- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (Aug 21 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060520132
- ISBN-13: 978-0060520137
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.5 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,467,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Homess first collection since 1990s much-praised The Safety of Objects offers 11 sharply original portraits of domestic life: the distance between family members, the minor wars between friends and lovers. Written over the last decade, with several stories previously published in glossies and literary magazines, this volume confirms Homess reputation as an expert stylist and unique chronicler of suburban drama. Conception takes a strange turn in Georgica, as a woman recovering from an accident fixates on the golden boys of the beach and plots to make one of them the father of her child. The narrator of The Chinese Lesson finds his sympathy for his confused, homesick mother-in-law, Mrs. Ha, has alienated him from his wife, who has spent her life trying not to be Chinese. In the title piece, a fourth-grade teachers list of things you already should know but maybe are a little dumb, so you dont becomes an obsession for the narrator, who missed school the day it was supposedly handed out. A shape-shifting woman who visits the insouciant, anorexic girl of Raft in Water, Floating finds her own story in The Weather Outside Is Sunny and Bright. Not much happens in it, she goes to her job (architectural forensics), visits her mother in a nursing home, takes a bath and casually exercises her powers, but the story feels full anyway, replete with a strange magic. It's precisely this sort of thing that makes Homes so good.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Twelve years after her debut, The Safety of Objects, Homes once again unearths the dark side of domestic life in a handful of disturbing pieces, Here, relationships and emotions are scrutinized within abnormal situations. The stories present a series of uniquely memorable characters: a woman who spies on young couples making love and who tries a bizarre method of impregnation, a shape-shifter who can transmogrify into various animal and human forms, a young boy whose idyllic summer is jolted by an accident, an anxious man who wants desperately but futilely to enjoy life, and a former President of the United States afflicted with Alzheimer's. Homes's storytelling is hypnotic, allowing the reader a peek into the exotic thoughts and worlds of people we do not normally meet in literature. Despite the oddness of the stories, readers are still able to identify with the characters. Engaging and dynamic, Homes's writing is remarkably surreal. Recommended for all fiction collections. Colleen Lougen, Mt. St. Mary Coll. Lib., Newburgh, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I am walking, holding a small screen, watching the green dot move like the blip of a plane, the blink of a ship's radar. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I am walking, holding a small screen, watching the green dot move like the blip of a plane, the blink of a ship's radar. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Typical New Yorker fiction,
By hllib "hllib" (King of Prussia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Things You Should Know: A Collection Of Stories (Hardcover)
Homes has a vivid imagination and outstanding writing skills. She's in command of her storytelling technique. Her prose strikes all the right notes. She's even good at characterization. Unfortunately, she's a slave to literary fashion, specifically, boring, New Yorker-style catatonic realism. (In fairness, perhaps to break the mold a little, Homes tosses in some self-consciously clever surrealistic bits here and there, but it doesn't work.) Homes gets accolades because she believes all the right things and expresses them in all the right ways -- but that's not the sign of an intellectually rigorous writer. The women tend to be hyper-accomplished professionals, usually married to confused, weak men whom they have to dress and feed in the morning. This scenario got tired after the second story. By the fourth I began to feel like I was dealing with an ideologue. Of course, that's the risk when you put together collections of stories from the last ten years. You start to see the writer's tricks ... for example, several of her characters are obsessed with being prepared. They try to stock up on emergency supplies to plan for every conceivable occurrence. OK, good enough idea once. But two, three times? Recommendation: If you like New Yorker-style fiction, you'll really enjoy this. If you want ideas and characters explored in a little more depth, take a pass.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Book buyer - know this...,
By Daiun (United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Things You Should Know: A Collection Of Stories (Hardcover)
This book consists of 13 instantly forgetable stories. These stories have no plot, theme or otherwise apparent meaning. Buyer beware.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Instantly forgetable,
By Daiun (United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Things You Should Know: A Collection Of Stories (Hardcover)
Eleven instantly forgetable short stories with no apparent plot, theme, or conclusions. Buyer beware.
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