What counts as love
By: Marian Crotty
Series: John Simmons Short Fiction Award; Iowa Short Fiction Award; John Simmons short fiction award; Iowa short fiction award
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 121
ISBN-13: 9781609385163
Work titles: Short stories
Description: "In these nine stories, Marian Crotty inhabits the lives of people searching for human connection. Her characters, most often young women, are honest, troubled, and filled with longing. In the title story, a young woman begins a job on a construction site after leaving an abusive marriage. In "Crazy for You," two girls spy on a neighbor's sex life, while their own sexuality hovers in the distance. In "A Real Marriage," a college student marries a boyfriend to help him stay in the United States. In "The Fourth Fattest Girl at Cutting Horse Ranch," the daily life of a residential treatment center for eating disorders is disrupted by the arrival of a celebrity. The stories are set in Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Persian Gulf, and often touch on themes of addiction, class, sexuality, and gender. What Counts as Love is a poignant, often funny collection that asks us to take it and its characters seriously"--
Table of contents: title: Crazy for you --; title: The fourth fattest girl at Cutting Horse Ranch --; title: Common application with supplement --; title: What counts as love --; title: A real marriage --; title: The next thing that happens --; title: A new life --; title: The house always wins --; title: Kindness.