Cover Before Striking
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The most common phrase in print is "cover before striking," a warning to those about to innocently strike a match to be careful not to burn their fingers.
Uppal's characters in Cover Before Striking are all people pushing their lives to new levels of intensity, danger, or passion as they test their limits and those of the world. The pyromaniac at the heart of the title story — winner of the Gloria Vanderbilt Short Fiction Prize — desperately uses fire to reconnect with lost lovers and family members. In "Vertigo," an injured Olympic athlete becomes a research guinea pig in a surreal scientific experiment. In "The Boy Next Door," a teenager recounts how her mother took her and fled Canada for Brazil, along with the local Catholic priest.
Implacable and just a little unhinged, the stories of Cover Before Striking each move toward that moment of contact when the sparks begin to fly, when destruction and beauty seem to blur together. With this collection, Priscila Uppal offers the literary equivalent of playing with fire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 13 strong and distinctive pieces, Uppal appears to regard the short story as a superbly elastic form and an inviting opportunity to explore familiar human circumstances from fresh angles. She is versatile, adept at whatever genre she chooses from the straight-up vengeance comedy of Blind Spot" and the memorable four-sectioned family portrait in Recipes for Dirty Laundry" to The Man Who Loved Cats," a mysterious fable about an elderly father, his three daughters and a house full of felines. The stories exhibit a fascination with descents into states of near-madness. A woman forms a protective relationship with bathroom fungus in Mycosis," and the institutionalized pyromaniac diarist of the title story recalls her toxic engagements with men. In The Lilies" an avid gardener finds herself tipsily at odds with violent flowers." In Three Days Left," an unhappy ad agency executive of spends a listless vacation at home but winds up spending dark hours handcuffed to his fence. Boldly exploring story shape, tone, and perspective, Uppal grounds the empathetic stories in real-life circumstances like grief and loss. The sudden death of loved ones in three poignant tales At Your Service," Vertigo," and Wind Chimes" showcases the author's technical skills and sheer inventiveness.
