Not Where I Started From
Many of Wheeler's protagonists in this hypnotic debut collection of 10 stories are Americans in exotic cultures, seeking love or spiritual enlightenment. In "Improving My Average," a lonely rich American girl raised in Colombia attempts to rescue her servant from an unscrupulous fiance, only to discover the abyss between her own privileged life and theirs. In "Manikarnika," a computer graduate student on leave in India learns that her abusive father has committed suicide and finds an emotional anchor in an unpretentious guru. Wheeler, a one-time Buddhist nun in Burma who is now an O. Henry and Pushcart Award-winning author based in Massachusetts, does not spin gauzy New Agey scenarios but rather writes smart, tough-minded tales full of verve, wit, irony and a deft human touch. Her nervy women break out of self-made traps, whether it's a Kansas dishwasher who runs away from her domineering, older husband ("Judgment"), a transplanted New Yorker who is down-and-out in Miami's Little Havana ("Mr. Peanut"), or a neurotic dancer who can't get over her married ex-lover in Paris ("My Most Recent, Perfect Knight"). A highly original, delightful writer, Wheeler is on a par with Paul Theroux or Doris Lessing in her serendipitous explorations of cultural collisions.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.