Friend of Mankind and Other Stories - Hardcover

Mazor, Julian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1589880161 ISBN 13: 9781589880160

Publisher: Paul Dry Books, 2004

Synopsis

These stories, ten in all, take place in Ireland, New York City and Washington, D.C., and Virginia, Texas, and Colorado. The characters represent the various stages of man from boyhood and youth to the first precincts of old age. John Lionel, who appeared in four stories collected in Julian Mazor's earlier volume, Washington and Baltimore, appears here in four more, chronicling his growing up in Washington.

With a finely tuned ear for speech, the author conveys a vivid sense of place and of the spirit of the times. As he portrays a young boy in trouble, an adolescent in love (mired in self-doubt and imminent heartbreak), a Texas high-school football player, a man on the verge of marriage and one on the verge of divorce, a middle-aged writer struggling to understand his life, and an older man in the sorrowful and complicated throes of marriage to a younger woman, Mazor writes with compassion, irony, and humor, and with a clear-eyed affection for each of these individuals. In his telling, their stories become works of art.

"Mazor presents an entertaining take on the battle of the sexes."—Publishers Weekly

"It is a pleasure to watch Julian Mazor at his work...His style is so transparent that you are unconscious he has one; his words simply go about their business, without fuss or waste or ambiguity...His stories are honest, and his accomplishment impressive."—Geoffrey Wolff, Washington Post

"He can write; his prose says simply that he cares about people, places, things."—New York Times Book Review

Julian Mazor was born in Baltimore and grew up in Washington, D.C. His stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Shenandoah, and the O'Henry Prize collection series. Washington and Baltimore, his earlier collection of stories, was published in 1968.

About this title

About the Author:

Julian Mazor was born in Baltimore and grew up in Washington, D.C. His stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Shenandoah, and the O'Henry Prize collection series. Washington and Baltimore, his earlier collection of stories, was published in 1968.

From Publishers Weekly:

This collection, Mazor's first since 1968 (Washington and Baltimore), gathers 10 of his stories spanning the last three decades. Mazor writes with dry, matter-of-fact economy about indecisive men enduring the vicissitudes of marital life and other forms of romance. Though at times he conjures somewhat anachronistic relationships, his stories at their best are distinguished by timeless dilemmas and period specificity. In "Gray Skies," Harry and his wife, Wanda, move to Ireland with their two-and-a-half-year-old son in 1969, but the change of scene doesn't improve their shaky marriage. Seven years later, in "The Munster Final," a divorced Harry returns to Ireland with a new girlfriend, contemplating but dreading marriage. "No, he didn't have time for that sad convention called marriage. But the thing is, he was very fond of her, he thought, and he wanted to get close to her, though not too close." Mazor shifts from Ireland to northeast Texas in "The Lone Star Kid," about Jack Atherton, an affable high school football star who plays peacemaker during the racial strife of integration. "Skylark" introduces 16-year-old John Lionel, who in 1945 falls for Sheilah Lorraine, a sophisticated college girl whose attitude swings between passion and indifference. A retired Virginia banker named Walter Desmond is cuckolded by his young wife in "The Modern Age," a touching, sympathetic tale of a May/December marriage. Though the female characters aren't as fully realized as the men, Mazor presents an entertaining take on the battle of the sexes.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Paul Dry Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1589880161
• ISBN 13: 9781589880160
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280