In the Music Library (Drue Heinz Literature Prize, 34) - Hardcover

Hunnicutt, Ellen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822935678 ISBN 13: 9780822935674

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987

Synopsis

"In these eleven stories, Ellen Hunnicutt has composed a stirring collection of variations on the theme of isolation and loss. Her characters see themselves and others as playing parts...Her Midwestern American characters curiously resemble the British writer William Trevor's characters who are tinged wuth the same sort of wit and sadness. In the Music Library is both brittle and charming in its manner as it propels the reader from one invention to the next."--New York Times Book Review

About this title

About the Author

Ellen Hunnicutt was born and raised in central Indiana, and her stories have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Wisconsin Academy Review, and Boy's Life.

Reviews

Winner of this year's Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction, this collection of 10 short stories and one novella presents a variety of introspective characters, most of whom have suffered deep losses. A unifying theme in the stories is the way in which past adversities intrude upon the present. In "All Kinds of Flowers," a hostess entertains a German woman and is disturbed by memories of Nazi soldiers occupying her native Holland. "At St. Theresa's College for Women" introduces a music teacher who, having experienced five miscarriages, sometimes fantasizes about kidnapping her young students. Memories can be ancestral as well as personal: the black cellist who narrates "In the Music Library" tries to summon up rhythm through her residues of racial memory. Hunnicutt, author of the well-received Suite for Calliope, is herself a musician. Her evocations of the sounds and tensions of the rehearsal hall are especially vivid and she has wisely placed many of her characters in a musical milieu, adding strength to this fine collection.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hunnicutt, winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for this collection, is a provocative writer. These stories show us some remarkable people coping as moments of truth, even crisis, awaken them from their lives-formed-from-habit. In one story, a middle-aged man understands in a flash that his son wants only approval, not money, for his newly launched career as a rock musician. "The thought was incredibly clean, pure, beautiful, ridiculous, hilarious. He began to tremble and could not stop. `It's emotion,' said the young waitress who had started patting his back as if he were choking. `Jesus, that music does the same thing to me, every time. . . .' The young people were satisfied . . . at Rolf's latest success, his father." This is a very good book. Johanna Ezell, Mont Alto Campus Lib., Pennsylvania State Univ.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0822935678
• ISBN 13: 9780822935674
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160