Faces - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871131404 ISBN 13: 9780871131409

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Kennedy here collects ten of her unusual short stories. "Her Furry Face," for instance, involves orangutan trainer/teacher David's rape of Annie, his prize pupil, who intelligently uses sign language and writes short stories. After the forced copulation, Annie retrogresses to her original primitive nature. In "The Silent Cradle" a child never seen by his parents matures, attends college, and then (as the author conveniently arranges) is killed in Italy by a terrorist bomb. All the stories thus are attempts to present characters whose lives have little cohesive purpose or meaning. Yet, regrettably, they do not succeed, not because of the often bizarre themes but because Kennedy neglects to provide adequate details and then editorially intrudes to explain the too-obvious character and plot developments. Glenn O. Carey, English Dept., Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The theme of "faces" runs like a current beneath the deceptively calm surface of Kennedy's (The Journal of Nicholas the American 10 disquieting tales. Outstanding is the chilling story "River Baby." It shows Maxine, a deserted, harried mother driven to drown her small daughter, whose blurry face confronts her from the bath water. Drugged with horror, yet strangely distanced, Maxine becomes obsessed with memories of her own Mama. In "The Window Jesus" it rankles Velma, a middle-aged farm woman, that her neighbor has seen the Savior in her screen door, so Velma's husband fashions an optical glass that will do the trick. With "Her Furry Face," Kennedy carries her gift for the comic grotesque even further. Vulnerable Douglas, who has trouble with women, falls disastrously in love with Annie, an astonishingly literate female orangutan in the primate training-lab where Douglas works. "Belling Martha" tips over into futurist fantasy with a bleak vision of cannibalism in America. Kennedy's language is disingenuously plain, to the point of sounding nonchalant, and her endings trail off, but the total effect is strong and stealthy.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0871131404
• ISBN 13: 9780871131409
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar