From Publishers Weekly:
Neurosis, obsession and self-destructiveness drive many of the dozen stories in this strong annual roundup. In Muriel Spark's sinister "Open to the Public," a spinster incestuously devoted to her deceased novelist-father collects a series of young lovers who help exalt his memory. In Paul Sayer's scary "Othello's Shadow," a man's envy of women triggers round-the-clock spying on his wife. Culture shock pervades the two longest tales: Laura Kalpakian ("Lavee, Lagair, Lamore, Lamaird") transforms a comical Mormon family saga into tragedy as her heroine witnesses WW I's horrors; Georgina Hammick ("The American Dream") explores class consciousness among four preteens--one French, one American, and English brother-sister twins. Death is omnipresent: in Graham Greene's masterful "The Moment of Truth," a cancer-ridden waiter conceals his condition like a criminal secret, while Damon Galgut ("Cloete's Revenge") limns a South African corporal who forces an underling to murder a wounded black prisoner. Contributors to a feast of talent, new and old, include Jorge Luis Borges, David Updike and A. L. Barker.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherSt Martins Pr
- Publication date1990
- ISBN 10 0312037368
- ISBN 13 9780312037369
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages292