- Paperback: 232 pages
- Publisher: University of Georgia Press; New edition edition (Oct 1 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0820336882
- ISBN-13: 978-0820336886
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 21.6 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #914,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"The Bigness of the World is simply a stunning collection—every story jewel-crafted and resonant. I read stories to meet people I do not know and have not imagined, but even in that context Lori Ostlund’s people are unique. I begin by thinking that I know these characters or have known them. And then somewhere along the way, they shape-shift and startle me. Over and over again I find myself looking at the world from a fresh perspective—this sharp-eyed, compassionate writer’s rendering of the world I thought I knew. This is a book to remake our imaginary landscape—the kind of book I not only recommend, I advocate. Read this, I want to tell people. You need these stories. You do."—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina and Trash
"These sly stories are funny and unpredictable and graced with priceless details you'll carry with you long after the last page is turned. Whether charting the loneliness of youth, or tracing the emotional upheavals of lovers abroad, Ostlund proves to be a wise, charming, and irresistible guide."—Eric Puchner, author of Music Through the Floor: Stories
"Witty and sharp, Ostlund has crafted eleven surprising and often very funny tales that remind us just how vast the world really is."—Booklist
"Ostlund’s artful prose is playfully complex and illuminating, evocative and unsentimental. . . . Each piece is sublime."—Publishers Weekly
"The Bigness of the World wastes no time in establishing Ostlund as one of the new front-runners in Bay Area short fiction."—San Francisco Magazine
Product Description
In Lori Ostlund’s debut collection people seeking escape from situations at home venture out into a world that they find is just as complicated and troubled as the one they left behind.
In prose highlighted by both satire and poignant observation, Ostlund offers characters that represent a different sort of everyman—men and women who poke fun at ideological rigidity while holding fast to good grammar and manners, people seeking connections in a world that seems increasingly foreign. In “Upon Completion of Baldness” a young woman shaves her head for a part in a movie in Hong Kong that will help her escape life with her lover in Albuquerque. The precocious narrator of “All Boy” finds comfort when he is locked in a closet by a babysitter. In “Dr. Deneau’s Punishment” a math teacher leaving New York for Minnesota as a means of punishing himself engages in an unsettling method of discipline. A lesbian couple whose relationship is disintegrating flees to the Moroccan desert in “The Children beneath the Seat.” And in “Idyllic Little Bali” a group of Americans gathers around a pool in Java to discuss their brushes with fame and ends up witnessing a man’s fatal flight from his wife.
In the eleven stories in The Bigness of the World we see that wherever you are in the world, where you came from is never far away.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny and humane, Jan 27 2010
By JLG "Austen Fan" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Bigness of the World (Hardcover)
The story "Talking Fowl with My Father" is especially tender, bittersweet, and funny, and one of my favorites. It's not often that a story will make me laugh out loud and these do. I especially like that many of these stories are set abroad and portray encounters with cultures and values other than American ones: in these stories, the world really is bigger than Manhattan or some suburb. There's nothing gimmicky or 'trendy' or 'MFA-like' about these stories -- just beautiful writing and humane observations about our world.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
What Beautiful Stories, Sep 20 2009
By avidreader - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Bigness of the World (Hardcover)
Dorothy Allison's review is dead-on. You need these stories. This is a collection that shows us what is missing in so many of today's stories: compassion without sacrificing piercing insights and humor (I laughed out loud at the acronym-hating babysitter in the lead story); intelligence without sacrificing the demands of a good yarn; and modesty before the vast world without sacrificing sublime prose.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Smart, Wry and Truly Memorable, Jan 12 2011
By cms924 - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Bigness of the World (Paperback)
Ms. Ostlund has a sharp and sympathetic eye that makes each of her characters and their situations instantly engaging, and in many cases familiar, as if you or someone you know well has served as her inspiration. I also can't remember the last time I laughed out loud so often while reading a story collection, or any book. Even as she's writing a sobering story about how a romantic relationship fails or how a person loses his or her illusions about the world and his or her place in it, Ostlund is able to infuse the narrative with humor that saves her characters from complete despair or despondency. I can't recommend this debut collection strongly enough; it's truly a remarkable and unique book.
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