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Prayers of an Accidental Nature

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Di Blasi's Drought set up expectations that few authors can fulfill - including Di Blasi. In this collection, however, the author has shown herself willing to experiment with a variety of styles, willing to stretch herself.

Several of the stories are memorable - An Obscure Geography and I Am Telling You Lies - are examples. An Obscure Geography is set in the eighth grade in a poor rural community; the author captures some of the more obscure nature of the students. I Am Telling You Lies reveals how a Latin American student deals with his family expectations and his physical appearance.

Two of the stories are "short shorts" - Fog misses the mark for this form while Chairman of the Board succeeds.

All in all this collection is worth reading. Di Blasi is an author worth watching. I await the day this is labeled one of her "lesser" works for she has proven herself to be very talented.

"Sex doesn't equal love -- or does it? If it doesn't, then why do we expend so much energy on merging our bodies with others' while we so rarely connect in spirit? If it does, then why isn't sex enough to bind two people together against the world's insistence on ripping them apart? Such questions are among the chief preoccupations of ''Prayers of an Accidental Nature,'' Debra Di Blasi's arresting second book of fiction.... In clear, resonant prose, laced with bittersweet humor, Di Blasi imparts her understanding of love's multiple ironies.
--Zofia Smardz, New York Times Book Review, 08/15/1999

This book was the feature collection in the Women's Short Stories issue of The New York Times Book Review. The above is an excerpt.