The Candles of Your Eyes And Thirteen Other Stories
This collection of 14 stories from the veteran author of Southern gothics has a delightful freshness and vitality. As usual, Purdy, a superb storyteller, builds from small intimacies. "Scrap of Paper" profiles an old woman who constantly fought with her former maid, yet signs a slip of paper absolving the woman of any wrongdoing. A child receives an heirloom watch from his father in "Short Papa" and is instructed never to let it out of his sight. Purdy's language is sparse and his stories compressed, focusing on the intensity of the moment. He has a seductive way of drawing the reader into even the most fantastical stories (such as "Mr. Evening," in which a young antique dealer is brought low by greed); we continue to believe in the characters and events. His best work deals with sexual and societal taboos. The title story probes the obsessive love of Soldier, a black man, for Beauty, a white teenager. In "Some of These Days," a homosexual who was imprisoned for beating up his lover haunts porno movie houses in search of the man he calls "his landlord." Purdy is the author of more than 20 books, including the recent In the Hollow of His Hand.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.