In The Year Of The Long Division: Stories [Hardcover]

Dawn Raffel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 1995

A collection of sixteen short stories provides an extraordinary journey into the human soul that explores the uneasiness of individuals as they cope with experiences outside of themselves. A first collection.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The stories in Raffel's first collection are like privet hedges: smooth and clipped, they fastidiously control what is revealed. The implication for the reader is double-edged; one can either be frustrated by the author's self-conscious, highly stylized prose or delighted that she trusts enough to leave so much detective work to the reader. In "The Trick," for example, she writes of a couple: "They were somewhere other than under the quilt"-a ruffling sentence perhaps, but one whose construction parodies the adulterous characters' inability to speak in direct terms. "The trick is not to think," explains another character in the same tale. Several of the 16 stories here deal beautifully with the mother-daughter or father-daughter bond, and the title story illustrates one opinion about the differences between male and female socialization: the boys in the story are all "holler and tilt," while the "squealing-clean" girls watch the world through a window pane. More than anything else, though, it is the cold beauty of Raffel's writing that takes hold of the reader, allowing these brief stories, many of which were first published in the Quarterly, to transcend the limiting category of experimental fiction. Raffel has the ability to turn the tiniest details into poetry.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

"Oh, for the sun to heal the ache," says the mother in the title story of this book. Sunlight is exactly the right prescription for most of the tortured characters in these stories. But they don't get much of it. Instead, gusty winds blow and icy temperatures descend upon the towns. In spite of difficult circumstances and even tragedy, most characters are gritty survivors who are nevertheless adrift and alone. Rarely does the author name anyone or describe someone's appearance, thereby reinforcing the sense of alienation and loneliness. It seems to require almost too much effort for the nameless characters to speak in sentences; they mete out language sparingly, using only a few words and giving perfunctory replies. Raffel, fiction editor of Redbook magazine, is in command of the bleak landscape of her stories and the bleak characters in it. She lets in a very few rays of sunlight. And she will make readers appreciate having friends to turn to for comfort and support. Recommended for serious fiction collections.
Lisa Nussbaum, Euclid P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 117 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First edition. edition (January 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679415815
• ISBN-13: 978-0679415817
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,336,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)