"It takes a long time to see you are a slave, " muses one character in Aurelie Sheehan's first collection of stories - lyrical, sometimes bitingly funny chronicles of women breaking out of imposed roles. Here are the dreams of misplaced waitresses, prostitutes and other working girls, the survival techniques of secretaries too smart to take orders. In the title story, a woman yearns to be like Jack Kerouac, but is held back by a litany of rules teaching her to be a submissive girl, a "pansy." The main character in "Look at the Moon" is bored to distraction by her receptionist job but is still half under the influence of a Catholic upbringing when she hooks up with a flamboyant stranger and goes on a life-altering road trip with her. In "The Dove, " a wealthy widow who was pressured by her family to marry a rich man spends her life fixated on an affair she had a week before her wedding. Women young and old, rich and poor, make soul-threatening sacrifices to adhere to societal or familial strictures. Love is passionately evoked here, as are the myths and illusions that sustain it. Sheehan uses narrative elements poetically: these kaleidoscopic stories subvert the linear notion of storytelling, creating momentum and effect instead through ellipses, layering and contrast. Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant is the impressive debut of a beguiling, assured writer.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
A playful, cynical short story collection about people attempting to break from imposed roles. The title story describes a pregnant woman whose wish is to be "on the road" like the famous poet, but as a self-professed pansy, she instead lives her life like a manual: "How to Go on a Date," "How to Make Love to Your Husband." Other stories include a woman who marries well, but spends her life obsessing about the affair she had a week before her wedding and a bored receptionist pulled out of her rut and Catholic upbringing by a flamboyant stranger.
From Publishers Weekly
Sheehan's first book is comprised of 15 short stories that are-without exception-artful yet disappointingly indistinct. In "The Roller Skating Queen," a young woman forgets her troubles (that her child was fathered by her mother's boyfriend, for instance) by spending long hours skating in Central Park. "The Bone Man" concerns Scarlett, a Latin American fortune-teller named after the famous southern belle; moving to New York, she finds her father, who abandoned her and her mother when she was a child. A women in "Twin" mourns the death of her twin brother in the army. Sheehan's talents are evident but so are her faults: her style leans toward minimalism with chillingly detached imagery-and this isn't as felicitous a combination as it might seem. Because she largely withholds narrative and emotional context, her protagonists melt in the mind into one distraught Uber-character, a young woman struggling through life with troubling relations with men who seem to care only about shaking her off or knocking her up. For all the evident art, there isn't much complexity here.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
Aurelie Sheehan is the author of two novels, History Lesson for Girls and The Anxiety of Everyday Objects, as well as a short story collection, Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant. She teaches fiction and directs the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Non-linear, poetic, and arresting.,
By
This review is from: Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant (Paperback)
"It takes a long time to see you are a slave," muses one character in Aurelie Sheehan's debut collection, a line that succinctly captures the cumulative effect of her stories. These lyrical, sometimes bitingly funny chronicles of women breaking out of imposed roles feature misplaced waitresses, secretaries, prostitutes, and other working girls. In the title story, a woman yearns to be like Jack Kerouac, but is held back by a litany of rules teaching her to be a submissive girl, a "pansy." The main character in "Look at the Moon" is bored to distraction by her receptionist job but is still half under the influence of a Catholic upbringing when she hooks up with a flamboyant stranger and goes on a life-altering road trip with her. In "The Dove," a wealthy widow who was pressured by her family to marry a rich man spends her life fixated on an affair she had a week before her wedding. Women young and old, rich and poor, make soul-threatening sacrifices to adhere to societal or familial strictures. Love is passionately evoked here, as are the myths and illusions that sustain it. Non-linear, poetic, and arresting, Sheehan's storytelling skills ring with the authority of honesty, compassion, and experience.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Avante-Garde Prose Manifests,
This review is from: Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant: Stories (Hardcover)
I applaude Jack Kerouac is Pregnant for a variety of reasons. The sarcastic, wry wit that gleams through the pages is evident after obvious examination. And the incredible, massive madness that seeps through the corners of the deliriously delightful assortment of plays. Carry on, Aurelie Sheehan. Be great.
2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Sloppy, disconnected, and dull.,
By "qwertyrama" (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant: Stories (Hardcover)
Ah for the days of a linear plot and a novel that is not so self indulgent it blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction by being neither. Such is Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant, an amateur outing that rides soley on its clever title.
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Saint Clare, New York, Lost Duchess, Mark Braun, Uncle Mercado, United States, New Haven, Señor Perez, Aunt Centina, Madame Lisa, Maggie Cross, Samantha Brown, Saint Christopher, Señorita Ventura New!
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Saint Clare, New York, Lost Duchess, Mark Braun, Uncle Mercado, United States, New Haven, Señor Perez, Aunt Centina, Madame Lisa, Maggie Cross, Samantha Brown, Saint Christopher, Señorita Ventura New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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2
books
cite this book:
- Present Tense--Writing and Art by Young Women: Edited by the CALYX Young Women's Editorial Collective by Micki Reaman et al. in Back Matter
- Alice Redux: New Stories of Alice, Lewis and Wonderland by Richard Peabody on page 70
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