Here We Are in Paradise: Stories

by Tony Earley

Overview

This collection of stories, set in various locales of North Carolina create entire worlds and indelible moments as only the best short fiction does.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316199490
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/01/1997
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tony Earley was selected by Granta as one of today's best young writers, The New Yorker featured him in its best young fiction writers issue, and his first novel, Jim the Boy, became a national best-seller. He is also the author of a highly praised collection of short stories, Here We Are in Paradise. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and teaches writing at Vanderbilt University.

Editorial Reviews

Eight beautifully crafted tales illuminate the lives of 20th-century North Carolinians in this debut collection from Earley, whose work has been published in Harper's , Tri-Quarterly and other literary periodicals. With quirky ruefulness, he narrates the experiences of ordinary people who may or may not matter to anyone but themselves. In ``Charlotte'' (which also appears in Best American Short Stories 1993 ), the manager of a bar recalls an epic battle between two professional wrestlers in the days before ``Frannie Belk gathered up all the good and evil in our city and sold it four hours south''--to Atlanta, where the wrestlers now fight on TBS. The narrator of both ``Aliceville'' and ``Story of Pictures'' chronicles his Depression-era boyhood, remembering how glimpses of a flock of geese and a woman bathing in a pond awakened him to the world outside his hometown. ``My Father's Heart'' captures the bittersweet longing of a boy who knew his father only through the memories of others. In each of these stories, Earley deftly weaves together several thematic strands to create complex, richly rewarding fiction. His tales connect with the heart. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Earley has written eight short stories about regular folks living in North Carolina, coping with the trials of their existence. None of the characters is glamorous, but all reveal a basic humanity. Earley's style varies from pure narrative to stream of consciousness. In ``The Prophet of Jupiter,'' a damkeeper intersperses the story of Lake Glen with his feelings about his estranged wife's carrying another man's child. ``Aliceville'' is a charming story about a young boy who sees a large flock of geese while out with his uncle and returns to hunt them. The title story portrays an older couple's response to the wife's breast cancer and mastectomy. Three of the stories feature young Jim Glass and his eccentric family. In each, the mother strives to keep her deceased husband's memory alive by endlessly telling stories about him. While the subject matter is not extraordinary, this collection is engaging and down to earth. For general readers.-- Kimberly G. Allen, MCI Corporate Information Resources Ctr., Washington, D.C.

Library Journal