Synopses & Reviews
These witty, subtly erotic stories explore the fierce bonds and hidden compulsions that drive the lives of women, young and old.
Whether depicting the struggle between strong mothers and rebellious daughters, or the often bizarre directions in which women's desires can take them, Lynn Freed delivers surprise after surprise. These masterful stories reinforce her reputation as one of our most fearless and sophisticated observers of love in all its forms-a writer who shakes the truth from life.
Praise for Lynn Freed's novels
"Freed wonderfully carries off that hardest of all literary effects-it feels effortless and therefore absolutely real."-Elle
There is not a word out of place... Freed delves deep into the morass of sexual and filial love without mitigating complexity, and leads her reader toward insight and understanding with a deft and delicate touch."-The Washington Post Book World
Lynn Freed is the author of five novels, and the inaugural recipient of the Katherine Anne Porter Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Northern
California.
Review
"As these stories amply illustrate, [Freed] is...one whose style and preferred subject are eminently well matched, whose spare, classic prose exposes hidden acts while pointing obliquely at hidden thoughts." Claire Messud, The New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
These fourteen short stories, written over the past ten years but never before collected, deal with the struggles between mothers and their wayward daughters, the often preposterous bonds that tie men and women together, and the complex games masters and servants play with one another. In spare, elegant prose, Freed delivers surprise after surprise as she shakes the truth from life. Whether it's her portrayal of a mother mired in senile dementia in "Ma," a young girl experiencing her first sexual encounter with an itinerant knife-sharpener in "Under the House," or a young woman incapable of loving conventionally in "An Error of Desire," Freed portrays the absurdity, the delusions, the dramas, and the dignity of her characters' lives. These masterful stories reinforce her reputation as one of our most fearless and sophisticated explorers of sexual and filial love.
About the Author
LYNN FREED was awarded the inaugural Katherine Anne Porter Award for fiction by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is the author of six novels, a short story collection, and a collection of essays.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Under the House
Foreign Student
The Widow's Daughter
Family of Shadows
An Error of Desire
Liars, Cheats, and Cowards
The Curse of the Appropriate Man
The Mirror
Twilight
Selina Comes to the City
William
Songbird
The First Rule of Happiness
Ma: A Memoir
Luck