Trying to Smile: And Other Stories - Softcover
Lewis’s premier collection of short stories reveals the quietly extraordinary in the lives of the ordinary-actresses who wait tables, expectant parents, jittery fiancés. These nine subtly interrelated tales create a familiar world of unlikely heroes, a microcosm of contemporary american life.
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About the Author:
Sara Lewis has been publishing fiction and non-fiction for over 20 years. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Redbook, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, Mademoiselle and the Mississippi Review. Her essays and nonfiction have appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, FamilyFun, Child and on National Public Radio. Sara lives in San Diego with her husband and two children.
From Kirkus Reviews:
Nine short stories mostly about young women slightly too outr‚ to be yuppies, going through troubled times but keeping stiff upper lips about it. Many of Lewis's offerings first aired in the pages of magazines like Seventeen and Mademoiselle. The best of the lot comes first and is called ``Gone.'' Set around 1970 and bright with the humor/pathos of domestic event, it chronicles the death of an insistently square and rigid father (he voted for Nixon twice) from the point of view of his eldest daughter. At the graveside a colleague of the dear departed reveals his other life: ``We loved a wonderful man,'' she tells the grieving widow, leaving the young narrator far more shattered by her father's rejection than by his death. In other entries, problems exist--like a baby soon to be born in a financially strapped household or an adolescent boy thrown off course by the death of an old friend--but things just fall into place (without much plot tinkering by the author). Still, Lewis hasn't perfected the art of finding a story's end, leaving ``Perfect Combinations,'' concerning the out-of-sync love affair between a struggling actress and rock-music roadie, dangling, with no resolution, either poetic or actual. Lewis's candor and craftsmanship are to her credit--but there's something about the combination of the Spartan prose and quotidian subject matter that underwhelms. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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- PublisherHarvest Books
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0156003953
- ISBN 13 9780156003957
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages192
- Rating
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Trying to Smile and Other Stories
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Harvest Books
(1996)
ISBN 10: 0156003953
ISBN 13: 9780156003957
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Trying to Smile : And Other Stories
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(1996)
ISBN 10: 0156003953
ISBN 13: 9780156003957
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Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Book. Seller Inventory # G22112
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Trying to Smile and Other Stories
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Harvest Books March 1996
(1996)
ISBN 10: 0156003953
ISBN 13: 9780156003957
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: USED Good. Seller Inventory # 50576
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Trying to Smile and Other Stories.
Published by
Harcourt Brace & Company: Harvest Books, New York, NY
(1996)
ISBN 10: 0156003953
ISBN 13: 9780156003957
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Book Description Paperback. First Edition Thus (1990), so stated, with alphabetical sequence beginning with 'B". Very Good+ to Near Fine in Wraps: shows just a hint of a stress-crease at the bottom of the front "hinge"; the binding leans slightly, but remains perfectly secure; the text is clean. Free of any creases to the backstrip. Free of creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of underlining, hi-lighting, notations, or marginalia. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome, very nearly-new copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing a couple of minor, unobtrusive imperfections only. Bright and clean. Corners sharp. Very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (8 x 5.35 x 0.5 inches). 176 pages. Language: English. Weight: 7 ounces. Trade Paperback. Sara Lewis is the author of four novels, Second Draft of My Life, The Answer Is Yes, But I Love You Anyway, and Heart Conditions, as well as this, her inaugural collection: Trying to Smile and Other Stories. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, McCall's, Redbook, Mademoiselle, Seventeen, Good Housekeeping, and other magazines as well as on National Public Radio. First Edition Thus (1996), so stated, with alphabetical sequence beginning with 'B". . Seller Inventory # 54781
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