Bezig met laden...

Search Party: Stories of Rescue

door Valerie Trueblood

Leden	Besprekingen	Populariteit	Gemiddelde beoordeling	Aanhalingen
19	1	1,142,754	(3.5)	2
In the epigraph to this volume, Penelope Fitzgerald tells us: "If a story begins with finding, it must end with searching," and so we discover each story here to follow the arc of a search, just as each also contains a rescue. What is immediately apparent is that it will be impossible to guess the form this rescue will take or even who it is who'll require it. Instead, the astonishingly talented Valerie Trueblood has imbued each story with its own depth and mystery, so rescue comes as a surprise to the reader, who is in intimate sympathy for the soul in extremity. And these are diverse characters whose fates, in lesser hands, might be thought of as hopeless: the fired cop turned security guard, the stolid, 19-year-old nurses' aide who will not be going to art school, the cynical radio producer who is dying of breast cancer and on a plane onher way to Lourdes. In these thirteen stories linked by a common transcendent human genius, the writing is confident and clear and original, and often drop-dead stunning, as if the stories are being told by the most casually eloquent among us.… (meer)

alle leden

▾Leden

Onlangs toegevoegd door

JVermillion, ShanLand, JayeJ, Lysie522, AntonioPaola, cbs19862, Oleksiew

▾Trefwoorden

Trefwoordvertaling ingeschakeld

▾Lijsten

Pen/Faulkner Winners and Finalists (71)

▾Iets voor jou?

Bezig met laden...

Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden.

▾Discussies (Over links)

Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.

» Zie ook 2 vermeldingen

▾Besprekingen door leden

I started reading this book months upon months ago, but I'm a multiple-books-at-a-time reader, and something usually ends up falling by the wayside. Sometimes it's because the book doesn't hold my interest, sometimes it's because something shiny comes along, and sometimes it's just a wrong-place-wrong-time sort of thing. I'm not sure what took me so long with this one...probably a combination of the last two. I remember reading "The Finding," the first story in Search Party, and being pleasantly surprised by it. I read the next few stories and sort of drifted away from the book; when I picked it up again, I couldn't believe I'd waited so long to read something so wonderful.

Search Party is a remarkably strong collection of stories. I enjoy short fiction but, as I mentioned in my review of Lorrie Moore's Bark, I think some of the recent stuff is highly overrated. Not this collection, though. "The Magic Pebble" and "The Stabbed Boy" just about broke my heart with their bits of tragedy; "The Blue Grotto," a tale of a babysitter whose overnight charge has a 105-degree fever and requires a trip to the ER, terrified me; "Later or Never" (about a caretaker) and "Street of Dreams" (about a father shepherding his homeless family) were poignant vignettes; and the opening of "Who Is He That Will Harm You" reveals its events, little by little, until the full scene pops startlingly into your mind's eye.

The main disappointment for me was the final -- and titular -- tale. At 45 pages, it creates a slowly-dragging finish to what is otherwise a smooth-moving collection. It's not a bad story, but it keeps adding new elements just when you think it's going to wrap things up. This was the only story in the book during which I found myself flipping ahead -- multiple times -- to see how much I had left. Don't let that one downfall steer you away from this book, though, because you'd be missing out.

All in all: One of the better story collections I've read recently. I still haven't decided whether to send my copy to a friend or not. I want to share it but also feel like keeping it for myself, which is high praise. (

)

KellyWoodward | Mar 12, 2014 |

▾Gepubliceerde besprekingen

geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe

▾Andere auteurs

» Andere auteurs toevoegen

▾Reeksen en verbanden tussen werken

▾Prijzen en onderscheidingen

Prijzen

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award (Shortlist – 2014)

PEN/Faulkner Award (Finalist – 2014)

geschiedenis tonen

▾Algemene kennis

Je moet ingelogd zijn om Algemene Kennis te mogen bewerken.

Voor meer hulp zie de helppagina Algemene Kennis .

Gangbare titel

Oorspronkelijke titel

Alternatieve titels

Oorspronkelijk jaar van uitgave

Mensen/Personages

Belangrijke plaatsen

Belangrijke gebeurtenissen

Verwante films

Motto

Opdracht

Eerste woorden

Citaten

Laatste woorden

Ontwarringsbericht

Uitgevers redacteuren

Auteur van flaptekst/aanprijzing

Oorspronkelijke taal

Gangbare DDC/MDS

Canonieke LCC

▾Verwijzingen

Verwijzingen naar dit werk in externe bronnen.

Wikipedia in het Engels

Geen

▾Boekbeschrijvingen

In the epigraph to this volume, Penelope Fitzgerald tells us: "If a story begins with finding, it must end with searching," and so we discover each story here to follow the arc of a search, just as each also contains a rescue. What is immediately apparent is that it will be impossible to guess the form this rescue will take or even who it is who'll require it. Instead, the astonishingly talented Valerie Trueblood has imbued each story with its own depth and mystery, so rescue comes as a surprise to the reader, who is in intimate sympathy for the soul in extremity. And these are diverse characters whose fates, in lesser hands, might be thought of as hopeless: the fired cop turned security guard, the stolid, 19-year-old nurses' aide who will not be going to art school, the cynical radio producer who is dying of breast cancer and on a plane onher way to Lourdes. In these thirteen stories linked by a common transcendent human genius, the writing is confident and clear and original, and often drop-dead stunning, as if the stories are being told by the most casually eloquent among us.

▾Beschrijvingen bibliotheek

Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden.

▾Beschrijving door LibraryThing leden

Boekbeschrijving

Haiku samenvatting