Get Lit
Rebecca Oppenheimer
Arts | 11/11/07
- Page 1 of 1
"The American Wife"
by Elaine Ford
University of Michigan,
$18.95
Elaine Ford ("Missed Connections") won the Michigan Literary Fiction Award for this excellent short story collection. The title story takes place in England, where Catherine, an American married to an Englishman and expecting a child, parses her current discontent in the light of a troubling past event. In "Cousins," middle-aged Edie returns home to New Jersey for a wedding and a chance at reconciliation with her estranged cousin Arlene. And in the Baltimore-set "Since You've Been Gone," a white nursing student offers two black classmates a ride home during the 1968 riots. Each of Ford's pieces is everything a short story should be. The longer stories feature strong, poignant narratives, giving a sense of their characters' lives without overwhelming the reader with detail. The shorter pieces are pitch-perfect renderings of smaller dilemmas, never growing rushed or gimmicky. Ford refuses to provide easy answers for her characters, avoiding the pat epiphanies that sometimes mar short stories.
-Rebecca Oppenheimer
by Elaine Ford
University of Michigan,
$18.95
Elaine Ford ("Missed Connections") won the Michigan Literary Fiction Award for this excellent short story collection. The title story takes place in England, where Catherine, an American married to an Englishman and expecting a child, parses her current discontent in the light of a troubling past event. In "Cousins," middle-aged Edie returns home to New Jersey for a wedding and a chance at reconciliation with her estranged cousin Arlene. And in the Baltimore-set "Since You've Been Gone," a white nursing student offers two black classmates a ride home during the 1968 riots. Each of Ford's pieces is everything a short story should be. The longer stories feature strong, poignant narratives, giving a sense of their characters' lives without overwhelming the reader with detail. The shorter pieces are pitch-perfect renderings of smaller dilemmas, never growing rushed or gimmicky. Ford refuses to provide easy answers for her characters, avoiding the pat epiphanies that sometimes mar short stories.
-Rebecca Oppenheimer
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