Twenty Grand: And Other Tales of Love and Money (P.S.) [Paperback]

Rebecca Curtis (Author)

Book Description

Series: P.S. | Publication Date: July 3, 2007

In this dazzling literary debut, Rebecca Curtis displays the gifts that make her one of the most talented writers of her generation. Her characters—young women struggling to find happiness, love, success, security, and adventure—wait tables, run away from home, fall for married men, betray their friends, and find themselves betrayed as well.

In "Hungry Self," a young waitress descends into the basement of a seemingly ordinary Chinese restaurant; in "Twenty Grand," a young wife tries to recover her lost fortune; in "Monsters," one family's paranoia leads to a sacrifice; and in "The Witches," an innocent swim on prom night proves more dangerous than anyone could have imagined. With elegant prose and a wicked sense of humor, these stories reveal Curtis's provocative and uncompromising view of life, one that makes her writing so poignant and irresistible.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mostly female loners, outsiders and have-nots populate this marvelous, bleak debut collection. A young woman extracts herself from an overly insistent blind date who violates her privacy in Big Bear, California, only to find her usual certainty shaken years later by the memory of his grasping, petulant behavior. In Summer, with Twins, a college-age woman waitressing during the break wavers in declining her greasy boss's indecent proposal, perpetuating a crisis of self-worth that reverberates through her tenuous summer friendships. Among the 13 pieces, surreal vignettes serve as a taut, dramatic counterpart to the more straightforward narratives: The Wolf at the Door in particular has a being-chased-in-your-dreams feel of danger and terror, as a woman battles to keep an anthropomorphic wolf from entering her house, until he asks her to open the door and her sister insists that she do so, saying, it's polite! Delving into extremes of monotonous oppression, Curtis describes a reality that must be endured: her characters cling fiercely to their rationalizations, but even the more avaricious are sympathetic. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Rebecca Curtis is one of the most exciting practitioners of this most difficult form in America today.” (George Saunders )

“Marvelous. . . . Delving into extremes of monotonous oppression, Curtis describes a reality that must be endured.” (Publishers Weekly )

“An instant classic. . . . Rebecca Curtis is a hugely talented writer.” (The Village Voice )

“Gorgeous. . . . Vivid imagery suffused with longing: The stories in Rebecca Curtis’ Twenty Grand are satisfingly bittersweet.” (The Los Angeles Times )

“A book as delightful as it is disturbing.” (Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (July 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061173096
• ISBN-13: 978-0061173097
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #716,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, July 16, 2007

By 

A Reader (Lawrence, KS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twenty Grand: And Other Tales of Love and Money (P.S.) (Paperback)

These are some of the strangest and bravest stories I have read. They completely broke my heart. There is so much honesty, anger, and compassion here. The characters are very compelling and Curtis brings them to such dangerous places, I could not stop reading--in that way, the book felt more like a novel than stories. And the writing is fantastic--funny, surprising, sad.

Clearly a writer of exceptional talent.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Promising Debut, July 28, 2007

By 

ATeacherFromFlorida (Tallahassee, FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Twenty Grand: And Other Tales of Love and Money (P.S.) (Paperback)

I first encountered Rebecca Curtis through her stories in New Yorker, "The Alpine Slide" and "Twenty Grand," coincidentally two of the strongest pieces in this collection. Other standout stories include "Summer, with Twins" and "Hungry Self". I have no doubt that Curtis will go on to write excellent collections and novels---which I'll eagerly seek---but at times this collection exhibits all the symptoms of a writer's first published book; at times, it vacillates clumsily between hard-nosed and acerbic realism (Curtis's best mode, when she flaunts her idiosyncratic black humor) and exercises in surrealism and allegory (her duds). At other times, she borrows heavily from George Saunders (see "The Sno-Kone Cart") and Matthew Klam (the speech scene in "The Near-Son" reminded me MK's "Issues I Dealt With in Therapy"). These caveats are to be expected, however, and Twenty Grand remains an auspicious debut with its fair share of knock-out stories.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Curtis Country, July 16, 2007

By 

Dave Harmon "Dave" (Fresno, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Twenty Grand: And Other Tales of Love and Money (P.S.) (Paperback)

It's been some time since I've been this excited by a contemporary fiction writer. I found myself reading my favorite parts out loud to my wife, then reading them over myself. Years ago, there used to be an expression about Raymond Carver's fiction--"Carver Country." Curtis's characters are pickled in the same wonderfully bleak atmosphere (wonderful for the reader, that is, who doesn't have to be the one tortured by two blonde twins, or hit on by a coke-sniffing chef, or stalked by a would-be one night stand). Whether it's the heartbreaking ending of "Hungry Self" or the completely unexpected turn that "The Alpine Slide" takes, this is the kind of fiction that keeps you up reading at 1.a.m. I think Curtis is the best short story writer in America today, and hopefully this collection will give her the attention she deserves.