Ghost Traps: Stories (Flannery O'connor Award for Short Fiction) - Softcover

Abel, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0820344915 ISBN 13: 9780820344911

Verlag: UNIV OF GEORGIA PR, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

<p><i>Ghost Traps</i> is a collection of twelve stories about characters who are on the edge and under duress, individuals backed against a wall as they try to free themselves from their own limitations, habits, and destructive desires.</p><p>In the title story, Harper learns to fish from a man whose son is &ldquo;catching hell&rdquo; in the Korean War. When the son returns, he begins stealing lobsters from Harper&rsquo;s traps, and Harper, out of a sense of obligation and guilt, teaches him to fish, vainly hoping it will help the man put together the pieces of a life that war shattered. In &ldquo;The Connoisseur,&rdquo; a wealthy collector on an archeological dig in the Himalayan foothills realizes he &ldquo;knows how to stay out of jail, charge rent, build hotels, and pass Go,&rdquo; but has not spiritual life. Unlike his guide, a Sherpa, who could remain content with nothing but the Himalayas, the collector finds himself wanting in all but material success.</p><p>Whether they win or lose, Robert Abel&rsquo;s characters make the best of circumstance with creativity, wit, passion, and endurance. In &ldquo;Lawless in New York,&rdquo; Professor Alice Reinquist, the sole woman in her university&rsquo;s delegation to an academic conference, maintains her sense of humor by thinking of Wonder Woman&rsquo;s Gold Lasso, which makes &ldquo;even the most cunning of evildoers unable to prevaricate.&rdquo; Tracey Wynn, a woman who considers herself on loan to her aloof boyfriend, keeps her options open by always leaving a portion of her neck exposed because she &ldquo;cannot stand being closed in by anything and because she knows it invites at least a fantasy kiss.&rdquo; In &ldquo;Appetizer,&rdquo; a man fishing in Alaska resourcefully asks two hungry grizzly bears, &ldquo;How much love can $600 worth of salmon buy?&rdquo;</p><p>Although many of these characters inhabit a world in which the bottom is about to fall out, they invariably find good reason&mdash;and courage&mdash;to take the next treacherous step. From the salty waters of Cape Cod Canal to the mountains of Tibet; from a Puerto Rican pub to an elegant New York bar where &ldquo;Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer had no doubt insulted each other,&rdquo; <i>Ghost Traps</i> is filled with people hustling for survival and fighting for identity in a world reluctant to give anyone an even break.</p>

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Robert Abel is the author of Full-tilt Boogie; The Progress of a Fire; Freedom Dues, or, A Gentleman’s Progress in the New World; and Skin and Bones. His stories have appeared in Playgirl, Contact, and Denver Quarterly.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: UNIV OF GEORGIA PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0820344915
• ISBN 13: 9780820344911
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 168
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar