What's Come Over You: (none) - Hardcover

Thurm, Marian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1883285216 ISBN 13: 9781883285210

Publisher: Delphinium, 2001

Synopsis

A collection of stories filled with quirky characters and dramatic turns takes readers on a journey through the trials of rabbis, taxi drivers, and adolescents.

About this title

Reviews

How does one recover from unexpected misfortune? With steely grace and relentless optimism, if acclaimed short story writer and novelist Thurm (The Clairvoyant) has anything to do with it. From New York and Florida to California, her characters consistently pick themselves up, dust themselves off and make lemonade with the lemons life has handed them. Thurm's 13 stories, most dealing with the consequences of divorce, are a mixture of heartbreak and humor a rabbi's wife announces in front of the congregation that she's leaving him; a divorced father falls for a lesbian; newlyweds live across town from each other, neither willing to give up their apartments. But her most powerful stories showcase her ability to express deep emotion with a raw, naked intensity. In the truly agonizing "Pleasure Palace," Lynnie grieves over her young husband, who has just died of a brain hemorrhage, and attempts to adjust to life without him. In "Mourners," from which the collection's title is taken, Kay's husband leaves her after he discovers her affair with their daughter's teacher. Kay is unsure why she sabotaged her own marriage, other than out of ennui. She becomes unrecognizable to herself and is desperate for her husband to notice a change in her: "What's come over you? she'd longed to hear him ask." Thurm urges the reader to ask: do we realize how precious something is only once we've lost it? One imagines the characters crossing into each other's stories, advising them to treat their relationships with care, like an adult cautioning a child to appreciate youth. (June)Forecast: Although The Clairvoyant was a New York Times Notable book, popular success has proved elusive for Thurm. Handselling and major reviews will be crucial to the success of this collection, but don't expect miracles.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Thurm (The Clairvoyant) here contributes to her solid reputation as a short story writer and novelist, offering a peephole into the fractured lives of strange and likable people as they struggle with family, relationships, and all the attendant baggage. Her M.O. is to stack detail upon detail until the characters' worlds and emotions are palpably real. Thus, a beloved rabbi is decimated when his no-holds-barred wife announces to the congregation that she's leaving him; Grace, devastated on finding her husband with another woman, is consoled by a Japanese neighbor who insists that she will be at her best in a beautiful kimono; and a widowed grandfather gives loving shelter to his unmarried daughter and two grandchildren while despising her pet-store-employee boyfriend. Thurm, a humane observer of life, wisely avoids judging her characters. Rather, she deftly drops the reader into her stories, as if to say, "You are here." Recommended for all libraries. Mary Szczesiul, Roseville P.L., MI

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

In the urban, up-to-the-minute world of these 13 stories, love relationships don't last. Spouses and lovers slip-slide apart, generally as the result of deception, and the rare solid bond is broken by death. Yet Thurm's all-too-human characters somehow manage to cope in matters large and small: single moms raise strong daughters, a grieving grandfather basks in the love of his grandchildren, a jilted husband falls for his lesbian personal correspondent, and a woman mourning the death of her Yorkshire terrier digs up and freeze-dries her pet. Least quirky and most moving is the story of a newly widowed young woman who compares her loss to that of the lovelorn gay contractor who's building her long-planned fabulous bathroom. With her offbeat scenarios and on-target dialogue, Thurm's strong suit is short fiction, as this collection clearly shows. Michele Leber
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Delphinium
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1883285216
• ISBN 13: 9781883285210
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 225