Imagine a Woman: and Other Tales [Paperback]

Richard Selzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 1996

A widow becomes obsessed with the desire to once again hear her dead husband's heart, which has been harvested and transplanted into the body of another man ("Whither Thou Goest"). A mother descends into a cave in search of her autistic son, who suffers the gift and curse of vespertilian powers of perception ("Pipistrel"). After the death of the wife he no longer loves, a retired professor of archeology tries to suffocate himself in a bog("Lindow Man"). A scavenger finds treasure—a radioactive disk he believes to be a fallen star even as it kills him ("Luis"). The doctor who attends the death of Edgar Allen Poe completes the story fragment the great author has left him, the tale of a young nobleman who, enslaved to the compulsive, ritualistic demands of Tourette's Syndrome, is stranded in a lighthouse with a stranger who may or may not be deaf ("Poe's Lighthouse"). A woman chronicles the last days of her death from AIDS in a small French village ("Imagine A Woman").  
     Stories of sweetness and light these are not; but those with a taste for the truly suspenseful and horrific need go no farther than these inventive, disturbing tales by a master of the genre.

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his previous works, both fiction ( Rituals of Surgery ) and nonfiction ( Taking the World in for Repairs ) surgeon Selzer has proved a perceptive observer of the psychological pressures caused by illness and of a physician's response to the stresses of his profession. The six stories here deal only tangentially with medicine; though the characters range from a woman dying of AIDS to the widow of a man whose heart was donated at his death, it is their emotional health on which Selzer focuses. In most of these tales, his characters' bodies and minds are in a fevered state, investing them with a heightened emotional vulnerability and a sensitivity verging on the supernatural. The two most successful stories, "Imagine a Woman" and "Poe's Light-house" are related in journal form, in precise, evocative language. Even when his plots are a bit overwrought, Selzer holds the reader mesmerized with descriptions in minute detail: a peat bog with its flora and fauna, and of a man drowning in its embrace ("Lindow Man"); a cave in which "the whole ceiling began to billow like a tent," from a fluttering horde of bats that sweeps past a woman seeking her autistic son who has taken refuge there ("Pipistrel"). His description of a festering dump, as "an endless evacuation of the waste of a city" grasps the imagination as Selzer fictionalizes a true incident involving a Brazilian scavenger poisoned by radioactive medical waste, creating a parable of the tragic dichotomy between the high-minded ideals of science and the ignorance resulting from poverty. In widening his range of subject, Selzer proves himself a truly talented practitioner of the storyteller's art.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

The six stories in this collection range from bizarrely poignant to wistful and disturbing. In "Whither Thou Goest," a widow tries to come to terms with the loss of her husband by seeking out the reassuring rhythm of his transplanted heart. "Pipistrel" is the oddly absorbing story of an autistic boy whose unusual abilities lead him to a tragic metamorphosis. The final story, "Imagine a Woman," is conveyed through the journal of a woman dying from AIDS who spends her last year in a small French village exploring new wellsprings of being. The writing here is Selzer at his most inventive and entertaining. "Imagine a Woman" is an especially fine and moving story and is yet another example of Selzer's mastery of the short story genre. Highly recommended.
- Francis Poole, Univ. of Delaware Lib., Newark
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: Michigan State University Press (April 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870134582
• ISBN-13: 978-0870134586
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,755,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant and Entirely Memorable, August 24, 2004

By 

C. Deschamps (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imagine a Woman: and Other Tales (Paperback)

I read "Imagine a Woman" ten years ago. Its stories still haunt me today. I find myself pondering "Poe's Lighthouse" and "Linder Man" at the strangest times. Seltzer brings a depth of humanity and emotion to his stories that I am powerless to describe. Each story is so very original, so very intimate. I cannot recommend this collection highly enough. Read it. You won't regret it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imagine if this book had readers, December 29, 2003

By 

Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imagine a Woman and Other Tales (Hardcover)

This series of short stories literally sparkle and overflow with emotion, yet the writing is tempered, measured and always intelligent. What I liked best were the quirky plots and the still quirkier people. But quirky should not imply "funny" - these tales contain sadness, depth and heartbreak. "Lindow Man" is one of the best - an archeologist is studying a recovered body from the bogs, a prehistoric man, when he meets his future wife. Upon marriage she becomes ill and dies. He is drawn to the bog and attempts suicide only to choose life at the last moment. "Pipistrel" is also a tour de force. A boy who has sonar abilities (like a bat) enters a cave and his mother goes in after him...eerie but satisfying.

There is an art to writing short stories and make them both interesting and "complete". Richard Selzer has perfected this style of writing into an artform. Highly recommended.