Synopses & Reviews
"Bingham writes with an austere and unerring knowledge of what it is to be human and—transgressive."—Paula Fox
"These are marvelous stories of experience and have the ripeness of wry, hard-won wisdom."—Phillip Lopate
"Bingham has the eye to see where a story lives, the heart to understand it, and the voice—and craft—to tell it."—Robin Morgan In her wise and sexy new collection, Sallie Bingham examines modern-day "transgressions" in affairs of the heart. She offers up a ménage à trois, an older woman’s affair with a student, a painter who uses his age as an excuse to behave indecorously. But the reader quickly discovers the real transgressions are those of the self against the self.
Review
"Each of these fine, subtle stories begins with something a bit larger than a mustard seedan apricot, a splinter in an old woman's foot, a pump, cherries, a vegetarian setting out on a deer huntand ends with a revelation of some aspect of the human landscape. Ms. Bingham writes with an austere and unerring knowledge of what it is to be human andtransgressive." Paula Fox
Review
"Sallie Bingham has the eye to see where a story lives, the heart to understand it, and the voiceand craftto tell it. This is a wise and lovely collection." Robin Morgan
Review
"These are marvelous stories of experience and have the ripeness of wry, hard-won wisdom. In Transgressions, nothing can be counted on, except the persistence of authorial insight and intelligence." Phillip Lopate
Synopsis
In her wise and sexy new collection, Sallie Bingham examines modern-day "transgressions" in affairs of the heart. She offers up a minage trois, an older woman's affair with a student, a painter who uses his age as an excuse to behave indecorously. But the reader quickly discovers the real transgressions are those of the self against the self. In "The Pump, " a woman lies about her love life because she worries that "abandoned women look like dying witches." In "The One True Place, " a gay couple shelter a young man, though they understand he will erode their relationship. Bingham's stories are told with a sober reticence and the authority of real-life ambiguity; confusions of desire and morality, ambition and regret underlie each beautifully crafted tale. A noted feminist and the author of seven works of prose, Sallie Bingham brings to this book the skills of a passionate classicist. In the manner of Chekhov, the grand events of a life compete for attention with the dirty litter box, the just-noticed aging spots on a character's hand, the casual remark that changes everything. Again and again we are startled by such seemingly humble juxtapositions. There is terrific gravity to these calmly told stories. Transgressions marks an important milestone in this distinguished writer's career.
Synopsis
Advanced reader copies and participation in Book Sense Program, newsletter and catalog feature mailed to entire Sarabande database, 2000 brochures and 1000 postcards mailed to MFA programs, bookstores, and libraries.
Synopsis
A wise and sexy new collection from one of the most important feminist writers of her generation.
About the Author
Sallie Bingham's first novel was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1961. It was followed by two collections of short stories, four novels, and a memoir. Her short stories have been published in The Atlantic Monthly, New Letters, Plainswoman, Plainsong, The Greensboro Review, Negative Capability, The Connecticut Review, and Southwest Review, among others. Her stories have been included in Best American Short Stories, Forty Best Stories from Mademoiselle, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and The Harvard Advocate Centennial Anthology. She has received fellowships from Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and The Vermont Studio Center. She was Book Editor for The Courier-Journal in Louisville and has been a director of the National Book Critics Circle. She is the founder of The Kentucky Foundation for Women and The American Voice.