Small claims [Hardcover]

Jill Ciment (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 197 pages
• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; 1st edition (1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555840000
• ISBN-13: 978-1555840006
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,424,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jill Ciment was born in Montreal, Canada. She is the author of Small Claims, a collection of short stories and novellas; The Law of Falling Bodies, Teeth of the Dog, The Tattoo Artist, and Heroic Measures, novels; and Half a Life, a memoir. She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts, a NEA Japan Fellowship Prize, two New York State Fellowships for the Arts, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Ciment is a professor at the University of Florida. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Gem of a Story, May 29, 2003

By 

vanishingpoint - See all my reviews

This review is from: Small claims (Hardcover)

Unfortunately this short story collection is out of print, but you can still find it here and on half.com. I hope you do find a copy, because it's worth your time.

Even though the second story "Astronomy" is the most well-known from this collection, I found the first one, "Self-Portrait with Vanishing Point," to be the most engaging. Told from a retrospective point of view of a little girl, this is as perfect as a story can get -- it's hilarious, heartbreaking, and has a whopper of a finish. Ciment's got a very deft humorous touch.

The rest of the stories are written in minimalistic prose, which I admit disappointed me somewhat, mostly because after reading "Self-Portrait," it was obvious Ciment has the ability to write startlingly rich, pointed prose. In comparison with the first story, the rest of the collection seemed too spare.

However, they are all equally funny as the first, if not funnier. The eponymous story is the longest and is laugh-out-loud hilarious. And the last section, "Money," is comprised of five stories, forming a novella of sorts. The ending of this section is a bit of a letdown (Ciment just kind of lets the story fizz out), but it's still a very strong set of stories, a marvelous debut.