Vaquita and Other Stories (Drue Heinz Literature Prize 1996) [Hardcover]

Edith Pearlman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 1996

The winner of the 1996 Drue Heinz Literature Prize presents a collection of short stories featuring a diverse group of intelligent characters united by their quest to do the right thing, and their perplexity over what that thing is. UP.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in locales as varied as a Boston soup kitchen and a nameless wartorn Central American country, the 15 stories in this debut collection gently delineate the interior lives of their thoughtful protagonists as they grapple with jealousy, longing, mortality and the desire to do good in a complicated world. Some of the tales are dark and fanciful, even creepy; others remain firmly entrenched in the everyday realities of middle-class life. What ties them together is the author's narrative restraint. Pearlman puts her characters through their paces, remaining always at a respectful distance. Mixing a dash of foreboding with a coolly observant eye, the stories share a matte texture in which the occasional bright turn of phrase sparkles all the more brightly: a worried mother, reunited with her lost child, takes relief "like an injection." An old man looks out a library window "so narrow that he [feels] like shooting from it." While Pearlman's use of language is often deft, many of these tales are disappointingly slight. Time and again, she piques the reader's curiosity by affording us a glimpse of a character's inner life, but then she lets the curtain fall much too soon.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Most of Pearlman's stories feature strong female characters whose solitary lives have been altered by unexpected encounters, illustrating truthfully how subtle incidents shape human lives. The diverse multicultural backgrounds of the plots add interest to the depth of characterization. These stories take the reader to a Cambridge train station, a Central American orphanage, and a Jerusalem apartment. Four interrelated stories about the manager of a soup kitchen for homeless women illustrate the collection's powerful thematic effect. Pearlman's collection has been awarded the 1996 Drue Heinz Literature Prize.?Joyce S. Bukowski, Erie Cty. Lib. System, Pa.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 183 pages
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; 1st edition (October 10, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822939622
• ISBN-13: 978-0822939627
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,732,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edith Pearlman is the recipient of the 2011 PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the art of short fiction. She has published more than 250 works in national magazines, literary journals, and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, New Stories from the South, and The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. She is the author of four story collections: Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories, a finalist for the National Book Award; Vaquita, winner of the Drue Heinz Prize for Literature; Love Among the Greats, winner of the Spokane Fiction Award; and How to Fall, winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.