Glory Goes and Gets Some - Softcover

Emily Carter

3.85

178 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1852428244 ISBN 13: 9781852428242

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2003

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From her patrician childhood on New York?s Upper East Side, to her chemical addictions downtown, and her unlikely, tenuous yet rewarding alliances on 12-step rehab programs in the Midwest, Glory gives us an uncensored and irreverent account of her experiences scoring dope on the streets and seeking redemption in recovery. The straight road has never had so many turns as Glory hooks up with other casualties from the chemical generation. There?s ex-Sister Jacqueline who fled the convent of the Sisters of Patience with the baby Jesus under her arm, ever relapsing gun freak Dooley who wants to be sober but is always drunk and Zemecki, so immersed in his lonely torpor that he can only express love for his ex-girlfriend?s cat. In this streetwise and sardonic book, Glory finds love and work whilst steering clear of self-pity and ?happy-talk?: she very determinedly goes and gets some. Winner of the prestigious Whiting Award for young writers, Emily Carter is that rare combination: a writer who can do very dark lightly.

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About the Author:

Emily Carter grew up in New York and now lives in Minnesota. In 2001 she won the prestigious Whiting Award for new writers. She is the daughter of writer Anne Roiphe and sister of Katie Roiphe author of The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism on Campus

From Publishers Weekly:

An intense, edgy, boldly candid and irrepressibly sardonic voice drives the 21 interlinked stories in this collection, mainly narrated by the eponymous Gloria Bronski. Exiled from Manhattan to a recovery community in Minnesota, Glory minces no words in confessing that she is a former drug addict and alcoholic. She's also HIV positive (from a liaison with a Puerto Rican air-conditioner repairman), chronically depressed, and aching for sex, love and connection. The self-described "Jewish child of professional intellectuals," she announces her obsessive neediness for approval ("my disgusting need to be liked")A especially by men. Glory is one of those characters who grab hold of your elbow and pour out their heart in nonstop talk. Her monologues pulse with irony and black humor; constantly cracking wise, she betrays her vulnerability only obliquely. Time and again, Glory's self-destructive behaviorAin East Coast private schools, from which she is expelled, and in the streets and bedrooms of seamy New York neighborhoodsAtestifies to her paradoxical temptation to act badly, even when she's close to rock-bottom. Perversely, she rebuffs her family's love and concernAbut not their money, which always rescues her. In the story "The Bride," she admits that "males have always had incredible power over me.... From nursery school on, I craved their love and approval in the way I would later come to crave alcohol, cocaine, and opiates." But after brief spurts of chemically induced euphoria, all she has earned is a lifetime of sadness. As she progresses through Minnesota's treatment centers, however, Glory does achieve recovery, and the tender, burgeoning possibility of a hopeful life. Carter's stories are best when Glory's voice has center stage; the several third-person narratives lack the ring of authority. But her prose is everywhere supple and compelling, and this collection announces her as a brave new talent. (Sept.) FYI: Carter's literary credentials are impressive; she is the daughter of writer Anne Roiphe and the sister of Katie Roiphe.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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