Trailer Girl: and Other Stories [Hardcover]

Terese Svoboda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2001

In piercing, unprettified prose, Terese Svoboda navigates the terrain of alienation and loss "I talk like a lady who knows what she wants" is how the vagrant begins her story in "Trailer Girl." As she struggles to rescue what she says is a wild girl hiding in the gully, the neighbors become more certain than ever that the child is imaginary-until there's a murder. Stark and disturbing, "Trailer Girl" is the story of cycles of child abuse and the dream to escape them. In "Psychic," a clairvoyant knows she's been hired by a murderer, in "Leadership" a tiny spaceship lands between a boy and his parents, in "Venice," a woman performs the Heimlich maneuver on an ex-husband, then flees by gondola, and in "White," a grandfather explains to his grandson how a family is like a collection of chicken parts. Frequently violent, always passionate, these often short short stories are full-strength, as strong and precise as poetry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the title novella of this collection of 14 otherwise short-short stories, Svoboda (Cannibal) tells the tale of a nameless woman, a survivor of foster homes and abuse. After a number of stays in mental institutions, she now lives in a filthy trailer park peopled by dropouts who are every bit as damaged as she is. The woman believes there is a wild child living in a gully near the trailer park but is this really true? Svoboda tends toward obfuscation and the reader is often left mystified, but the overall effect is compelling. Characters in the short stories really more like prose poems are shadowy personages difficult to pin down. The first story, "Sundress," is a prologue to the novella, in which a nameless girl and a creepy boy named Ernie move into a house by pretending to be relatives of the vacationing owners. "Polio" features a sitter who invents a game called chute: she drops a baby down a laundry chute and lets her other charges follow. Most interesting of the short pieces is "Psychic," in which a clairvoyant woman realizes she has been hired by a murderer, and uses her knowledge to wring a few extra dollars out of him. The language throughout is at once potent and oblique Svoboda has published three books of poetry and thus the allure lies less in the situations than in their strange telling. (Mar. 1) Forecast: Svoboda, sounding here like a cross between William S. Burroughs and Dorothy Allison, has been lauded in edgier venues like Spin and the Village Voice. While this may not be a mainstream hit, she could find an audience of more adventurous readers.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

It is hard to digest this much Svoboda (Cannibal, A Drink Called Paradise) in one sitting. Her poetic language is spare, disjointed, confusing, brilliant, and piercing, but her angst-filled tales are neither pleasant nor pretty. Hers is a dark world of vagrancy, abuse, drug addiction, and alcoholism, containing a litany of life's losers and wounded. For all the sometimes lovely images and unique turns of phrase, this is an acquired taste. The most accessible story of the collection's 15 stories is the bittersweet "Sundress," in which two elderly lost souls, unloved former foster children, spend their days searching for vacant homes in which they can pretend to play house for brief, blissful periods. "Trailer Girl," the linchpin novella, is overflowing with cruelty and hurt. The fates of brutalized, sexually abused Kate, her battered baby brother, and the little lost wild girl, elusive as a feral animal, haunt the story's fragile narrator, the Trash Lady, who feels their pain as if it were her own. This powerful cutting-edge literary fiction is recommended for specialized collections.DJo Manning, Barry Univ., Miami Shores, FL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582430853
• ISBN-13: 978-1582430850
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 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: #2,569,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Writing in the voice of God as I did in Tin God didn't seem like much of a stretch after being the eldest of nine children. We lived in a small town in southwest Nebraska with the smell of sage tumbleweeds and cattle feedlots. Although I've lived most of my adult life in NYC, I'm still haunted by home, a place that's now mostly in my head. But in NYC, I can travel without going anywhere. Eight languages are spoken on my block, including Chinese. For me, that's perfect--I can be surrounded by people I know but I can't understand a word they're saying. Although I've never been a pirate in 18th America, this year's Pirate Talk or Mermalade should reveal my interest in research. Even Henry Hudson believed in mermaids! Next year's Bohemian Girl will return to Nebraska, albeit 19th century Nebraska, with a spunky girl who escapes from the Indians.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars energetic, mysterious -- and funny, May 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Trailer Girl: and Other Stories (Hardcover)

The published reviews focus on how dark this book is, and indeed it is dark. But you cannot escape the humor that peppers the pain and keeps the book afloat. The title novella contains abuse, sorrow and madness, but the characters are so full of life and devoid of self-pity that you are taken with them, while still maintaining an observant distance. Svoboda is a poet, and her language here is sharp and vigorous. Her tales are about family and loss, told with a sharp eye and a sharper tongue. Each is like a shot of espresso -- a brief but complete experience, which you savor in reflection. For anyone who values power and economy in their fiction, this book will be a treat.