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More copies of this ISBN:California Transit: Stories and a Novellaby Diane Lefer
AwardsWinner of the 2006 Mary McCarthy Prize in Fiction
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:"From the world that could not be saved, the storyteller salvages small, strange stuff and assembles it into a narrative of alarming beauty and mystery and sadness." — from the introduction by Carole Maso Southern California: land of dislocation and assimilation, a place Diane Lefer knows well. In California Transit, she uses conversational prose and macabre wit to zero-in on a Mexican woman detained indefinitely by immigration officials, isolating her from her American family; a zoo employee considering what to do with a euthanized antelope's head; and, in the title novella, a lonely woman, riding buses all day, who cannot avert the violence building within her. This collection explores the difference between justice and law through a lens unfiltered by moralistic or didactic intention. Like a surveillance camera meant to record crime, not stop it, Lefer presents a world gone wrong, not because of people's hatred for one another but because of their impossible, unfulfilled yearning to connect. Review:"Following up on two earlier story collections (The Circles I Move In and Very Much Like Desire) and a novel (Radiant Hunger), Lefer offers a sunshine noir's-worth of uneasy left coast tales. 'At the Site Where Vision Is Most Perfect' documents what happens when a longtime Van Nuys resident is detained by immigration officials and becomes a victim of, and witness to, brutish acts of racism committed in the name of homeland security; that she is a Mexican woman named Clifford Pearlstein is just one of the ironic details Lefer uses to heighten the contradictions. A zoo worker's morbidly compelling description of transporting an antelope head drives 'Alas, Falada!' while the narrator of 'Angle and Grip,' who is reeling from a miscarriage and from the death of her husband in a freak accident, signs on to a neighbor's plan to manufacture and sell 'love dolls': 'Apparently I said something about men being dolls, all manufactured in the same fucked up factory and damaged beyond repair.' Lefer's staccato prose adds urgency to her suburban grotesques, giving a disquieting look at everyday lives that make little progress in transit." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"Lefer smacks readers hard over the head with her litany of important, but conventional and overused, themes, and her experimental prose...is distracting. Entirely ordinary, despite clearly painstaking attempts not to be." Kirkus Reviews Synopsis:"From the world that could not be saved, the storyteller salvages small, strange stuff and assembles it into a narrative of alarming beauty and mystery and sadness."-from the introduction by Carole Maso Southern California: land of dislocation and assimilation, a place Diane Lefer knows well. InCalifornia Transit,she uses conversational prose and macabre wit to zero-in on a Mexican woman detained indefinitely by immigration officials, isolating her from her American family; a zoo employee considering what to do with a euthanized antelope's head; and, in the title novella, a lonely woman, riding buses all day, who cannot avert the violence building within her. This collection explores the difference between justice and law through a lens unfiltered by moralistic or didactic intention. Like a surveillance camera meant to record crime, not stop it, Lefer presents a world gone wrong, not because of people's hatred for one another but because of their impossible, unfulfilled yearning to connect. Diane Leferis the author of two previous collections, The Circles I Move Inand Very Much Like Desireand the novel Radiant HungerShe lives in Los Angeles, where she is an artistic associate of Playwrights'Arena, volunteers with the Program for Torture Victims, and serves on the animal behavior observation team of the research department at the Los Angeles Zoo. She teaches in the MFA writing program at Vermont College of the Union Institute & University. About the AuthorDiane Lefer is the author of two previous collections, The Circles I Move In and Very Much Like Desire, and the novel Radiant Hunger. She lives in Los Angeles where she works with the Playwrights' Arena, the Program for Torture Victims, and the LA Zoo. She teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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