Little Labors

First edition, 1st printing. 130pp. Bright, clean & tight copy, unread, in NEW condition. "Rivka Galchen's LITTLE LABORS--a slanted, enchanted literary miscellany--is about babies and literature. [] One section of Sei Shonagon s Pillow Book--a key inspiration for Rivka Galchen--lists 'Things That Make One Nervous.' And wouldn't the blessed event top almost anyone's list? [] From just a sentence to a paragraph to a several-page story or essay, LITTLE LABORS' puzzle pieces assemble into a shining, unpredictable, mordant picture of the ordinary-extraordinary nature of babies and literature. Anecdotal or analytic, each tersely funny part opens up a tender (if odd) world of wonder. The forty-seven ronin; the black magic of maternal love; babies morphing from pumas to chickens; discussions of favorite passages from the Heian masterpieces The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book; the frightening prevalence of orange as today's new chic color for baby gifts; Frankenstein as a sort of baby; babies as gold mines; babies as tiny Godzillas." [publisher copy] "Delicious."--NPR--"Galchen's implicit proposition--that babies can be the subject of serious art, that we may coo and think simultaneously--feels surprising, even radical, in a world where motherhood and intellectualism are still placed instinctively at odds. It may be a little book, but it is not a small one." "To read Rivka Galchen is to enter a wonderland where the bizarre and the mundane march in unlikely lockstep."--The Washington Post. "Weird, really smart, obsessive--by turns rueful, paranoid, melancholy, clever and anxious--the uncanny reigns supreme here. Galchen's idiosyncratic, echo-filled sound comes through loud and clear."--Stacey D'Erasmo, Bookforum. Pristine & handy orange hardcover w/brilliant corners & crisp edges, a square & tight binding, no jacket as issued. Quite presentable.…