Little mad obsessions encased in precise prose make stories so startling you can t let go. Martin drags the psyche out of the dark cellars and closets into daylight. What happens is unsettling and weirdly beautiful in masochistic ways, like a gingerbread house with built-in gas ovens. Emotionally painful, iconoclastic, brilliant. Booklist
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Ms. Martin s trademarks: a preoccupation with the dark underside of life, a taste for disturbing, even macabre imagery . . . excursions into an unseen realm [of] strange and magical events . . . Martin possesses a sure storytelling gift, [an] ability to transform a myriad of specific details into larger, symbolic shapes. --The New York Times
Valerie Martin is one of those rare writers who understands the loss of traditional motives and order, but in her work never yields to the jumbled directionless excesses that tempt the modern fictioneer. Her stories are tight, bound with a tension that is as delicate as it is strong. And they are disturbing, unequivocal a voice that will stay with you for a long time. --Small Press Book Club
Few have written so surprisingly, so convincingly, as Valerie Martin about sexual obsession. . . . Prime reading! --Margaret Atwood
Valerie Martin is one of those rare writers who understands the loss of traditional motives and order, but in her work never yields to the jumbled directionless excesses that tempt the modern fictioneer. Her stories are tight, bound with a tension that is as delicate as it is strong. And they are disturbing, unequivocal a voice that will stay with you for a long time. --Small Press Book Club
Few have written so surprisingly, so convincingly, as Valerie Martin about sexual obsession. . . . Prime reading! --Margaret Atwood
About the Author
Valerie Martin, novelist and short story writer, was born in Sedalia, Missouri in 1948, but spent most of her childhood and young adult life in New Orleans. She attended the University of New Orleans and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she received an MFA in Creative Writing. Ms. Martin has taught at several universities, among them the University of New Orleans, New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Mt. Holyoke College.
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This review is from: Love: Short Stories (Paperback)
I love Valerie Martin. "A Recent Martyr" is one of my favorite novels, as is "Alexandria", and "The Great Divorce". When she writes from a male protagonist view, it's simply amazing, and much more nuanced and complex than one reading will make obvious. These stories, though, feel unfinished. Like sketches of masterpiece paintings or sculptures to come, these all feel like test drives of themes she would later (and honestly DID earlier, to much greater effect) expand upon. As glad as I am to have it, I'm even happier( I know, mixed whatever) for it not to be my introduction to her art. This book is more for readers already familiar with her work. A must have, however, for those that are.
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