First Sightings: Contemporary Stories of Americanyouth - Hardcover

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6 ratings by Goodreads

9780892551866: First Sightings: Contemporary Stories of Americanyouth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892551860 ISBN 13: 9780892551866

Publisher: Persea Books, 1993

Presents twenty short stories, with protagonists aged three to eighteen years old, by such authors as John Updike, Alice Walker, Genaro Gonzales, and Carson McCullers

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About the Author:

John Loughery teaches English at the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly:

The postwar American authors whose work Loughery ( Alias S. S. Van Dine ) has gathered here provide a wide-ranging reading of what it means to be young in America. With many heavy-hitters (including John Updike and Alice Walker) and a solid multicultural representation (including Tony Cade Bambara, Gish Jen), this collection plumbs the depths of innocence, awkwardness, confusion and wonder in a variety of childhood circumstances. Domestic problems, such as sexual and emotional abuse and divorce, are taken up in diverse ways. The theme of the death of a parent, grandparent or sibling also recurs throughout. Sexual and gender identity confusion appears, most powerfully in Richard McCann's story of a boy who dresses up in his mother's clothes. A few comic pieces provide balance, such as Philip Roth's classic story of a boy in Hebrew school who causes a rabbi grief with questions about the omnipotence of God. Jen's exploration of a Chinese girl's entry into a private school where she is a well-liked, exotic artifact is also quite funny. With its gamut of emotions, issues and real-life situations, this volume provides high quality reading that all Americans can identify with.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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