Stay Up With Me
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
'Stay Up With Me belongs to the tradition of the classic American story and, like John Cheever, Barbash dramatizes the messy lives of New Yorkers' Independent on Sunday
A newly single mother wrestles with the evidence of her son's love life during his Christmas vacation; an anxious husband persists in playing the host at his annual drinks party even though his marriage is in trouble and his wife mysteriously absent; a young man watches his widowed father become the toast of Manhattan's midlife dating scene while he struggles to find his own footing in life . . .
The characters in Tom Barbash's acclaimed, Folio Prize-nominated collection explore the myriad ways we seek to connect with each other and the sometimes cruel world around us. In the classic tradition of John Cheever or Tobias Wolff, Barbash laces his narratives with sharp wit, psychological acuity and pathos, so that they pierce the heart and linger in the imagination.
'One of the most satisfying cover-to-cover short story collections I can remember'
Dave Eggers
'Tom Barbash's wise and bittersweet stories map the gulfs between us, and the unexpected connections. I tried to keep track of my favorite one, but it was always the story I'd just finished'David Mitchell
'Is there such a thing as the Great American Story Collection? Yes, and this is it' Justin Cronin
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The central theme of Barbash's venture into short fiction is grief: whether because of divorce, disease, or death, his characters all struggle to recover from emotional trauma. This struggle takes many forms: a boy copes with feelings of guilt over his brother's death as he and his mother separately grieve in "Howling at the Moon"; in "How to Fall," a girl goes on a skiing trip to overcome a recent breakup; and in the title story, the memory of his parents' collapsed marriage pollutes a young man's fraught relationship with a former lover. Barbash (The Last Good Chance) is most interesting, meanwhile, when exploring the psychosexual bonds between parents and children: in "The Women," for example, a young man whose mother has recently died struggles with his father's sexual dalliances; a professor confronts his repressed desire when his son starts dating a student from his class in "Her Words"; and in "The Break," a recently separated mother fixates upon her son's choice of lovers. Barbash is a strong storyteller who has mastered the architecture of the short story, right down to the tender, subdued prose that delights in sharp details. With a few exceptions, the exemplary craft and tight prose carry satisfying, if familiar, stories.