These 15 stories meet existence head-on through detached narration that has the quality of a feverish dream. The chilling psyche tells a story where there seems to be no story. Even the victim remains dispassionate and lets the reader infer causes and measure threats. In unvarnished, linear prose stripped of sentimentality, Goodman casts the shape of inarticulate emotion. Yet at the heart of her stories about the foolish, the indifferent, and the vicious, between painful connections and violations, there is regenerating laughter or an inexpressible trace of something once whole and beautiful. Beneath Goodman's every absence, there is a compelling, disturbing presence.
"Ivy Goodman's stories are sharply original, sometimes brilliant, and often hilarious. Many take interesting, bold risks. Her style is spare and tautly controlled, her vision both oblique and penetrating."—Alice Adams
"The work of a potentially major talent."—Booklist
"She blurs the line between her imagined world and reality so skillfully that they are often indistinguishable, a mark of a gifted writer."—Publishers Weekly
"Mrs. Goodman has an unmistakable talent, an odd sense of humor and a photographer's eye for detail."—New York Times Book Review
Contents
Baby
Remnants: A Family Pattern
Rumpus
Bankroll
Last Minutes
White Boy
Fall Semester
Socialization
Documentary
Trade
Revenge
Heart Failure
Telephones
Pinecone
Resignation
Winner of the 1983 Iowa Short Fiction Award
