num_pages: 177
description: "Shields's lucid prose succinctly illuminates the larger context of Jaffe's life. . . . It's even better at capturing the small picture."--Timothy Hunter, Cleveland Plain DealerIn Handbook for Drowning , Walter Jaffe grows up in a family obsessed with social justice; Walter fixates on his own mortality.  The novel's pointillistic structure reflects the gap between the grief Walter feels for his dying mother and the impersonal rationality he's been taught to practice."
language: English
title: A Handbook for Drowning: Stories
titlecomplete: A Handbook for Drowning: Stories
genres: Literature, Fiction, Short Stories
ratings_count: 100
publisher: Perennial