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Interviews | January 24, 2012

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Ben MarcusBen Marcus's books The Age of Wire and String and Notable American Women were considered "experimental" fiction because of his unconventional use of... Continue »
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eBook editions

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories

by Aimee Bender

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories Cover

ISBN13: 9780385492164
ISBN10: 0385492162
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

 

Staff Pick

When friends tell me to pick a book for them to read that I really like, this is the one I give most often. Brilliant, wacko, kooky, sharp short stories from one of my favorite writers.
Recommended by michelle, Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A grief-stricken librarian decides to have sex with every man who enters her library. A half-mad, unbearably beautiful heiress follows a strange man home, seeking total sexual abandon: He only wants to watch game shows. A woman falls in love with a hunchback; when his deformity turns out to be a prosthesis, she leaves him. A wife whose husband has just returned from the war struggles with the heartrending question: Can she still love a man who has no lips?

Aimee Bender's stories portray a world twisted on its axis, a place of unconvention that resembles nothing so much as real life, in all its grotesque, beautiful glory. From the first line of each tale she lets us know she is telling a story, but the moral is never quite what we expect. Bender's prose is glorious: musical and colloquial, inimitable and heartrending.

Here are stories of men and women whose lives are shaped--and sometimes twisted--by the power of extraordinary desires, erotic and otherwise. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt is the debut of a major American writer.

Review:

"Superbly imagined. Bender has hit the ground running." Entertainment Weekly

Review:

"Bender's stories read like modern fables — with a healthy sense of twisted humor thrown in for good measure." The Village Voice Literary Supplement

Review:

"Aimee Bender's stories come as a revelation....She's a thrilling discovery." Jonathan Lethem

Review:

"Keep your eye on this writer and her highwire act. I have a feeling she'll be keeping readers breathless for a long time to come." Dani Shapiro
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About the Author

Aimee Bender lives in Los Angeles. Her stories have appeared in Granta, GQ, Story, The Antioch Review, and several other publications. She received her MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, and she is currently at work on her first novel.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Mak Abernathe, April 24, 2008 (view all comments by Mak Abernathe)
I loved this book. It was fantastic.
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Janet Hamilton, November 13, 2006 (view all comments by Janet Hamilton)
If you are a reader who does not require dull and boring old fashioned story telling, get yourself turned on to Aimee Bender! Her whacky and wonderful writing keeps the surprises coming at an amazing pace. Her imagination is so unique and awe inspiring that it is difficult to describe. If she were a circus act she would be the lioness jumping through the hoop of fire, fearless and conscious of the passionate nature of the fire. In the title story, "The Girl with the Flammable Skirt," the image of the girl whose skirt is on fire is brought vividly to life when the author wonders if the dancing girl who whirled too close to the burning candle believed for even a moment, after being engulfed in flames, "that her passion had arrived."
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780385492164
Author:
Bender, Aimee
Publisher:
Anchor Books
Location:
New York :
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Social life and customs
Subject:
United states
Subject:
Short Stories (single author)
Subject:
United States Social life and customs.
Subject:
Stories (single author)
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
1999
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Series Volume:
PNW-GTR-461
Publication Date:
19990831
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
192
Dimensions:
7.98x5.22x.55 in. .36 lbs.
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Related Aisles

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$9.95 In Stock
Product details 192 pages Anchor Books/Doubleday - English 9780385492164 Reviews:
"Staff Pick" by ,

When friends tell me to pick a book for them to read that I really like, this is the one I give most often. Brilliant, wacko, kooky, sharp short stories from one of my favorite writers.

by michelle
"Review" by , "Superbly imagined. Bender has hit the ground running."
"Review" by , "Bender's stories read like modern fables — with a healthy sense of twisted humor thrown in for good measure."
"Review" by , "Aimee Bender's stories come as a revelation....She's a thrilling discovery."
"Review" by , "Keep your eye on this writer and her highwire act. I have a feeling she'll be keeping readers breathless for a long time to come."
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