Selected Stories [Paperback]

Shirley Ann Grau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2006

This magnificent summation of the short stories of Shirley Ann Grau, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, The Keepers of the House, gathers together eighteen gems ranking with the finest of Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. Grau possesses a range representing a master course in the craft of this most demanding art form. Her reader's banquet offers character sketches of Chekovian poignance and insight, a hilarious love story, excursions into the gothic and hauntingly apocalyptic, the elegiac and experimental, and stories that feel like compressed novels in their lapidary polish, depth, and emotional weight. Grau belongs in the company of the great southern short story writers, and the author's own choices of her best work remind readers of the unmatched capacity of the brief fictional form to depict character epiphany and such timeless themes as redemption and rebirth, the struggle between power and love, and the persistence of the past. AUTHOR BIO: Shirley Ann Grau grew up in Louisiana and Alabama and now divides her time between Metairie—a suburb of New Orleans—and Martha's Vineyard. She is the author of three previous collections of stories and five novels, including The House on Coliseum Street,The Hard Blue Sky, and Roadwalkers.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This collection of elegantly crafted short stories by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Grau (for The Keepers of the House, 1964) crackles with quiet intensity. Following in the footsteps of regional and thematic sisters Katherine Ann Porter, Flannery O'Connor, and Eudora Welty, she tackles the traditional subjects dear to a southern writer's heart. Handpicked by the author herself as most representative of her technique and sensibilities, these 18 tales tackle issues of race, class, power, love, loss, and salvation in an effectively understated fashion. Grau's tremendous powers of description, ability to conjure atmosphere, and impeccable prose elevate her to the top tier of American short story stylists. She may be unfamiliar to a lot of library fiction readers, but her gifts should be brought to the attention of any serious fiction appreciator. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr (September 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807132012
• ISBN-13: 978-0807132012
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,250,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mixed collection, April 2, 2004

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Selected Stories (Hardcover)

This is a collection of 18 short stories by the author. Like most collections, readers may like some stories and not others. Some stories may contain material offensive to some readers. The individual stories deal with a wide variety of characters, ranging from poor southern rural families to Yankee families with old money. Some stories deal with minorities. The individuals are placed in a variety of circumstances, e.g., "Home" deals with a lesbian relationship. Some stories deal with older people comtemplating death. Some stories are surreal. The story "Three" is a ghost story. The collection is not intended for a quick read. I read the stories over a period of several weeks, interspersing other reading between stories from this collection.