Make Me Work: Stories [Paperback]

Ralph Lombreglia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

With truth, wit, and a masterful high style, Lombreglia captures a varied cast of quirky characters who, with awkwardness, humor, and sometimes grace, struggle with tensions between creativity and commercialism, technology and humanity, alienation and connection.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nine engaging short stories by the author of Men Under Water show thoughtful, conflicted protagonists striving for equilibrium in their personal relationships and finding hints of meaning in the acutely perceived oddities of contemporary American life. Living primarily on the fringes of academia, media and the arts, the characters are not quite comfortable with either their surroundings or the times. Lisa, a classic-rock disc jockey in small-town Vermont, plays blues songs to get over her ex-husband, an Elvis fanatic. Walter, an actor by trade, writes copy for industrial videos in Boston and discovers the miracle of birth against a backdrop of high-tech laser pranks. Karl, a moderately famous composer back in the 1950s, now labors over a piece inspired by his heart arrhythmia and grumbles as his young protegee/lover heads to New York to pursue performance art. Hoping to escape her drug-addicted son and head for Florida, Josephine buries an icon of St. Joseph in her lawn to expedite the sale of her house. Although he sometimes overdoes the '60s nostalgia, Lombreglia combines a sharp eye for weird, resonant detail with a fluid, understated narrative style to achieve work that is both serious and farcical, outlandish and immediate.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In Men Under Water ( LJ 3/15/90), Lombreglia exhibited a sharp pen that cut straight to the heart of a matter and an equally keen wit that viewed each situation and its participants with wry humor. The nine stories in this volume follow the same pattern, focusing on slightly quirky people adding their own interpretations to everyday life. In "Late Early Man," a video producer finishes up a rush project while keeping in touch by cellular phone as his wife gives birth in the back seat of a Bonneville on the way to the hospital. The title story shows two feuding friends reconciled by a haircut, although a good Italian meal sets them up to begin again. Best of all is "Can You Dance to It?" in which three philosophy professors contemplate saving a colleague from deportation by marrying her. At once offbeat and serious, these wonderful stories cannot fail to charm the reader.
- Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. at Carbondale Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140242228
• ISBN-13: 978-0140242225
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,639,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a wonderful book., April 23, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Make Me Work: Stories (Paperback)

Lombreglia's work is always a gret joy to read. The characters are both contemporary and timeless. The situations to painfully familiar. The seemingly tragic transcends into hope at the mot unexpected times, floating and wobbling from despair to some uncertain but glorious future. Although the style is very different, the eternal hopefulness in a land of despair is very reminiscent of Nabokov