|
 
$6.50
Used Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsSweet Land Storiesby E. L. Doctorow
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:One of America's premier writers, the bestselling author of Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, The Book of Daniel, and World's Fair turns his astonishing narrative powers to the short story in five dazzling explorations of who we are as a people and how we live.
Ranging over the American continent from Alaska to Washington, D.C., these superb short works are crafted with all the weight and resonance of the novels for which E. L. Doctorow is famous. You will find yourself set down in a mysterious redbrick townhouse in rural Illinois ("A House on the Plains"), working things out with a baby-kidnapping couple in California ("Baby Wilson"), living on a religious-cult commune in Kansas ("Walter John Harmon"), and sharing the heartrending cross-country journey of a young woman navigating her way through three bad marriages to a kind of bruised but resolute independence ("Jolene: A Life"). And in the stunning "Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden," you will witness a special agent of the FBI finding himself at a personal crossroads while investigating a grave breach of White House security. Two of these stories have already won awards as the best fiction of the year published in American periodicals, and two have been chosen for annual best-story anthologies. Composed in a variety of moods and voices, these remarkable portrayals of the American spiritual landscape show a modern master at the height of his powers. Review:"A riveting collection of five tightly plotted long stories....Fascinating work from a contemporary master." Kirkus Reviews Review:"Doctorow is at once a supremely entertaining storyteller and a profound writer of conscience, and he forges an extraordinarily potent blend of artistry, compassion, and covert outrage in his new short story collection..." Donna Seaman, Booklist (Starred Review) Review:"[Doctorow's] beautifully written, meticulously plotted, scrupulously imagined stories have the effect, for all of their depictions of savage behavior, of surrounding the reader with a civilized mode of being." Lee Siegel, The New York Times Book Review Review:"[A] slim volume...yet it shows as well as anything Doctorow has ever written that our present and our supposedly long-buried past are really quite interchangeable....[Doctorow] is able to move seamlessly from one time to another." The Washington Post Review:"[E]minently satisfying.... Review:"Though it's refreshing to see Mr. Doctorow once again using his gift for storytelling...the tales in this volume are so attenuated that they feel more like outlines or movie treatments than full-fledged stories." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Review:"[A] volume of shards, a collection of marginal lives....Doctorow shifts his focus inward, giving us a glimpse of American on the fringes, of what happens when it all goes wrong.... Review:"Doctorow is a riveting storyteller who has added just the right touch of bitterness to these affecting tales." Baltimore Sun Review:"[A] book that must be read....In a time when we have very little as Americans about which to be proud, it is to our credit that we have sanctioned E.L. Doctorow to speak for us." Houston Chronicle Review:"Doctorow shines plenty of light on contemporary society...but it's a harsh glare that those looking for escapism in their fiction might recoil from." The Oregonian (Portland, OR) Review:"Tone and content mesh in reader-friendly narratives that are nonetheless uncompromising....They are clear-cut and unadorned, proving that we are in the hands of an old pro who hasn't lost his touch with the basic tools of his trade." Miami Herald Review:"Sweet Land Stories prods the beached whale of the American dream in order to examine its underbelly. Less complex and tangled than his recent novels, these are deceptively simple but subtle morality tales that showcase Doctorow's deftness as a storyteller." Los Angeles Times Review:"Doctorow treats even the most unlikely losers with such a combination of humor and compassion that we connect to their problems and plights, however unsavory or self-inflicted." Rocky Mountain News About the AuthorE. L. Doctorow is the author of City of God, Welcome to Hard Times, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Loon Lake, Lives of the Poets, World's Fair, Billy Bathgate, and The Waterworks. Among his honors are the National Book Award, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Edith Wharton Citation for Fiction, the William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal. Doctorow lives and works in New York. Table of ContentsA House on the Plains — Baby Wilson — Jolene: A Life — Walter John Harmon — Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Product Details
Other books you might like
Related Aisles
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
Follow us on...
|
||||||||||
Don't Miss
