American Earthquakes - Softcover

Urdang, Constance

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0918273420 ISBN 13: 9780918273420

Publisher: Coffee House Press, 1988

Synopsis

Citizens of a small Missouri community face the changes brought about by a large earthquake

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

In this stunning novel, the apparently ordinary lives and personal dramas of three St. Louis sisters and their families unfold in a collage of short vignettes, fragmentary poems and news clippings. The siblingsthe spinster Helen and the two widows Tess and Ethelhave set up housekeeping in their deceased parents' apartment. Binnie, their niece, wonders "how could all three have come back to live in the place from which, as girls, they must surely have dreamed of escaping." Urdang (Lucha), a poet, explores each woman's flight and return in her complex patchwork, as well as the power struggles and relationships at the hospital where Binnie works. The various characters worry that they are leading uneventful existences"What if nothing ever happens?" echoes throughout the elegant novelwhile all around them life rolls forward. Quotes from news articles on the earthquake phenomenon are interspersed throughout, demonstrating how daily realities both contrast sharply with and parallel the random, impersonal violence of nature. It is precisely the climactic earthquake that jolts each character into a self-assessment. For example, ailing Helen is reminded that her remaining years are precious and not to be relinquished. Binnie is less resolved than her aunts. "Suffused with regret for not having used her life better," she holds out her "two fists clenched in a physical effort to cling to a single instant in time."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Coffee House Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0918273420
• ISBN 13: 9780918273420
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144