Novelists"

About this title

Review:

"Two nurses with scissors could make a man naked in eleven seconds." The first sentence of the first story from this collection grabs you and offers an insightful metaphor for all that is to come. With dark and seductive prose, Thon strips away the surface of her characters to get to the raw heart of being. Her characters' lives are edged with pain, addiction, loneliness, and dire circumstances. Sex is an act of survival, drugs less a matter of choice than necessity, human contact less an act of intimacy than a jostling for position. And Thon dumps you right into the middle of these desperate lives, graced only with her lyrical and searching voice. Although it's a slender collection, barely more than 150 pages, it hits you hard--you'll want to catch your breath after each story. Granta has declared Thon to be among the best young American novelists, and this collection does not belie the accolades.

About the Author:

Melanie Rae Thon is the author of Iona Moon, Meteors in August, and Girls in the Grass. Her short stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Paris Review, Story, and Granta. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, and teaches at Ohio State University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0805055401
• ISBN 13: 9780805055405
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 165