Bending Heaven: Stories [Hardcover]

Jessica Francis Kane (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jessica Francis Kane's Bending Heaven contains 11 sober, affecting short stories that delve beneath the surfaces of ordinary people's lives and reveal their internal struggles. The setups are simple: a divorced lawyer worries about her teenaged son while she is on a corporate retreat ("Refuge"); a young woman moves to New York and finds the book publishing business is less literary than she expected ("How to Become a Publicist"); two newlyweds house-sit for a well-off older couple and anxieties about their new life together arise ("Ideas of Home, but Not the Thing Itself"). Kane's style is direct yet nuanced, and all her characters feel authentic; this is an impressive debut.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This exquisite collection of stories examines ordinary people trying to explain their failures to themselves or others. Sarah drinks too much, upsetting her teenaged daughter; an English major tries to succeed as a publicist in New York City; and an employee, bored at a corporate retreat, realizes that she lacks many things that matter and can't find fun in things that don't matter. Kane also brings us a couple living in Paris during the husband's sabbatical, who appear unable to communicate; a mother and her young son as they choose items to sell at a yard sale before a pending divorce; and an extremely sensitive writer with a pathological fear of being photographed, among others. Her characters are all melancholy, all unsuccessful in their efforts, and probably all doomed to failure they are, in other words, real people with real problems. Kane's writing style is extremely realistic and down to earth. Though her short stories have appeared in many magazines, this is her first book. Highly recommended. Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, MD
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (July 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582432066
• ISBN-13: 978-1582432069
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,883,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jessica Francis Kane was born in 1971 in Berkeley, CA, grew up in Ann Arbor, MI, and graduated from Yale. After graduation she worked in publishing in New York and Washington, D.C. Her first story collection, BENDING HEAVEN, was published in the US (Counterpoint, 2002) and the UK (Chatto & Windus, 2003). Her stories have been read on BBC Radio 4 and have appeared in a number of publications, including Virginia Quarterly Review, McSweeney's, The Missouri Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Salt Hill, Swink, and Five Chapters. Her essays and humor pieces have been published in McSweeney's Internet Tendency and The Morning News.org, for which she is a contributing writer. Her first novel, THE REPORT, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in September 2010. The UK rights have sold to Portobello Books, with a planned publication date of March 2011. She loves London best, but is settled now in New York with her husband and two young children. More information is available on her website: www.jessicafranciskane.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I WAS TORN BETWEEN 4 AND 5 STARS..., February 11, 2003

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bending Heaven: Stories (Hardcover)

Choosing my rating for this volume of short stories was more difficult than I had imagined it would be. Kane's prose flows gracefully - seemingly without effort, but we know that's not true. Her stories and characters pour out onto the pages and into the mind and soul of the reader - these qualities led me finally to the 5-star rating.

That being said, these stories are all sad, or about sad people - almost unbearably so. The characters depicted in these tales seem to share in common an inability to cope with the hand they have been dealt by life. There is an angst in each of them that is palpable and aching - they struggle to deal with their careers, their relationships, their families, their emotions, their successes and their failures. There are a couple of stories that deal with the publishing trade - `How to become a publicist' and `Exposure'.

In the latter, a writer finds herself becoming more popular later in life, and struggles to deal with the demands of her public - in particular, the need for a photograph to accompany publicity, the very idea of which throws her into a deep panic. In `How to become a publicist', we are given an `inside' look at the colder machinations of the industry - a young woman fresh out of college, idealistic about her love of literature, seeks a job as an editor and settles for a position as a publicist. Her enthusiasm would seem to make her perfect for the position, but she soon finds herself ground down under the weight of the colder, `practical' aspects of the task - in a rare (for this collection) glimpse of the author's sense of humor, we witness the character announce her disdain for the catchphrases we see so often in press releases and book reviews (mea culpa - I've used plenty of them myself, and I don't even do this for a living). I'm tempted to declare this story `luminously mesmerizing', one of her `favorites'.

I'm certainly glad I read this book - Ms. Kane is immensely talented, and I look forward to seeing further work from her. I just hope that on her next outing she `homes in' on some more positive and uplifting characters or characteristics.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deft prose, deep feeling, July 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Bending Heaven: Stories (Hardcover)

Touching stories that take a simple yet elegant look at humanity's strengths and frailties. Each story finishes "just so", but the reader regrets the end, and wishes there were more to each story, and more stories to the book.

We eagerly await Ms. Kane's next offering!

5.0 out of 5 stars lovely, touching, beautifully written, November 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Bending Heaven: Stories (Hardcover)

I loved these stories. They are sad, and full of life, and don't make empty promises to the reader. Beautifully written, lovely, and touching. I look forward to more stories by Ms. Kane