Asking for Love
by Roxana Robinson
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Pub Date Jun 21 2016 | Archive Date Jul 21 2016
Description
Celebrated contemporary author Roxana Robinson stakes out John Cheever territory in this stellar anthology.
Whether it’s a woman who must accept the reality of her son growing up, or a daughter becoming disillusioned with her father, this moving collection expertly conveys the joys, doubts, fears, and endless contradictions that are inescapable parts of domestic life. In “Mr. Sumarsono,” included in TheBest American Short Stories of 1994, a visiting Indonesian diplomat brings out the confidence and charm in a suburban divorcée, much to the surprise of her two young daughters; and in “Leaving Home” a teenage girl, stifled by her family’s rigid sense of virtue, attempts to reinvent herself during a summer vacation.
The everyday challenges of parenting, stepparenting, and familial love and loyalty take on great weight as the richly drawn characters of each story—fathers, mothers, children, lovers—face them with genuine need, strength, and confusion. Up and down the Eastern Seaboard, from Manhattan’s Upper East Side to Maine, Connecticut, and Long Island, these stories showcase the trademark insight and tenderness with which Robinson explores divorce, remarriage, and families yearning to move on.
Whether it’s a woman who must accept the reality of her son growing up, or a daughter becoming disillusioned with her father, this moving collection expertly conveys the joys, doubts, fears, and endless contradictions that are inescapable parts of domestic life. In “Mr. Sumarsono,” included in TheBest American Short Stories of 1994, a visiting Indonesian diplomat brings out the confidence and charm in a suburban divorcée, much to the surprise of her two young daughters; and in “Leaving Home” a teenage girl, stifled by her family’s rigid sense of virtue, attempts to reinvent herself during a summer vacation.
The everyday challenges of parenting, stepparenting, and familial love and loyalty take on great weight as the richly drawn characters of each story—fathers, mothers, children, lovers—face them with genuine need, strength, and confusion. Up and down the Eastern Seaboard, from Manhattan’s Upper East Side to Maine, Connecticut, and Long Island, these stories showcase the trademark insight and tenderness with which Robinson explores divorce, remarriage, and families yearning to move on.
Advance Praise
“Asking for Love delighted me no end. I think ‘King of the Sky’ is one of the most masterful, achieved stories I’ve read in a long time.” —Alice Munro
“Asking for Love is marked by Roxana Robinson’s characteristic mix of elegance and tenderness.” —Mary Gordon
“Short stories that expose the desperation under the skin of seemingly invulnerable upper-class, blue-eyed WASPs. Robinson writes like an angel.” —Cosmopolitan
“Robinson reveals her characters through a striking combination of nuance, empathy and wit.” —Publishers Weekly
“Robinson captures the world of Maine summer houses, Scottish shooting trips, and velvet-collared Chesterfield coats with acuity and marvelously sharp, ironic prose. . . . Here is a writer who thoroughly knows her bearings. Large truths served up with small tea sandwiches—delicious stories.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Asking for Love is marked by Roxana Robinson’s characteristic mix of elegance and tenderness.” —Mary Gordon
“Short stories that expose the desperation under the skin of seemingly invulnerable upper-class, blue-eyed WASPs. Robinson writes like an angel.” —Cosmopolitan
“Robinson reveals her characters through a striking combination of nuance, empathy and wit.” —Publishers Weekly
“Robinson captures the world of Maine summer houses, Scottish shooting trips, and velvet-collared Chesterfield coats with acuity and marvelously sharp, ironic prose. . . . Here is a writer who thoroughly knows her bearings. Large truths served up with small tea sandwiches—delicious stories.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9781504025607 |
PRICE | |
Average rating from 16 members
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