Legacies: Stories - Softcover

Lawrence, Starling

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393318699 ISBN 13: 9780393318692

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998

Synopsis

"These finely crafted stories expose the author's wicked intent-to place the reader defenseless in the path of onrushing truth. With the assistance of some unforgettable characters, Starling Lawrence succeeds admirably."―Harper Lee

Starling Lawrence's evocative and subtle stories are about illuminations that alter the course of ordinary lives, about moments where the known world is dissolved in fierce recognition. In stories such as "Legacy" or "The Chosen People" the defining moment takes place in childhood, and we are left to wonder what burden of memory these events will impose. For the protagonists of "Butterflies" and "The Crown of Light," or for the narrator of "Immortality," a seed that has been sown years earlier comes to flower under very specific circumstances. "Eight fictional reflections on the nature of love and loss, written with such grace and devotion to character that they echo like elegy in the reader's mind. . . . A writer notable for his ability to create fully imagined lives, and to convey these to us in sure and elegant prose. . . . Evocative fictional debut."―Jessica Treadway, Boston Globe "Super . . . bright and illuminating. . . . Each of his stories works like a cunning, cruel trap and readers will soon thank Lawrence for setting them up, even as they realize it is happening again."―Cleveland Plain Dealer "Elegantly built and taunting mazes and mirror-shows. . . . Fascinating."―San Jose Mercury News

About this title

About the Author:

Starling Lawrence is editor at large at W. W. Norton and the author of the highly praised Montenegro and The Lightning Keeper. His fiction has been awarded the Lytle Prize by the Sewanee Review and the Balch Prize by the Virginia Quarterly Review

From Kirkus Reviews:

Eight graceful stories in a debut collection from Norton's editor in chief: tales that vary greatly in subject and setting but rely on a similar sense of revelation, and on the ``weak magic'' provided by light. The play of shadow and illumination figures prominently in Lawrence's imagistic tales, whether he's rendering moments of hazy nostalgia or highlighting an edgy sexuality. In fact, the sexual stories, with their suggestions of forbidden love, often verge on the kinky. In ``Reunion,'' a Minnesota housewife whom friends consider ``logical'' and ``consistent'' decides to meet with her former lover from New York, a man she hasn't seen in ten years; but a degrading experience on the bus to Duluth turns her desire into a fierce appetite for violent revenge. ``The Gift'' explores sadomasochism quite explicitly in the tale of a married man, frightened by his own desire for another woman, with whom he explores rough sex. The sexual secrets of Central Park rambles reveal themselves in ``Desire Lines,'' in which a young woman's passion for bird-watching results in an unexpected act of violence. Lawrence also tells a number of stories from a young boy's perspective: A privileged youth in ``Legacy'' seeks his lawyer father's advice concerning a ribbon display promised him by his dying great-aunt; another boy grows up in a multigenerational, bookish household in which the men tirelessly discuss the aftermath of WW II, which took the health of the boy's uncle; and in ``Immortality,'' the narrator, who feared his great-aunt's obese adopted daughter, discovers in adulthood that she was probably his father's lover early on. Precious memories cloud the minds of dying old folks in airless tales of an old Connecticut farmer (``The Crown of Light'') and a great-grandmother at a family gathering (``Butterflies''). Lawrence's deliberate tales quietly develop considerable force, displaying nuanced, careful artistry. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0393318699
• ISBN 13: 9780393318692
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256