Honeymoon and Other Stories [Hardcover]

Kevin Canty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2001

Kevin Canty is a master of the short story, a writer whose work has been compared to that of Flannery O'Connor and Raymond Carver, but always with the understanding that Canty's is strikingly new, cool, and real. Now in Honeymoon, after two novels, Kevin Canty returns to short fiction, his first collection since his debut A Stranger in this World, a book that was hailed as "Superb: These tautly structured stories breathe with sharp, distilled intelligence."

Honeymoon is a book about love, about lovers and would-be lovers exploring unlikely alliances, all of them toeing a certain eventful edge, a decision between rational restraint and something altogether different. In the title story, a man leaves his lover's wedding with the bride's ex-girlfriend; in "Flipper" a young escapee from "fat camp" discovers a different kind of hunger while enjoying a pregnant teen's gifts of forbidden chocolate; in "Aquarium," a thirty-eight-year old woman who claims to "follow the straight and narrow" tries to resist seducing her fifteen-year-old nephew again.

Revealing the hidden longings and quirky needs of both men and women with a tough sensitivity and deep, sometimes biting humor, Honeymoon presents a masterful writer purely at home in his form, yet continuing to push himself and his stories to their limits with enthusiasm and daring.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The distinctive, idiosyncratic voices of antiheroes floundering in a world dissolving around them distinguish the 11 tersely lyrical stories of Canty's second short story collection. At the beginning of "Aquarium," 38-year-old Olive is in Seattle visiting her nephew who has been caught once again using heroin. They continue an affair, though Olive knows better. "[S]he can practically recite from therapy: It's OK to have this feeling... it's never OK to act." This, Olive thinks, is the secret of adult life, "the secret to OKness." The most successful stories here are about characters, like the protagonist of Canty's novel Into the Great Wide Open, who are painfully learning that being an adult requires pretense. In "Flipper," a fat kid escapes from fat camp and meets a pregnant teenager whose gift of chocolate provokes a larger hunger in him. In "Carolina Beach," Vincent, divorced, and Laurie, dying of cancer, go to a seaside resort seeking a respite from lives in which affection is something read about in a magazine. "Red Dress" is narrated by an 11-year-old who is tired of listening to "the oceanic hubbub below" at his parents' frequent parties and promotes himself to bartender. Then he gets that predictable unbidden glimpse and understands the "assertion of normalcy" behind his mother's casual, dry kisses on the top of his head. Cool, quick and brutal, these stories gives the lie to the heavy realities they chronicle, swooping deftly along a well-honed razor's edge.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is Canty's second short-story collection, after A Stranger in This World: Stories (LJ 8/94). In Canty's terse, revealing tales, something always happens, with inevitable results. "Carolina Beach," an excellent vignette drenched in sadness, limns the story of a woman who may die of cancer and the man who wants to love her. "Red Dress" highlights an adolescent boy who sees his mother, with whom he never connects, change from housewife to glamorous hostess at the parties his parents give. "Flipper" explores the growing pains of a young boy who is sent to a "fatties" camp and is educated in unexpected ways. In the title story, "Honeymoon," when an ex-boyfriend and lesbian girlfriend leave their traitorous friend's wedding, sparks fly and solace comes in alcohol and the great outdoors. These are provocative stories of characters ungrounded, strangers to others and themselves, written with an honesty and in-your-face realism that can take your breath away. Recommended for all libraries with contemporary fiction collections. Mary Szczesiul, Roseville P.L., MI
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese; 1st edition (April 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385491611
• ISBN-13: 978-0385491617
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,326,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He only gets better with age!!!!!!!!!, April 24, 2001

By 

"gardini23" (DeKalb, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honeymoon and Other Stories (Hardcover)

What can I say about Kevin? His prose is menacing, his ideas like spider-webs, all things come and go from a certain point, but there is no telling where that character will end up in between each adventure. These stories represent what is to me, the best collection since ...; Canty's hard-hitting athletic prose will grab and pull you in. Absolutely amazing. I just don't know what to say. Every story was equally good, but I if I had to choose, I would say that "Little Palaces" and "Red Dress" were the best. All I can say is, if you like Canty's work, this is by far his best book yet. Buy it and then buy another to give to someone you love. A wonderful piece of art from a master of the short story form. I can't wait for more, be it a novel or a collection. Congrats Kevin and keep up the good work.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, January 4, 2002

By 

Jon Groebner (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honeymoon and Other Stories (Hardcover)

Reading Kevin Canty, you know the world is an uneasy, dangerous place, and people are peculiar, jumpy beings. The stories in Honeymoon show what's behind the mask. It's a familiar world, you think. It's also a deeply unfamiliar world. The writing is exhilarating the way the best fiction is. Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Winesburg, Ohio" for our time, May 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Honeymoon and Other Stories (Hardcover)

Kevin Canty's style couldn't be more different from Sherwood Anderson's c. 1919 collection "Winesburg, Ohio," but that is the comparison that has stuck in my mind since reading "Honeymoon." Which is to say--"Honeymoon" will be a classic. These characters have secrets, they experience the kind of "adventures" that Anderson's characters do--i.e. the kind of adventure you can't tell anyone about afterward, either because it reveals too much about you or it's simply too difficult to find the words. I'll just say: Kevin Canty finds the words. Read this book! (Then reread "Winesburg, Ohio.")