The Whores Child: Stories
by By Russo, Richard
Category: Fiction , Literary

To this irresistible debut collection of short stories, Richard Russo brings the   same bittersweet wit, deep knowledge of human nature, and spellbinding narrative   gifts that distinguish his best-selling novels. His themes are the imperfect bargains   of marriage; the discoveries and disillusionments of childhood;the unwinnable battles   men and women insist on fighting with the past.  A cynical Hollywood moviemaker   confronts his dead wife’s lover and abruptly realizes the depth of his own passion.   As his parents’ marriage disintegrates, a precocious fifth-grader distracts himself   with meditations on baseball, spaghetti, and his place in the universe. And in the   title story, an elderly nun enters a college creative writing class and plays havoc   with its tidy notions of fact and fiction.  The Whore’s Child is further proof that   Russo is one of the finest writers we have, unsparingly truthful yet hugely compassionate   and capable of creating characters real that they seem to step off the page.