Robin Black (1)
Auteur van If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This: Stories
Voor andere auteurs genaamd Robin Black, zie de verduidelijkingspagina.
Over de Auteur
Robin Black¿s short story collection If I loved you, I would tell you this, was a finalist for the Frank O¿Connor International Short Story Prize and an O. Magazine Summer Reading Pick. Her debut novel Life Drawing has been called a magnificent literary achievement, by Karen Russell; and of toon meer Black¿s writing Claire Messud has said she is a writer of great wisdom, and illuminates, without undue emphasis, the flickering complexity of individual histories. Black¿s stories and essays have been widely published including in The New York Times Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, The Southern Review and One Story. Winner of the 2005 Pirates Alley Faulkner/Wisdom Prize for a Short Story, she was the 2012-13 Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bryn Mawr College and has taught most recently in the Brooklyn College MFA Program. Black, who holds an MFA from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for writers. In 2015 her title Life Drawing made the Australian Book Designers Association Award shortlist. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder
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- Sarah Lawrence College (BA)
Warren Wilson College (MFA) - Korte biografie
- Robin Black holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from Warren Wilson College. Her first story collection If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, is forthcoming from Random House in 2010. The book will also be brought out by six foreign publishers and translated into four languages.
Robin Black’s stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications including The Southern Review, One Story, The Georgia Review, Colorado Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Indiana Review, and The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. I (Norton, 2007). She is the recipient of grants from the Leeway Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, the Sirenland Conference and is also the winner of the 2005 Pirate’s Alley Faulkner-Wisdom Writing Competition in the short story category. Her work has been noticed for Special Mention by the Pushcart Prizes on four occasions and also deemed Notable in The Best American Essays, 2008 and The Best Nonrequired Reading, 2009. She is currently at work on a novel, also to be published by Random House and overseas. Since receiving her MFA, she has taught Advanced Fiction Writing at Arcadia University and worked extensively with individual students. In 2010, she will be teaching at Bryn Mawr College.
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If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This: Stories door Robin Black
Won this book for participating in #Fridayreads on Twitter. :)
This gorgeously written deconstruction of a marriage drew me in with its deep analysis of marriage and of the creative process, its detail of the quotidian, and its wise reflection on the the outsize impact a single choice or act can have on the symbiosis (stasis?) of a long relationship. Many relationships are discussed, but the focus is on how events impact the marital relationship.
Gus (officially Augusta) made some bad choices years ago and her husband, Owen, cannot get over it. They never discuss this other than those times when Owen's lingering rage pops up and he reminds her of her "villainy"to trigger her self-loathing and fear of abandonment. Mostly though they maintain a fragile detente with the agreement to never speak of her actions or of Owen's feelings of guilt and useless due to his infertility and his writer's block.
The erosion of a committed relationship never comes down to one event or one partner but the choice to hold everything hurtful in some locked room where it is never spoken of is often the main catalyst in a relationship's demise. Black provides a chilling and true picture of how that works. In my own long deceased relationship my ex-husband was infertile. We could have worked through it, but he absolutely refused to discuss his infertility or adoption or artificial insemination. When you cannot discuss the most important thing in your lives you stop talking about anything important, and silence and politeness eventually asphyxiates the relationship. From my experience I think Black shows us exactly how this process feels.
Mostly I loved the book, but I did think some characters and events were poorly integrated into the central story. Gus's interactions with her father, who has Alzheimer's, were clunky, unrealistic, and unnecessary, I think Black was trying to tie the story of how some violent outbursts from her father that ended almost as quickly as they started, and his consequent forced and permanent move from regular assisted living to a locked ward, related to Gus's own misstep and consequent prison of polite solitude. I did not think that succeeded. I also wish Black had made the neighbors, Alison and Nora (who are, among other things, the catalysts for the book's climax) less stupid. All in all though I understood all of these people, I was interested in them, and I was blown away by Gus's observations and Black's writing prowess. Highly recommend this one.… (meer)
Gus (officially Augusta) made some bad choices years ago and her husband, Owen, cannot get over it. They never discuss this other than those times when Owen's lingering rage pops up and he reminds her of her "villainy"to trigger her self-loathing and fear of abandonment. Mostly though they maintain a fragile detente with the agreement to never speak of her actions or of Owen's feelings of guilt and useless due to his infertility and his writer's block.
The erosion of a committed relationship never comes down to one event or one partner but the choice to hold everything hurtful in some locked room where it is never spoken of is often the main catalyst in a relationship's demise. Black provides a chilling and true picture of how that works. In my own long deceased relationship my ex-husband was infertile. We could have worked through it, but he absolutely refused to discuss his infertility or adoption or artificial insemination. When you cannot discuss the most important thing in your lives you stop talking about anything important, and silence and politeness eventually asphyxiates the relationship. From my experience I think Black shows us exactly how this process feels.
Mostly I loved the book, but I did think some characters and events were poorly integrated into the central story. Gus's interactions with her father, who has Alzheimer's, were clunky, unrealistic, and unnecessary, I think Black was trying to tie the story of how some violent outbursts from her father that ended almost as quickly as they started, and his consequent forced and permanent move from regular assisted living to a locked ward, related to Gus's own misstep and consequent prison of polite solitude. I did not think that succeeded. I also wish Black had made the neighbors, Alison and Nora (who are, among other things, the catalysts for the book's climax) less stupid. All in all though I understood all of these people, I was interested in them, and I was blown away by Gus's observations and Black's writing prowess. Highly recommend this one.… (meer)
Why, yes, life is complicated. And relationships are MESSY. This is my first Robin Black novel, and I loved her writing. I will be reading more... for sure.
A delightful collection of short stories touching on love, grief, letting go, and moving onward. I was particularly drawn to the title story in which an entitled neighbor gets a survey to move the property lines even though the new lines of demarcation ruin the narrator's life, which is complicated with a cancer diagnosis and an adult disabled son and a husband worn thin carrying for everything. The small, seemingly insignificant ways in which our actions impact others rang true. I am hoping Black's novels are as poignant as her stories.… (meer)
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