These eight new stories from the celebrated novelist and short-story writer Nathan Englander display a gifted young author grappling with the great questions of modern life, with a command of language and the imagination that place Englander at the very forefront of contemporary American fiction.
The title story, inspired by Raymond Carverβs masterpiece, is a provocative portrait of two marriages in which the Holocaust is played out as a devastating parlor game. In the outlandishly dark βCamp Sundownβ vigilante justice is undertaken by a group of geriatric campers in a bucolic summer enclave. βFree Fruit for Young Widowsβ is a small, sharp study in evil, lovingly told by a father to a son. βSister Hillsβ chronicles the history of Israelβs settlements from the eve of the Yom Kippur War through the present, a political fable constructed around the tale of two mothers who strike a terrible bargain to save a child. Marking a return to two of Englanderβs classic themes, βPeep Showβ and βHow We Avenged the Blumsβ wrestle with sexual longing and ingenuity in the face of adversity and peril. And βEverything I Know About My Family on My Motherβs Sideβ is suffused with an intimacy and tenderness that break new ground for a writer who seems constantly to be expanding the parameters of what he can achieve in the short form.
Beautiful and courageous, funny and achingly sad, Englanderβs work is a revelation.
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Fresh Air - NPR - March 22, 2013 Weekend Edition Saturday - December 29, 2012
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