Skin: Stories - Hardcover

Poverman, C E

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865380767 ISBN 13: 9780865380769

Publisher: Ontario Review Press, 1992

Synopsis

In these sensitive and keenly observed stories dramatizing the complexities and ambiguities of human relationships, C. E. Poverman presents a richly varied range of protagonists. Among them are an Hispanic social worker who takes calls on a crisis center helpline ("Cutter"), a young model who demonstrates cosmetics ("Beautiful"), and a college professor accused of sexual abuse ("The Man Who Died"). The powerful climax of the collection is the hallucinatory title story, where a young woman discovers that her lover is a potentially dangerous psychopath. Marked by intelligence, compassion, and a sense of irony, these stories secure Poverman's place among the best writers of short fiction in America today.

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Reviews

Unsettling ambiguities characterize the determinist, chaotic, often violent world depicted in this powerful collection of 11 short stories by the author of My Father in Dreams. In the title story, a woman recalls her brief but intense affair with a marine who survived two tours of duty in Vietnam unscathed; in fact, she is attracted to him by the beauty and smoothness of his skin. But when mysterious razor slashes leave Lewis's body as scarred as his psyche, it emerges that the marine has not told his lover the truth and may not know it himself; she, too, has had a glimpse of the person she might be. Other tales are similarly haunting, such as The Man Who Died, which recounts both sides of a sexual assault case. Exploring such themes as male sexuality, addictive and codependent behavior, the rights of the mentally ill and new love among old friends, the stories all hit the mark with their depictions of characters who are devious, gullible, confused, quirky and even insane, but never unreal. Poverman's habit of recycling background material and names from tale to tale keeps the reader off balance and adds to an atmosphere in which things are seldom what they seem.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

If there is a weakness in these 11 stories it is that Poverman's endings never quite live up to the promise of emotional impact they brilliantly build toward. In the title story a young college student/fashion model has a hypnotic attraction for a tough Marine with gray eyes and "smooth . . . tight skin." She learns that his grotesque Vietnam nightmares and grisly tales are figments of a psychosis and flees in terror when she finds the razor slashes in his beautiful skin weren't inflicted by angry gamblers at all. In "Africa," an art curator confronts his own sense of romance and love as he observes the tortured relationship between an itinerant German sculptor in his late 30s and Madame Bardi, 91, a once-great beauty. Sandy's dawning awareness of his homosexuality in "On the Ocean" leads to overt expressions of denial: through religion, drinking, affairs, then marriage to a woman with an uncanny resemblance to a former boyfriend. These involving, carefully crafted tales resonate with sexuality, relationships, and the tension between romance and love. Very highly recommended.
- Ron Antonucci, Hudson Lib. & Historical Soc . , Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ontario Review Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0865380767
• ISBN 13: 9780865380769
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 279