If I'd Known You Were Coming (Iowa Short Fiction Award) - Softcover

Milliken, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1609382013 ISBN 13: 9781609382018

Publisher: University Of Iowa Press, 2013

Synopsis

In these twelve award-winning stories, Kate Milliken unflinchingly shows us what can happen when the uninvited guest of our darkest desires comes to call. Whether surrounded by the white noise of a Hollywood celebration or enduring a stark winter in Maine, the characters of If I’d Known You Were Coming yearn to heal old wounds with new hurts. With a wry wit and a keen eye for emotive detail, the author of this unforgettable collection sets intersections in motion that will leave you both winded and wanting more.


In one story, a mother, driven by greed, unwittingly finds out how far her needs will push her. A hand model surprises himself and everyone else at the birthday party of an old friend’s daughter in another. With poetic deftness, a woman evaluates the meaning, the familial stories, that we carry with us from birth. In a story ripped from the headlines, a woman pines for the legs her husband lost in a freak accident at a Santa Monica farmer's market. A medical clerk, restless and alone, takes advantage of a disabled neighbor.


Kate Milliken knows the ties that bind and how tautly we will pull them. These are stories about desire, betrayal, love, regret, and family. Like all great fiction, If I’d Known You Were Coming possesses that uncanny ability to reveal us to ourselves.

About this title

About the Author

Kate Milliken’s stories have appeared in Zyzzyva, Fiction, New Orleans Review, and Santa Monica Review, among others. A graduate of the Bennington College Writing Seminars, the recipient of fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Tin House Summer Writer's Workshop, and several Pushcart Prize nominations, Kate has also written for television and commercial advertising. She currently teaches on behalf of the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and lives in Mill Valley, California, with her family.

Reviews

The most interesting and satisfying thing about Milliken's debut collection is the ingenious way the 12 stories fit together. Though each selection stands alone, several characters reappear throughout in different contexts. For instance, Caroline, first seen as a five-year-old girl, shows up again in her teens as a heroine&'s romantic rival, and yet again in subsequent stories. Not only does this create an offbeat tone, but it makes an appealing statement about complexity of character. The protagonists tend to be intense observers. In A Matter of Time, Lorrie worries that her husband, Marty, an unsuccessful actor with little ambition, will fail to network with the successful movie producer Nick at a party. In Blue, Josie has just quit college and, feeling restless and guilty, struggles to get her bearings. In structure, the stories are loose and transparent; the reader witnesses small but revealing moments that resonate with greater significance. The shortest stories tend to come across as exercises, with schematic rather than organic details (a cowhide skirt, a dead phone tethered to a car lighter socket), but are few enough to be outnumbered by the stronger entries. The whole is greater than the sum of the already pretty impressive parts. (Oct.)

Edition details

• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1609382013
• ISBN 13: 9781609382018
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 126