Infinite Dimensions
Stories
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Twelve short stories delving into the minds of characters struggling as they attempt to build their lives on shaky ground.
A female bank executive, who thinks she’s placed her struggles with mental illness behind her, must make a tough decision when her former hospital roommate shows up for a job interview. A college student struggling with his philosophy assignment asks a relative for help only to be troubled by the results. A recovering alcoholic author teeters on the edge of self-sabotage as she travels to a dinner meeting with an influential editor. A woman longs to have a brain tumor so that she might get some attention . . .
These are just a few of the characters inhabiting Infinite Dimensions, from thewinner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction for Please Come Back to Me. In this collection, Jessica Treadway links her stories with vulnerable characters in similar settings, featuring themes of fidelity, betrayal, and self-delusion. And throughout all of it, she reveals her stunning grasp of human psychology in all its complex forms.
Praise for Infinite Dimensions
“Jessica Treadway’s intense and moving stories are connected by an intriguing thread, yet each one stands alone as a gem of intuition and empathy. This is a stellar collection.” —Hilma Wolitzer, author of Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket
“What an exquisite gift. . . . A masterclass in the story form, Treadway’s riveting collection awakens us to the marvel of our ordinary lives, even as it demonstrates how little it takes to shatter them. . . . This book is simply astonishing.” —E. J. Levy, author of The Cape Doctor and Love, in Theory
“Treadway’s dynamic collection . . . intuitively explores the vulnerabilities of her characters. . . . These stories are powerful and believable.” —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Treadway's dynamic collection (after The Gretchen Question) intuitively explores the vulnerabilities of her characters. "Kwashiorkor" follows a woman named Amy as she struggles with depression after a psychiatric hospitalization and forces herself to embrace her new life as mother to a toddler. She's nearly convinced herself that she's recovered from the depression until Dina, her former roommate at the hospital, applies for a job at the bank where she works, prompting painful memories and an awkward interaction. In "Original Work," college student Stephen is perplexed by his first philosophy assignment and, instead of going out to the bar, he contacts a relative with a philosophy degree for assistance, a decision he consequentially regrets. A woman named Petra in "The Sydney Opera House" goes to the doctor for vertigo, secretly hoping for a diagnosis of something serious, like a brain tumor ("If someone asked her why," Treadway writes, "she'd be embarrassed to tell the truth: she wouldn't mind the attention"). After searching dating profiles, Petra finds a man with the same condition, and they start a relationship. Here as in elsewhere, Treadway develops complex insights into her characters' attempts to build a life for themselves on shaky ground. These stories are powerful and believable.
