Lithuania: Short Stories (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) [Paperback]

Joe Ashby Porter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1990 | Series: Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction

The author of "Eelgrass" and "The Kentucky Stories" now offers a collection of "mysterious and beautiful" (Lee Smith) stories, "as subtle, syntactically graceful, and beautiful as any I've seen" (Toby Olson).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In stories set in such diverse places as Tunisia, Quebec and Baltimore, Porter ( The Kentucky Stories ) conjures up quirky, gritty characters and surrounds them with evocative swatches of local color. The stories meander along, with no startling plot developments but with a delightfully wry realism. In "Basse Ville," a crusty old Canadian coot who fancies himself a painter searches for Sinbad, his missing parrot, and reflects on life, death and his wife ("What the hell, wonders of the universe probably only matter to you if you're about to kick off, so maybe it's all to the good for your wife not to bat an eye at them"). "West Baltimore" is the story of fat, semi-toothless Margaret, with her childhood memories, her present-day gossip and her fears that she will be evicted from her apartment as the neighborhood gentrifies. The only weak link in this excellent collection is "Attention, Shoppers," an overly arch riff on consumerism in the far future. But even this piece has its droll moments ("When I first slid my toots into those beauts Big Bird shoes and slid across the permaseal I felt more serene than Goethe ice-skating in the old picture").
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

In stories set in such diverse places as Tunisia, Quebec and Baltimore, Porter ( The Kentucky Stories ) conjures up quirky, gritty characters and surrounds them with evocative swatches of local color. The stories meander along, with no startling plot developments but with a delightfully wry realism. In "Basse Ville," a crusty old Canadian coot who fancies himself a painter searches for Sinbad, his missing parrot, and reflects on life, death and his wife ("What the hell, wonders of the universe probably only matter to you if you're about to kick off, so maybe it's all to the good for your wife not to bat an eye at them"). "West Baltimore" is the story of fat, semi-toothless Margaret, with her childhood memories, her present-day gossip and her fears that she will be evicted from her apartment as the neighborhood gentrifies. The only weak link in this excellent collection is "Attention, Shoppers," an overly arch riff on consumerism in the far future. But even this piece has its droll moments ("When I first slid my toots into those beauts Big Bird shoes and slid across the permaseal I felt more serene than Goethe ice-skating in the old picture")

(Publishers Weekly )

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; First edition. edition (October 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801840929
• ISBN-13: 978-0801840920
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,149,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting short stories having nothing to do with Lithuani, December 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Lithuania: Short Stories (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (Paperback)

I ordered this book thinking its short stories would be about Lithuania by a visitor, perhaps. Instead, the stories, while quite well written, are about the author's experiences in Baltimore, where some Lithuanians happen to cross paths, peripherally, with the author, and about his interactions with Arabs, here and in Africa -- which stories have a decided (I think) homosexual bent. Readers hoping for a travelogue about Lithuania are sure to be disappointed, if not annoyed, and might well ask for a refund.

1.0 out of 5 stars Winner, All-Time Dumbest title, December 30, 2009

By 

S.T.Martin (Bluehill, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lithuania: Short Stories (Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction) (Paperback)

This has got to take the prize for the dumbest title ever. The book has nothing to do with Lithuania. They are not Lithuanian short stories in translation. They are not Lithuanian short stories in inspiration.
True, the characters do meet some Lithuanians (more accurately, Americans of Lithuanian descent) in Baltimore, but ... that's it.