Referred Pain and Other Stories [Hardcover]

Lynn Sharon Schwartz (Author), Lynne Sharon Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1582433011 | ISBN-13: 978-1582433011 | Publication Date: February 17, 2004

From one of our ablest chroniclers of marriage, middle age, and urban myth, a collection of stories that subverts the standard domestic drama with an outrageousness that mixes tragedy with black humor. . In Referred Pain Lynne Sharon Schwartz surpasses her reputation as a scrupulous stylist who writes with both passion and discipline. Here, as in her earlier collections, the stories, whether realistic or fanciful, are distinguished by their intensity and their impeccable attention to the nuances of language. Her characters confront inner demons, playing out fantasies they crave and dread. On the surface, they are living ordinary lives, but Schwartz reveals their subversions and perversions with wicked wit and psychological acuity. In the title novella, Koslowski, beset by a kind of survivor's guilt, insists to the point of absurdity that his elaborate dental work is emblematic of his immigrant parents' suffering in a German concentration camp and in the siege of Leningrad. In "Francesca," a mild professor finds himself calmly contemplating incest. In "Hostages of Fortune," a seemingly conventional couple live out an extended fantasy of raising two imaginary children. In "Sightings of Loretta," a journalist realizes he has spent years pursuing a chimerical, unfulfilled romance, while oblivious to his own wife. Several of the stories take place in the surreal realm of fantasy itself. Schwartz, an award-winning writer, has been lauded for her precisely observed domestic dramas and comedies and described as having an anthropologist's eye for her characters and their stories. This collection will give further resonance to her already distinguished literary reputation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the unsettling title novella of Schwartz's latest collection of stories, the deluded son of Holocaust survivors feels that he can finally understand the anguish his parents have experienced when he undergoes a series of difficult dental procedures. As the title implies, his pain is experienced indirectly, and Schwartz's metaphor emerges periodically in these 12 stories about vulnerable characters in uneasy situations. Schwartz (Disturbances in the Field; Leaving Brooklyn; etc.), has an uncanny ear for dialogue and a lucid prose style that is by turns comic, surreal and biting, but difficult to categorize. In the clever but not sterile postmodern "Intrusions," she tells of a woman's encounter with an intruder in her apartment building, only to deconstruct the narrative and retell it in a different way. The least rewarding works in the collection are "The Stone Master" and "Deadly Nightshade," which read like contrived, overextended fables. Schwartz's talents are better displayed in stories that bravely mine difficult truths: in "Francesca," a professor finds himself attracted to a student who turns out to be his long-lost daughter, and in "Hostages to Fortune," a middle-aged couple bicker over their two grown children's fates in increasingly abstract terms as the story builds to a startling, ambiguous conclusion. In "Sightings of Loretta," a widower comes to the crushing realization that he never paid enough attention to his wife: "He sat on the bed with horror seeping through him. He was ready to pay attention now. There were questions he needed to ask." With precise economy, Schwartz makes her characters' pain both familiar and felt.
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From Booklist

Schwartz is the author of 14 works of fiction and nonfiction, but never before has she so fully disclosed both her incisive use of language and penetrating understanding of the human psyche as in this collection of eerie short stories. Life appears to be oppressively normal as Schwartz establishes typical domestic situations, but things quickly take a turn toward the weird as characters struggle against insidious forces that prevent them from doing what they need and want to do. As situations grow strange and characters strive to find explanations for the inexplicable, Schwartz enters Kafka's nightmarish realm and crafts fables that reach archetypal depths. In the mesmerizing title story, for example, the musician son of survivors of the siege of Leningrad and German concentration camps sees his girlfriend go off to Bosnia to work with rape victims. He struggles to legitimize his easy existence in light of these "aristocrats of pain," and ends up suffering a series of disastrous dental procedures complicated by "referred pain," that is, pain whose source is other than it appears. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint Press (February 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582433011
• ISBN-13: 978-1582433011
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,694,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Secrets, games, conversations in our heads, April 27, 2004

By 

Patricia Kramer (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Referred Pain and Other Stories (Hardcover)

The stories in this book open the window to the characters' minds. They live their public lives but we are allowed to share the private lives and their attempts to live with and avoid pain.

As always Lynne Sharon Schwartz's writing shines. Not a word is wasted. My favorite story was Deadly Nightshade. It is about a woman who breaks with the grandparents' warnings and dares to eat a "poisonous" tomato. "Nothing she did in later years came close to the elation of that single act of abandon. She was a daring woman who found no more opportunities for daring, or for the kind of daring peculiar to her, which was biting into the perilous unknown and letting it travel through her."

This was a short simple story which illustrates the book's theme of people living their lives wanting more of life but not being able to grab the brass ring for that second chance.

The stories will linger in your mind.

4.0 out of 5 stars Some great stories, some not so great, July 29, 2005

By 

J. Rosenberg "reggieroy" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Referred Pain and Other Stories (Hardcover)

I loved the title story in this collection. Everything in it worked toward the perfect culmination. Some of the other stories fell a bit flat, and the ones that leaned toward the "experimental," only a couple, were not my cup of tea. Overall a very satisfying read.