Heavier Than Air: Stories (Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction)
Set mostly in rural Minnesota, this debut collection's stories are aching, spare studies of survival and desire. Many of the characters are exhausted by farm life's relentless labor. In "Mr. Hellerman's Vacation," a farmer, recovering in the hospital after a breakdown, recounts his "numbers"--42 cows, 25 chickens, 4 fields, 2 sheds, 1 barn, 6 children, 1 wife--and wonders if "the weight of living is unreasonable." Characters speak with astonishing pragmatism: "Stop being so damn self-centered. Shit or get off the pot," says one woman to a girl in a coma in "Vegetative States." Several of the central characters are girls growing up in the 1960s and '70s who struggle with secret longings for other girls, and their passionate awakenings are an undercurrent to the adults' foggy fatigue. In several stories, the simplest acts--even just noticing one's breath--become wondrous moments that push characters past anguish to reclaim their "bright, insistent, blooming" lives. Darkly funny, compassionate, and unsentimental, these quiet stories offer memorable, rarely seen views of midwestern life.Gillian EngbergCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.