Stripping + Other Stories (High Risk Books) - Softcover

Kennedy, Pagan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852423226 ISBN 13: 9781852423223

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 1993

Synopsis

A collection of stories about females who don't fit in--each coping with the limits of her life by making up an elaborate and flattering lie about herself so as to escape a helpless situation. "These stories are simple and undramatic, yet subtly provocative."--New York Times Book Review

About this title

About the Author

Pagan Kennedy is the author of Stripping and Other Stories. Her debut novel, Spinsters, was short-listed for the 1996 Orange Prize. Her writing appears regularly in The Nation and The Village Voice. She lives in Boston.

From Kirkus Reviews

Despite her cutting-edge credentials--editor of a hip 'zine, star of an offbeat cable show, writer for The Nation and The Village Voice--Kennedy's literary debut is a modest, rather conventional collection of ten stories, a few of which have appeared in The Quarterly, Story Quarterly and VLS. Most of Kennedy's stories, regardless of time or place, record the loss of innocence by young women and girls who don't necessarily regret their passage into adulthood. That can't be said, though, of the narrator of the title piece--an old woman whose life was forever altered when her older cousin raped her many years ago, an incident that has also haunted her other cousin, a helpless witness to the event. In ``The Tunnel,'' a young girl discovers the pleasures of lying when she disobeys her father's warning about running through a dangerous tunnel. The narrator of ``The Dead Rabbits'' recalls a horse-riding accident at age ten, an incident that made her realize her father's inability to protect her from all harm. ``Camp'' and ``The Black Forest'' unerringly capture the drama of girls in search of experience: a young camper who tries to seduce an awkward brainiac like herself; and a naive college freshman who's overwhelmed by her reading of Nietzsche. In the slacker romance of ``UFO,'' a bright young woman realizes that her moody, acid-dropping boyfriend just might be really crazy. A reverse sort of revelation comes in ``Shrinks,'' the story of a young woman raised on mood-altering drugs and psychiatry by her neurotic mother--the daughter realizes she doesn't need either. ``Elvis's Bathroom,'' a knowing look at a funky punk couple (he, a burnt-out case at 30; she, a vivacious 18-year-old) celebrates her guileless enthusiasm for life, and her desire to see the spot where the King died. A winning collection of stories by a beginner worth watching. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1852423226
• ISBN 13: 9781852423223
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160