From Publishers Weekly
In the 12 stories in her third collection, Texas author Osborn ( A Horse of Another Color ) dissects the eccentricity and incongruity of love, and attempts to solve why A loves B who loves C. Some of the stories are set on the Texas-Mexico border; Osborn's people are borderline, too, at home in neither country. In the long title story an American professor teaching in Mexico can't accept Mexican culture nor even the Spanish language. Unable to commit himself to his life or to the woman with whom he is involved, he is forced by a sudden, frightening incident to realize that his displacement is in his soul. In "Graffiti" a woman lays to rest an old, romantic ghost from college days. The situation is reversed in "Overlapping," in which a woman leaves her husband of 20 years, a successful Texas lawyer, for her longtime Mexican lover. Osborn has a distinctive ability to highlight the significant detail. With wry humor and quirky wit, her tales reveal more than the characters are willing to acknowledge about themselves. These are beguiling, provocative stories about noncomformists caught in a moment of revelation.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In this collection of stories, Osborn focuses on confused, painful relationships between men and women. In fact, she sometimes equates falling in love with being afflicted with illness. Although her typical protagonists are capable, independent women, they yearn for meaningful relationships. These characters often delineate themselves succinctly. One, for example, explains, "Pursuers drive me away, yet once I'm out there running in front of them I begin to feel they have rejected me simply because they can't keep up." Another justifies her decision to enter an obviously ill-fated relationship by saying, "I need to be loved as much as anyone. Two cats are cold company even at 104 degrees on August 25." All these well-written stories are worth reading. Recommended.
- Dorothy Golden, Georgia Southern Univ., Statesboro
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Dorothy Golden, Georgia Southern Univ., Statesboro
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
