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Title details for Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff - Available

Delicate Edible Birds

And Other Stories

by Lauren Groff
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From Lauren Groff, author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling novel Fates and Furies, comes Delicate Edible Birds, one of the most striking short fiction debuts in years. Here are nine stories of astonishing insight and variety, each revealing a resonant drama within the life of a twentieth-century American woman.
In "Sir Fleeting," a Midwestern farm girl on her honeymoon in Argentina falls into lifelong lust for a French playboy. In "Blythe," an attorney who has become a stay-at-home mother takes a night class in poetry and meets another full-time mother, one whose charismatic brilliance changes everything. In "The Wife of the Dictator," that eponymous wife ("brought back . . . from [the dictator's] last visit to America") grows more desperately, menacingly isolated every day. In "Delicate Edible Birds," a group of war correspondents-a lone, high-spirited woman among them-falls sudden prey to a brutal farmer while fleeing Nazis in the French countryside. In "Lucky Chow Fun," Groff returns us to Templeton, the setting of her first book, for revelations about the darkness within even that idyllic small town.
In some of these stories, enormous changes happen in an instant. In others, transformations occur across a lifetime—or several lifetimes.
Throughout the collection, Groff displays particular and vivid preoccupations. Crime is a motif—sex crimes, a possible murder, crimes of the heart. Love troubles recur; they're in every story—love in alcoholism, in adultery, in a flood, even in the great flu epidemic of 1918. Some of the love has depths, which are understood too late; some of the love is shallow, and also understood too late. And mastery is a theme—Groff's women swim and baton twirl, become poets, or try and try again to achieve the inner strength to exercise personal freedom.
Overall, these stories announce a notable new literary master. Dazzlingly original and confident, Delicate Edible Birds further solidifies Groff's reputation as one of the foremost talents of her generation.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 27, 2009

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

      • ISBN: 9780316373456

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781401396374

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781401396374
      • File size: 1754 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from December 15, 2008
      Nine stories. Nine wildly unique, exquisitely symphonic tales, full of beauty, tragedy, and the sudden horror of shocking imagesthis is Groff's gift to readers. And what a gift it is. The title story takes us back to Templeton, scene of Groff's debut novel, "The Monsters of Templeton", recounting how a sex-slave scandal has stained the town's movers and shakers. Families are leveled; the economy tanks as shamed sinners flee. Meanwhile, the girls themselves are saved by one desperate act of courage. In "L. DeBard and Aliette," Groff updates the doomed romance of 12th-century lovers Abelard and Eloise, setting the story in 1918 New York City, which is reeling from the devastation of the plague. Shotgun teen marriages, mental illness, a promiscuous woman journalist in a war zone, childhood sweethearts who reconnect, a dictator's wifeGroff moves among these wholly unrelated worlds with a vision that happily traps the reader. Highly recommended.Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

      Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      December 15, 2008
      Following the publication of Groffsfirst novel, The Monsters of Templeton (2008), comes this collection of nine short stories, six of which have never been published. The richly conceived, finely detailed stories offerportraits of smart, daring women who are in search of, in thrall to, or disillusioned by love. In Lucky Chow Fun, winner of a Pushcart Prize, Groff returns to the town of Templeton to tell the story of a high-school swimmer who uncovers the sordid sexual secrets of her seemingly idyllic small town. L. DeBard and Aliette, included in the latest edition of Best American Short Stories, is a reimagining of the love story of Abelard and H'lose that sees the couple recast as an Olympic swimmer and his pupil, both of whomsuffer through theflu epidemic of 1918. And in the title story, an unconventional femalereporter, fleeing the Nazis inrural France along with a band of male correspondents, must strike a sordid bargain with a brutal farmer to secure their safe passage.Vivid tales from a gifted young writer who continues to surprise.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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