Mrs. Ted Bliss (American Literature) - Softcover

Elkin, Stanley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564783227 ISBN 13: 9781564783226

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2002

Synopsis

Published posthumously in 1995, Mrs. Ted Bliss tells the story of an eighty-two-year-old widow starting life anew after the death of her husband. As Dorothy Bliss learns to cope with the mundane rituals of life in a Florida retirement community, she inadvertently becomes involved with a drug kingpin trying to use her as a front for his operations. Combining a comic plot with a deep concern for character, Elkin ends his career with a vivid portrait of a woman overcoming loss, a woman who is both recognizable and as unique as Elkin's other famous characters.

About this title

Review:

Mrs. Ted Bliss has lived on her own in a Miami condominium complex since the death of her husband, a Chicago butcher, and in learning to live in the modern world, she's made some interesting friends. Mrs. Ted is stepping out with more than one shady gentleman who is overly interested in the late Mr. Ted's Buick LeSabre. Hilarious, touching, and complex, this novel -- Elkin's last before his death in 1995 -- is the winner of the 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.

About the Author:

Stanley Elkin (1930-1995) was an award-winning author of novels, short stories, and essays. Born in the Bronx, Elkin received his BA and PhD from the University of Illinois and in 1960 became a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis where he taught until his death. His critically acclaimed works include the National Book Critics Circle Award-winners "George Mills" (1982) and "Mrs. Ted Bliss" (1995), as well as the National Book Award finalists "The Dick Gibson Show" (1972), "Searches and Seizures "(1974), and "The MacGuffin" (1991). His book of novellas, "Van Gogh's Room at Arles", was a finalist for the PEN Faulkner Award.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1564783227
• ISBN 13: 9781564783226
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 294