One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
Lucy Corin's "eye popping, enlightening read" (Publishers Weekly), now in paperback.
At the heart of Lucy Corin's dazzling collection are one hundred apocalypses: visions of loss and destruction, vexation and crisis, revelation and revolution, sometimes only a few lines long. In these haunting and wickedly funny stories, an apocalypse might come in the form of the end of a relationship or the end of the world, but they all expose the tricky landscape of our longing for a clean slate. In three longer stories, contemporary American life is playfully, if disturbingly, distorted: the rite of passage for adolescent girls involves choosing the madman who will accompany them into adulthood; California burns to the ground while, on the east coast, life carries on; and a soldier returns home broke from war to encounter a witch who extends a dangerous offer.
At once mournful and explosively energetic, One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses is "deeply rooted in the politics and upheaval of our times" (Lambda Literary).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in the past, present and an undefinable future, Corin's (Everyday Psycho-killers) collection of stories, fables, anecdotes, prose poems and situational musings center not just on the end of the world, but the rapture of existence. A greedy soldier meets a witch who could be his mother on the road home from war and uncovers jewels in deep holes guarded by giant dogs, high school kids take refuge in a snowy cave while California burns and parents, glued to TV's, sit in bed with trays of cheese sandwiches . Couples, families, brothers, lovers, meth addicts , and drunken zombies cope with what is left after loss. In the short piece "Questions in Significantly Smaller Font" (the title is quite literal, you may need a magnifying glass) Corin asks: "What will the apocalypse mean for narrative?" The answer may not come so easily, but the craft and language makes the journey quite satisfying. With stories within stories and tiny typeface preceded by two sentence tales, this fulfilling maze, guided by a constant theme, is an eye-opening, enlightening read.
