The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress: Stories (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Angel's mother makes red velvet cakes and talks about the prowess of God..." (more)
Key Phrases: Miss Saint John, New York, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent read,...[a]well-written and thoroughly fascinating short-story cycle..." -- Choice, May 2002

"Recommended for public libraries and for all academic collections supporting the study of fiction writing." -- Choice, May 2002

"The stories in Michelle Richmond's first collection spin artfully off the life of a single character...smart and adept..." -- The New York Times

A stunning collection...I am left with a vivid array of visions long remembered afterward. -- Jill McCorkle

A talented writer to watch...[Richmond's] writing can be spare, poetic...as she carefully interweaves the mundane and the absurd. -- Michelle Roberts Matthews, The Mobile Register, Mar. 9, 2002

One of the best story collections I've read in awhile...Richmond's collection might arguably be read as a novel...masterful. -- Norman McMillan, First Draft: The Journal of the Alabama Writers Forum

Remember this name: Michelle Richmond...impressive talent and emotional range...Richmond writes with grace, calm, a refreshing sense of playfulness. -- The San Francisco Chronicle

Richmond's writing is perceptive and heartfelt, her subjects at once edgy and familiar. This is a winning debut. -- Publishers Weekly, October 22, 2001

This collection has a novel's heft...These lives are shaped by fate andplace, forces hauntingly evoked by this talented writer. -- The Boston Globe

{Richmond is}interested in the truth revealed through lies of the heart opened wide, and in the deceit of history. -- Kirkus Reviews

Product Description

Four sisters, many lovers, and a series of settings both familiar and exotic delineate the nineteen linked stories in this award-winning debut collection. Although most of the characters have roots in the South, their search for home and for truth takes them to New York City, San Francisco, even to the northern coast of Iceland.

Michelle Richmond introduces us to a memorable extended family, in which lies come more easily than forgiveness, and parents and siblings conceal the truth as often as they reveal it. In many cases, the women are forced to choose—between family and lovers, safety and self-sufficiency, the religion they grew up with and the reality of the world they have found for themselves.

In "Down the Shore Everything's All Right," twenty-eight-year-old Grace abandons wide Southern beaches for New York sidewalks, only to discover that the Gulf Coast still has a hold on her. In "Intermittent Waves of Unusual Size and Force," a wayward father is called home from California by a massive hurricane that threatens the lives of his family. In "The World's Greatest Pants," three younger sisters watch in awe as Darlene, the eldest and bravest, defies her parents and heads for Texas in a battered El Camino.

An undercurrent of eroticism runs through the collection. "Propaganda" finds the youngest sister alone in an old house in Knoxville, where she forms a symbiotic relationship with a mysterious upstairs neighbor during her husband's lengthy absence. In "Fifth Grade: A Criminal History," adolescence and sexuality merge with explosive consequences. A woman dancing naked on a bridge in San Francisco is the central figure of the title story. In "The Last Bad Thing," a love-struck young woman in the Bible Belt is haunted by visions of Ramadan.

The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress heralds a stunning new voice in fiction.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 169 pages
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press (November 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558493158
• ISBN-13: 978-1558493155
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #756,639 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly enjoyable!, January 6, 2002

By	Kevin (San Rafael, California) - See all my reviews

In this collection of short stories, Richmond braids tales with emotional tactility. Drawing the reader into her collection of recurring characters with deft storylines, Richmond creates vivid images based upon life and living in the modern South.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing first book., January 4, 2002

By	R. Pekelney "richpekelney" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was a treat to read. The carefully crafted stories leave you wondering, how much came from real life and how much was created? At the end of the collection, I went back and read the first story and discovered subtleties that made it all the more thought provoking.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress, December 13, 2001

By	James M. Wiggins (Sausalito, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I thought this would be just another lame, overly sensitive chick book that my wife brought home. The cover shot is a nice way to get a semi-literate husband to pick it up and thumb through it, and that is exactly what I had intended to do. However, I found myself reading the whole damn thing start to finish. The soulfulness of the characters, the crisp descriptions and Richmond's ability to tug at one's emotions left me wanting more. Who the hell is this Ivan guy?