The Descent of Music: Stories - Softcover

Cumming, Deborah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0970272014 ISBN 13: 9780970272010

Publisher: New Harbinger Publications, 2002

Synopsis

Fiction. In her first collection of fiction, 'Deborah Cumming's delicately beautiful stories left me feeling attuned to the very sound of time and generation, let me glimpse a spaciousness in human life through which-in the midst of the stories' deftly drawn complex of human connections-we accept, here and there, the mysterious breakthrough of the music of the spheres. It is an amazing achievement'--Rosa Shand. 'Cumming writes from the deep interior of her characters, giving invitation to their private thoughts, their filigree spirits, their rich, red hearts' parlors. She is not afraid to reveal the most complex, startling emotions, and in doing so, lays bare what's real'--Ashley Warwick.

About this title

About the Author:

Deborah Cumming wrote Recovering from Mortality during the 29 months between the discovery that she had advanced lung cancer and her death. Born in 1941, she grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and was educated at Swarthmore College and Columbia University. A lifelong concern for disadvantaged people led her to work in prison-bail, Upward-Bound, and community-action projects in New York City and Washington, and later in an affordable-housing group in North Carolina. A teacher of writing and literature, she worked with college and secondary students in New York, South Carolina, and India. While teaching in Thailand she translated and edited A Premier Book of Contemporary Thai Verse (with Montri Umavijani and Robert Cumming). She wrote short stories and poetry as well as essays; her stories are gathered in a critically acclaimed collection, The Descent of Music. She died in 2003 at her home in Davidson, North Carolina.

From Booklist:

As subtle as a snowflake, as scintillating as a shooting star, Cumming's stories celebrate introspective women caught in the trap of time. Whether examining fractious mother-daughter relationships in "Marian Anderson" and "Mitral Valve" or the penultimate realization of opportunities missed in "How It Could End" and "Snow," Cumming profoundly reveals the innermost musings of women hanging precipitously in the balance between life and death, past and present. Eschewing plot-driven story lines in favor of personality-driven profiles, Cummings prefers reflection to action. From tumultuous Peace Corps days in India ("Reunion," "Descent of Music") to a dying mother's forsaken love affair ("Dreaming My Mother's Dreams"), Cumming's characters retreat to their pasts, seeking answers for the present and awareness of the future. Their strength lies in their honesty, as each one pensively reviews events that lead to gentle yet intense self-appraisals. In charming vignettes rendered with grace and integrity, Cumming seductively creates eloquent characters whose dreams could be ours but whose memories are uniquely their own. Carol Haggas
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About this edition

• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0970272014
• ISBN 13: 9780970272010
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160
• Editor: Cummings PhD Nicholas