Synopses & Reviews
" . . . Her characters come blazing to life at the most unexpected moments, and her voice is at once sympathetic and utterly unsentimental. The best stories in Power Lines are loaded with terror, wonder and life--and with promise for Jane Bradley's future."
--New York Times
"Ultimately, these strong stories are about survival, not despair."
--Library Journal
"Bradley's clean, declarative prose yields stirring moments."
--Publishers Weekly
"Delicacy and grim power in a promising debut collection."
--Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Like Chekov, Bradley depends on atmosphere and character and tone, and the relationship among those, rather than plot, to accomplish her aims. This is a dangerous procedure in which Bradley succeeds brilliantly." --John Williams "The eleven stories in this debut collection explore the power lines in individual lives and in male-female relationships. The main characters struggle to cope with death, violence, absence; somehow they find ways to empower themselves, to find sliver of grace." -- Simone Poirier-Bures "The surface of the stories in Power Lines, Jane Bradley's first collection of stories, is calm. Her lyrical descriptions cast a cool, measured spell over the rural Southern landscapes through which her characters move. But, violence is everywhere in their lives a boy slaps his sister, a cat kills her kittens, a man's fist crashes into a woman's face, a Vietnam veteran takes a room at the Holiday Inn and blows his brains out. --Mark Childress "Jane Bradley is an accomplished playwright, one who has won awards, had plays produced, and so it is no surprise that one of the strengths of these stories is their strong and immediate sense of drama, though the plots and action always involve ordinary lives and ordinary people. That makes Bradley an exceptional writer and the stories truly first rate." -- Christopher Buckley
Synopsis
Jane Bradley writes with sympathy and understanding of ordinary lives. The women and men in Power Lines precariously hold on to what little they have, struggling to make their lives whole and emotionally rich by creating a kind of freedom through imagination and the will to love and connect with someone. Often their impulses are destructive in spite of their good intentions. Some characters make it; many don't. But even the defeated gain some strength from their memories of those who loved them.
Synopsis
Jane Bradley's career was launched when the University of Arkansas Press published her first collection of short stories, Power Lines, in 1989. The collection, lauded at the time by the New York Times, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and others, is available again, bringing readers this writing filled with sympathy for and understanding of ordinary lives, and as the New York Times book review said at its publication, writing filled also with promise for Bradleys future.
About the Author
Jane Bradley is the author of Living Doll, Are We Lucky Yet, and You Believers. She has won numerous awards for her work, including an NEA Individual Artists Fellowship and an Ohio Arts Council Fellowship. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Toledo.