From the drifting sand dunes and quaint shops of Provincetown to Nantucket's white-washed verandas and craggy beaches, Cape Cod Stories captures all of the rustic beauty and history of this picturesque area in the words of America's best writers. Revel in the musings of Kurt Vonnegut on Hyannis Port, Sylvia Plath on tide pool mussel hunting, and Helen Keller on her first whiff of salty sea air; relive the adventures of Herman Melville in "Nantucket," or brave John Cheever's depressing version of summer romance, "The Chaste Clarissa." Including these and other writers, this hearty anthology will inspire both travelers and readers to immerse themselves in the most outstanding writing of one of New England's most venerable resort destinations.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
With its images of water, sand, boats, architecture, narrow roads, weather and people, this anthology's selections successfully evoke the physical and cultural reality of Cape Cod. John Updike, Norman Mailer, Edgar Allan Poe and 23 others offer a variety of short stories, poems, novel excerpts and journal entries-even a seafood recipe. Written anytime from from the mid-19th century to the present, the pieces describe a number of locales. Herman Melville portrays Nantucket; Helen Keller remembers Brewster mostly for the smell and the rough, terrifying feel of the ocean; and Kurt Vonnegut's story of Hyannis Port is an amusing account of an eccentric neighbor of the Kennedy family. Landmarks like the Highland Light and the Provincetown Players are described by Thoreau and Arturo Vivante, respectively, while Sylvia Plath describes mussel hunting, Edmund Wilson recalls visiting fishermen's traps and Updike pays homage to the more prosaic joys of going barefoot. Not everything is still there or still in the rustic state writers like Paul Theroux remembers when he says: "For purely homely summer fun there is nowhere in the world that I know that can touch it."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
Alice Hoffman is the author ov Practical Magic.
John Miller has edited a number of intriguing anthologies for Chronicle Books, including Lust and White Rabbit. He runs Big Fish Books, a packaging company in San Francisco.
Tim Smith is a San Francisco-based writer and co-editor, with John Miller, of several anthologies.
John Miller has edited a number of intriguing anthologies for Chronicle Books, including Lust and White Rabbit. He runs Big Fish Books, a packaging company in San Francisco.
Tim Smith is a San Francisco-based writer and co-editor, with John Miller, of several anthologies.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good stories that could take place anywhere.,
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This review is from: Cape Cod Stories: Tales from Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard (Paperback)
I first read San Francisco Stories (also edited by John Miller), and I was so impressed that I bought the other available books in this series. Unfortunately, where San Francisco Stories gave me a feeling of a particular place, Cape Cod Stories left me with the feeling that I could be reading about any summer vacation destination on the upper Atlantic. The first half of the book, with long entries by Norman Mailer and John Cheever, left me feeling like I was reading good fiction that just happened to be set in the Cape Cod area. The latter half of the book gives a much better feeling of a particular place. Unlike San Francisco Stories, which were primarily personal essays and historical accounts, the Cape Cod selections are primarily short fiction. All of the stories are interesting, but they seem to run together. There are few older selections; Henry David Thoreau's description of the Highland Light is the best, but seems brief. The collection also includes a few gems, including Helen Keller's description of her first "swim" in the ocean. My only complaint with the editorial selection is placing "Summertime on the Cape," by Paul Theroux, at the end of the collection, rather than at the beginning. More than the others, his essay gives a needed description of the area, and provides a sense of place. I should note that I have never been to Cape Cod. Someone who frequents the area may feel that this collection captures the mood of the Cape, even if it fails to provide much background for strangers.
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