- Hardcover: 244 pages
- Publisher: Picador (Dec 28 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312180977
- ISBN-13: 978-0312180973
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14.5 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
Budnitz's debut collection drops the reader onto familiar terrain and then twists the expected like a fun-house mirror. Whether set in a hospital waiting room, in a strange new city, or around a family dinner table, the 23 stories radiate with hidden truths and unanticipated revelations. In "Train," for example, we are made privy to the lives of several people on a crowded New York City subway. "We're sitting in a car full of stories," the 26-year-old-Budnitz writes, and one after another, we marvel as snippets of everyday life are explicated and pondered. "Herschel" takes us back, way back, to the "Old Country" and a time when an aged bread maker molded babies out of dough. "Yellville" places Russell, a teenager from rural Arkansas, into a middle-class family who have no idea how to deal with someone from the lower strata. Both humorous and politically pointed, these often surreal stories are explicitly feminist and pro-working class. A yearning for human connection and a reverence for the offbeat makes them both entertaining and touching. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Eleanor J. Bader, New Sch. for Social Research, New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
The title is apt; this nimble debut collection of 23 stories takes a variety of chances, impressing by its audacity and originality. Budnitz, a Village Voice cartoonist whose fiction has appeared in literary quarterlies, seems a kind of homegrown surrealist, launching expeditions into strange terrain from such disarmingly mundane settings as back porches, hospital waiting rooms, and crowded city streets. ``Dog Days'' has to do with a man in a dog suit who takes up residence on the porch of a Middle American family, this after an unexplained disaster that has led to the gradual dissolution of society. In weird yet convincing fashion, the family--and particularly the young daughter--begin to treat the man, who offers a remarkable impersonation of a canine, as a dog. This leads to a ghastly ending when, pressed by hunger, the other members of the family suddenly realize that, in some parts of the world, people view dog as a delectable dish. ``Guilt'' offers a grimly funny take on family guilt, carrying filial neurosis to new levels of absurdity as a healthy young man is browbeaten by his two harridan aunts into donating his heart to his dying mother--having been assured by the doctors that he can live some time without one. In ``Directions,'' a variety of figures--a middle-aged couple going to the theater, a man who's been told that he has a fatal disease, a young woman apparently haunted by a collapsed affair, two tough- talking hustlers planning a score--get lost in the city and end up seeking guidance in a dusty shop where maps are sold and, apparently, the deity works behind the counter. Each of the characters gets the help he or she deserves. In ``Burned,'' a young couple are, quite literally, consumed by their passion. Throughout, Budnitz's wry, conversational tone is nicely leavened by precise lyrical passages. A good mix, overall, of the fantastic and mordantly funny. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary talent,
By A Customer
This review is from: Flying Leap: Stories (Paperback)
I am an avid reader of short fiction, and I have to say this collection by this young writer is the finest I've read in the past several years. It is at once subtle and crazy, at once humorous and sobering, highly imaginative, and great fun to read. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates youthful, contemporary, literate literature.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weightlessness,
By wte-nyc (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Flying Leap: Stories (Paperback)
Because of this book, people on the subways must've looked at me, concerned that I was enjoying it just a little too much. But I couldn't help it -- nearly every one of these stories just floored me. Budnitz continually surprises -- and I mean continually, with every paragraph, with every sentence (even harder when you're continually expecting to be surprised, and then WHAM! she does it again -- like playing the game where you try to pull your hands away from the other person before she slaps them, Budnitz's reflexes are just too quick and her aim so perfect, that she gets you every time). Yes, she gets you with her humor, which is so fresh and perfectly pitched, but also with the sensitivity and emotional depth that she treats her characters. Like George Saunders and David Sedaris' autobiographical stuff, Budnitz treats her characters with such compassion and love, that you cannot help but feel compassionately and lovingly for them too. That compassion, that sense of connection, between people, I think, is what many of her stories revolve around -- so she writes about how something we observe briefly in strangers can resonate with us and stay with us, and in more than a few cases writes with the voice of a community or generation (a "we" which presupposes that there are such strong connections between us that we can be a "we") that sounds so right, it almost feels like she's creating new fairy tales (ala Grimm) for us all.Oh, and she writes so well! The stories are short -- but they rarely feel condensed. Like a well crafted line in a cartoon (Budnitz, I hear is also an illustrator), its amazing how something so simple can at the same be so expressive. And I'd be hardpressed to think of someone else who propels a story forward with such jarringly beautiful opening sentences, besides perhaps Garcia Marquez.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Enjoyable Read,
By
This review is from: Flying Leap: Stories (Paperback)
I purchased the book on the recommendation of a writer's digest report. I read everynight and I love to read first time works. I usually find them fresh and origional. But I have never read anything like Judy. She is a remarkable and insightful young lady and I hope she will not wait long to publish again. I will be the first in line for her next work. Another review said "it leaves you wanting more." I find that an understatement. If you read this, thank you Judy for your commitment to excellence. It shows on every page.
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