Mendocino and Other Stories [Paperback]

Ann Packer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 2003

With humor, wisdom and tenderness, Ann Packer offers ten short stories about women and men--wives and husbands, sisters and brothers, daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, friends, and lovers--who discover that life's greatest surprises may be found in that which is most familiar.

In the title story, on the anniversary of their father's suicide a young woman discovers that her brother may have found a "reason for living" in the love of a good woman.  In "Nerves," a young man realizes that the wife he is separated from no longer loves him but that it is his own life he misses, not her.  The narrator of "My Mother's Yellow Dress" is a gay man remembering his deceased mother and their vital and troubling intimacy.  In "Babies"--which was included in the prestigious O. Henry anthology series --a single woman in her mid-thirties finds that everyone, including her best friend at work, is pregnant, and that their joy can only be observed, not shared.  In these and six other stories, Ann Packer exhibits an unerring eye for the small ways in which people reveal themselves and for the moments in which lives may be transformed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Packer's stories feature 30-something men and women who wake up one morning to find their lives have taken quite unexpected, and not really desirable, turns. In "Babies," unmarried Virginia pines away on the sidelines as her co-workers blossom into long-awaited pregnancies. Finally, when her good friend Sam gives birth, Virginia visits the new mother and baby and must face her deep longing for a child: "A real baby. I touch her cheek; it's so incredibly soft and pink and warm . . . I can feel the warmth of her body . . . all the way to my breast . . . there are tears rolling down my face." Packer draws the reader into the frustrating stalemates that engulf her characters, but she is not afraid to inject a bit of gentle humor along the way. Hypochrondriac Charlie ("Nerves"), who can't seem to develop any enthusiasm for living, is losing his wife little by little. Perhaps her friend Kiro is the reason. "This is all about Kiro? Jesus, Linda--too bad I'm not some fastidious little Japanese architect, is that it? He probably doesn't even have any hair on his chest." The stories are rich in detail and concentrate on the unexpressed emotions festering under the surface of each character's thin skin. Mendocino is a find, and Packer gives voice to the angst of the '90s.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Packer's debut collection of ten stories previously published in the New Yorker, Ploughshares, Prize Stories 1992: The O. Henry Awards, etc., reveals a sharp eye for the myriad ways humans deceive themselves, though her humor can be smothered by her 30- ish, middle-class protagonists' very prosaic lives. In ``Mendocino,'' a single woman visiting her brother and his irritating Northern California girlfriend is forced to confront the end of their shared childhood and the beginning of her sibling's life as a man. ``Nerves'' shows a New Yorker transplanted to San Francisco licking his wounds after his wife abandons him for her boss. In ``Babies,'' an unmarried advertising copywriter's growing case of baby lust overwhelms her professional and personal lives. The narrator of ``Horse'' recalls her attempt the year her father died to transform herself from a brainy, introverted ninth-grader into a popular pompom girl. The characters in these and Packer's other six stories tend toward the earnest and serious, although their attention to routine often blinds them to the subterranean feelings that ultimately redirect their lives. In her strongest pieces--including ``Mendocino,'' ``Horse,'' and ``The Glass House,'' in which a newlywed obsesses over the suicide of her home's previous owner--Packer's clear, steady prose peels back surface layers to reveal the mechanisms behind pain and sadness. Her few weaker tales--``Ninety,'' a chronicle of the traditional outdoor birthday bash thrown for an elderly man by his family; and ``Hightops,'' in which a young drifter witnesses the dissolution of his friends' marriage--never manage to reveal the human emotions underneath inconsequential conversation. Still, often arresting, in spite of the bland surroundings. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140003163X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400031634
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #860,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relationships Redux, May 17, 2003

By 

Haley Parnham (NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mendocino and Other Stories (Paperback)

Ann Packer has assembled a natty group of ten stories that will thoroughly please the innocent voyeur within you. She takes you into the homes, minds, and hearts of her characters and introduces you to their environment, thoughts, and feelings. Her characters are real and likable.

I have a certain affinity for the short story that lets me eavesdrop on the lives of others, and these fit the bill in every way. Most of them take place in the San Francisco area and if you have ever visited you may be reminiscent of your time spent there and even yearn to return again.

Other than relationships, there is no true formula to these stories, and that's a good thing! "Ninety" is about the curmudgeonly Papa Louie's 90th birthday, his daughters and their families. "Lightning" describes a childless couple who take in a pregnant girl before they adopt her baby. "My Mother's Yellow Dress" describes a gay man's memories of his parents' marriage and his relationship with his mother. All unique, all excellent reads.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ann Packer is back with a collection that will enchant you, February 10, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mendocino and Other Stories (Paperback)

Ann Packer's stories are like gourmet mashed potatoes --- ordinary, everyday material, transformed to quintessence by a masterful hand. This volume is a reissue by Vintage of a previous (1994) collection, ten stories gathered from already-published sources and printed under the name of the title story, MENDOCINO. Readers who were first introduced to Ms. Packer by the success of last year's novel, THE DIVE FROM CLAUSEN'S PIER, will be glad to have this opportunity to read more of her fiction.

She writes with deceptive ease, most often lulling the reader into a sort of warmish, homey daze. That is, until she zaps you with the powerful insight that is the hallmark of all her work. Her perception of the human condition is an even greater gift than her pure writing ability --- and she has both qualities in abundance. Reading a Packer story is both as exhausting and rewarding as long-anticipated family visits.

She writes of relationships --- not only the relationships of one person to another, but also of that deeper and more difficult to acknowledge relationship: the one we each have with ourselves. There is no better example of both than her lead story, "Mendocino."

The second story of the ten, "Nerves," leans somewhat more in the direction of the second type of relationship and the unveiling of this truth is excruciatingly, exquisitely paced.

My personal favorite of all the stories is "Lightening" because it is both somewhat more complex than the others and, for me anyway, the zappiest.

I am not copping out as a reviewer here when I say that each and every one of the ten stories in this volume is so densely woven and of such intense construction that I would do both the author and the reader a disservice if I were to try to say what each story "is about." Nor am I being too tongue-in-cheek when I say that each story is approximately five thousand words. There are no plots to reveal as such, not like in a novel. Each story recounts incidents in the lives of the characters and places them in a chosen setting. Do we need to know that about half the stories take place in Northern California, while the rest are on the East Coast or in the Midwest? Not really, because it's the inner landscape that matters to Ann Packer.

Read, enjoy and learn from her. I can't really tell you about it. You'll have to see for yourself, in the same way that you have to eat the master chef's mashed potatoes to experience the magnitude of that difference.

--- Reviewed by Ava Dianne Day

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonder collection by Ms. Packer!, December 14, 2004

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mendocino and Other Stories (Paperback)

Having read and loved The Dive from Clausen's Pier, I couldn't wait to read another Ann Packer book. I am glad that I stumbled upon this great collection of short stories. Mendocino and Other Stories centers on the abrupt and unsettling changes in the lives of various thirty-something-year-old men and women. Packer writes about parenthood, loss and other storylines that are both funny and poignant at the same time. I admit that I had a difficult time getting into some of the stories and abandoned them altogether at the end because the author tended to drag out the plot, but there were others that I loved. My favorites are "Babies," "Horse," and "My Mother's Yellow Dress." This isn't the best short-story collection I have read and this work does not exceed Packer's The Dive from Clausen's Pier. Yet this book possesses some wonderful stories and great passages. I recommend Mendocino and Other Stories.