Garbage Night at the Opera: stories - Softcover

Fioravanti, Valerie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1886157847 ISBN 13: 9781886157842

Publisher: BKMK Press, 2012

Synopsis

Garbage Night at the Opera covers roughly 30 years in the life of one extended family in pre-gentrified Brooklyn as they grapple with factory closings and other economic changes that impact the neighborhood. These are stories about invisible New Yorkers, those who struggle to survive on the margins of a city that glorifies wealth and celebrity. Winner of the 2011 Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction from BkMk Press of the University of Missouri, Kansas City.  Garbage Night at the Opera received the IPPY Bronze Medal in Short Fiction, was one of two finalists for Late Night Library's Debut-litzer Prize, and was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Story Prize.


Reviews
"Here, at last, is the real Brooklyn: gritty, tender, workaday, brave." - Kate Christensen, author of The Astral


"The gritty, sticky feel of living by the shore is brought home as if you're living there, too, as is what it would be like for your sisters, mother, daughters, and wife--no matter how much you loved them-- to be able to watch every last thing that you do, especially when you're down on your luck." - Bonnie ZoBell, Gently Read Literature


"Garbage Night at the Opera is an excellent addition to any short fiction collection focusing on the lives of New York." -  Midwest Book Review


"It's thoughtful, respectful, honest--and most importantly, a really good read." - Kel Munger, Sacramento News & Review


"What Fioravanti does better than anything else with these stories is create a world that rarely makes the media in any kind of positive light. Politicians talk around it, pundits pretend it doesn't exist, and those who live in it are led to believe that they are not part of it. That is the world of the working class majority--the people who make it possible for massive amounts of wealth to be amassed by incredibly few." - Fred Gardaphe, Fra Noi.


"(Fioravanti's) themes will be familiar to readers of Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski, and other American canonical short story writers who have long portrayed the masculine response to hard times in their work. Fioravanti's stories, however, tend to prioritize the female rather than the male point of view, which offers a refreshing counterpoint perspective." - Elizabeth O'Brien, New Pages


"Her characters are real and unapologetic. Her backdrop of Brooklyn...is vivid, with language that is accessible and street as well as poetically spot on." - San Francisco Book Review


"Fioravanti manages-in story after story-to touch upon something profoundly human." - Robert Boswell


"Deeply satisfying stories." - Peter Orner


"Garbage Night at the Opera intimately places you inside the characters' hearts and minds as they reckon with what cannot be salvaged -- and what can." -  Kevin McIlvoy


"Fioravanti shows us the stuff theses characters are made of, a raw mixture of despair, humor, and above all, a fighting spirit and hope." - Naomi Benaron


"These stories display the generosity and wisdom characteristic of the best of short fiction." -  Jacquelyn Mitchard

About this title

About the Author

A native of New York City, Valerie Fioravanti now lives in Sacramento, California, where she directs the Stories on Stage reading series, and teaches for the UCLA Writers' Extension. She has held a Fulbright fellowship to Italy and holds degrees from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, and the New School in New York City. Her work has appeared in such publications as North American Review, Cimarron Review, and Hunger Mountain. GARBAGE NIGHT AT THE OPERA, the title story of which received a special mention in Pushcart Prize XXVIII, is her first book.

From the Back Cover

Valerie Fioravanti's Garbage Night at the Opera is among the most accomplished and emotionally resonant story collections I have read in years.Deeply satisfying stories with a set of characters I feel like I came to know as well as my own family.—Peter Orner Love and Shame and Love Garbage Night at the Opera takes us deep into the heart of Greenpoint, the neighborhood I lived in for many years. Here, at last, is the real Brooklyn: gritty, tender, workaday, brave. Fioravanti's characters are so vivid I felt as if I were watching them in real life. Her prose is unsentimental, intense, and enthralling.—Kate Christensen The Astral In these linked stories, Valerie Fioravanti transports us squarely into the middle of the lives of Italian immigrants living in Brooklyn. With unf linching and sparkling prose, she shows us the stuff these characters are made of, a raw mixture of despair, humor, and above all, a fighting spirit and hope. Despite the curveballs poverty throws at them, Fioravanti lets us know, with love woven into every word, that in the end, these characters will emerge stronger and still on their feet.Bravissimo! —Naomi Benaron Running the Rift Love Letters from a Fat Man These interrelated stories are a group of small, intense fires that form a large-scale conf lagration.Fioravanti's working-class characters try to reverse the spell of hopelessness they have been cast under by family members or by lovers or by the broken promises of Brooklyn. Each brilliant page of Garbage Night at the Opera intimately places you inside the characters' hearts and minds as they reckon with what cannot be salvaged—and what can.—Kevin McIlvoy The Complete History of New Mexico and Other Stories, and Hyssop With Garbage Night at the Opera, Valerie Fioravanti establishes herself as a writer to watch. The stories are written with wit and style, and she manages—in story after story—to touch upon something profoundly human. This is a terrific book.—Robert Boswell The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards

Edition details

• Publisher: BKMK Press
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1886157847
• ISBN 13: 9781886157842
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 188