Wake [Paperback]

Beth Goldner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 2003

In her first collection of short stories, Beth Goldner looks at loss-of love, of health, of life-through the lives of ordinary women in extraordinary circumstances . The women of Wake are suffering-or have suffered-a profound loss, loss that has left them seeking renewal or perhaps just escape. Sometimes they long for a husband, a baby, a trinket, sometimes for something far more elusive. In the title story, two sisters are slowly losing their parents to mental illness. In "Cardiff-by-the-Sea," a man who lost his sight in Vietnam is reborn through a new relationship with a daughter he didn't know he had. In "Plan B," a woman loses her husband to an affair with a much younger woman-and loses her grip on sanity at the same time. In "Outcomes," we meet a hospice worker who steals an inconsequential token from the patients she watches die, her own strange, unethical, but intimate ritual to the life cycle. This bravura performance from a fresh literary voice, bringing together a diversity of characters in various stages of life, will touch and surprise readers as it reveals some of life's smallest but most rewarding possibilities.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The protagonists in Goldner's debut collection are mostly tough females struggling with a gamut of adversities. Two teenage sisters survive a cross-country trip with their parents only to see their father walk out a week later with a woman he met along the way. A manicurist who is deserted by her husband, and still feels the shame of her time on welfare, takes pride in her daughter's accomplishments as a social worker. After a hospice worker witnesses a suicide her first day on the job, she decides to take a small item from each of her dying patients as a remembrance. In the title story, two sisters, 10 and 12, cope with their parents' mental illness and multiple trips to the psychiatric ward. Goldner gradually reveals the sisters' hopelessness as their allowances, violin lessons, and sleepovers fall by the wayside. In a manner reminiscent of Kaye Gibbons or A. Manette Ansay, these crystal-clear vignettes linger with the reader long after the last story in this honest and introspective collection has been read. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Beth Goldner's stories have appeared in the Missouri Review, the Massachusetts Review, the Blue Mesa Review, Story Quarterly, and Literal Latté, and her work has been nominated for numerous awards. She is a managing editor for a health and medical sciences publisher in Philadelphia. She lives in Narberth, Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (August 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582432694
• ISBN-13: 978-1582432694
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,665,090 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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of my new favorite writers, October 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Wake (Paperback)

i enjoy collections of short stories. wake did not disappoint me. it provided varied and intriguing slices of life without the typical pollyannaish endings. what puzzles me is the reviews of this pittsburg reader - is there a personal grudge there? despite your claims of not knowing her, your comments seem oddly personal. i bought the book despite them & enjoyed it tremendously. i am looking forward to the next offering from beth goldner.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't be fooled by those who mourn, September 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Wake (Paperback)

Despite the fact that certain readers might be inclined to project their own negative emotional issues onto this book, I think Beth Goldner's _Wake_ is one of the most readable collections of short stories that I've seen in quite a while. Like Ellen Gilchrist, Goldner is a true craftsman of the short story form. Her characters are complex and speak from an honest, practical perspective that is often missing in stories from the academic fiction mills (e.g., university literary journals, the New Yorker, and so on). The people Goldner portrays in _Wake_ may be controversial, but they're definitely not dull. And, for the record, I think there ought to be more authors out there like Goldner who are willing to be brutally honest without clouding their work with literary tricks designed to make them seem intellectual or arty.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to put down, November 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Wake (Paperback)

Bold. Witty. Original. These are three reasons to read WAKE by Beth Goldner. I've never submitted an Amazon review before, but after reading this collection of short stories, I felt the need to post my first. Goldner doesn't give us any boringly perfect characters or prefab Hollywood endings. You'll find a lot of substance in her fresh stories and widely diverse selection of characters. I found this book hard to put down, and I look forward to reading more by this author.