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Suzanne Rivecca

Death Is Not an Option: Stories Hardcover – July 5, 2010

by Suzanne Rivecca (Author)

11 ratings

3.7 on Goodreads

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A bold, dazzling debut collection about girls and women in a world where sexuality and self-delusion collide.

In these stories, a teacher obsesses over a student who comes to class with scratch marks on his face; a Catholic girl graduating high school finds a warped kind of redemption in her school’s contrived class rituals; and a woman looking to rent a house is sucked into a strangely inappropriate correspondence with one of the landlords. These are just a few of the powerful plotlines in Suzanne Rivecca’s gorgeously wrought collection. From a college student who adopts a false hippie persona to find love, to a young memoirist who bumps up against a sexually obsessed fan, the characters in these fiercely original tales grapple with what it means to be honest with themselves and the world.

These stories explode “with piercing insight . . . illuminating the dangerous dance between victims and saviors. [They] deliver us to the edge of grief, that precarious place where the moral compass spins―where codes of love and law and religion fail. Mercy here depends on a tiger’s sublime grace, our capacity to resist deeper harm, and the right of every broken being to remain silent” (Melanie Rae Thon).

Print length

222 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

July 5, 2010
Dimensions

5.9 x 0.9 x 8.6 inches
ISBN-10

0393072568
ISBN-13

978-0393072563
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The female protagonists in Rivecca's debut collection have a lot in common, so much so that they at times feel like the same person, despite (slight) variations in context. They are a mostly Midwestern bunch, sassy, bookish, and Catholic (or lapsed Catholic), but it's their ambivalent relationships to victimhood that provide the collection with its real material: some refuse to be pitied, while others dabble in self-victimization for selfish purposes. In the title story, Emma bids farewell to her Sacred Heart classmates, including the popular Claire, who has spent most of their friendship trying to publicly humiliate Emma. In Yours Will Do Nicely, 21-year-old Katrina tries to maintain a relationship with a one-night stand by writing a fanciful letter to the boy she's effortlessly enchanted. Very Special Victims introduces Kath, who can't seem to convince those around her that her existence shouldn't be defined by the fact that she was molested as a child. Rivecca's a competent writer and obviously adept at mining the experiences of a certain kind of character, but the stories' provocations aren't delivered upon; instead, they feel repetitive and self-satisfied. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Rivecca's premier collection is gripping, distinctive, and altogether impressive. Her heroines are flawed and captivating, and their stories are steeped in bizarreness. Confused young women fleeing Catholic pasts are a specialty, from a high-school senior hell-bent on disliking her classmates but terrified of leaving them, to the memoirist who secretly delights in the intrusive emails she receives from a landlord. These women are smart and stoic, yet they seek out pain and hate themselves for it. A haunting account of childhood molestation is remarkable in its description of the child's psychology and the scars carried into adulthood. Another, about a woman who grows to love her father after loathing him as a child, is powerful in its tenderness and provocative in its blurring of the lines between protagonist and antagonist. Rivecca relishes that blurring, and accomplishes a lot as a storyteller via that approach. What is most unforgettable about this collection, however, is its sharp language and rich detail, signifying the arrival of a wonderful new writer. --Annie Tully

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (July 5, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 222 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393072568
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393072563
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 0.9 x 8.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,992,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15,372 in Deals in Books
- #85,210 in Contemporary Women Fiction
- #223,563 in American Literature (Books)

Customer Reviews:
11 ratings

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Suzanne Rivecca

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Suzanne Rivecca was raised in West Michigan. Her first book, "Death is Not an Option," was a finalist for The Story Prize, the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. She is the recipient of the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and writing fellowships from Stanford University, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her short stories have received two Pushcart Prizes and inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2013.

Customer reviews

5 star		52%
4 star		15%
3 star		15%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		19%

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Top reviews from the United States

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BB

Memorable Short Stories

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 25, 2014

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I really liked this collection of short stories by Suzanne Rivecca. She nails the Catholic school girl experience. The story about the high school retreat was perfect. High school was never really like a John Hughes movie or a Saved by the Bell episode. For better or worse, Rivecca took me back to my high school days with the plaid uniforms and grumpy nuns. I read these stories about six months ago, and many of her characters have stayed with me. Rivecca creates unique female characters that come alive. At first I was very excited to pass along my copy of Death is Not an Option to my friends and family, but then the stories got edgier. I recommend this book, but I have not felt comfortable tossing my copy to a friend because of the edgier bits. I would love to read more by this author.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 6, 2015

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a little different than I expected

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 28, 2014

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This author amazed me with her insight and her honesty. Each story held a gem of phrase, a pithy or funny observation or one of those completely enjoyable "aha moments" wherein you think to yourself "someone out there is just like me". If you are tired of ho-hum and want wow instead then this is the book for you. Also she makes me laugh - a definite plus and somewhat startling. A+ for Suzanne Rivecca

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B. Stegman

Female Characters You Won't Forget!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 9, 2010

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Incredibly unique collection of short stories. The female characters in DEATH IS NOT AN OPTION are like none I have ever read about before! The women are brutally honest, sometimes flawed and full of raw emotion. Rivecca is a talented writer and storyteller with outstanding voice. "It Sounds Like You're Feeling" was my favorite.

4 people found this helpful

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Potate

Not a happy one though hahah

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 9, 2016

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Interesting book. Not a happy one though hahah. Amazing writing.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 24, 2014

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Bright, incisive writing.

Helpful

Elisabeth C

A reader's (and writer's) writer

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 19, 2010

This collection is a fantastic debut by an author who deserves to be recognized. The stories are quite varied in style and make for interesting terrain, especially if the book is read from beginning to end. The title piece and the later "Sounds Like You're Feeling" and "Consummation," almost flood off the page, tugging the reader along by the sleeve into gradually darker waters. By contrast, "Very Special Victims" and "Look Ma, I'm Breathing," are quiet in their presentation and extraordinary in their thorough exploration of human vs. society dilemmas. These are both the most impressive in the collection and also the most likely to be considered upsetting, controversial, or geared only toward special interest groups; they are in fact simply great stories based on characters who react as human beings might to situations that both target and exclude them. "Very Special Victims" deals with a person who was molested as a child and rejects society's view of what this should mean to her, even as she can't seem to find anything with which to replace it. By contrast, Isabel Hyde in "Look Ma, I'm Breathing" is an almost perfect model of certain traits modern American society tends to revere in women: She has boldly spoken out concerning her past in order to become successful and independent in the present, and she feels the need to continue to adhere to this model even as she obviously desires something else, both shut out and hemmed in by people's perceptions of her. The last story, "None Of The Above," is also a standout. It strikes me as being broader and eerier than the others and I'm still thinking about it.

Most of the negative comments I've read regarding this book have focused on the supposed similarity of the characters, which frankly seems like a weak concern for a literary critic. Hemingway had his code heroes, O'Connor her Southern Protestants; I don't see any reason why Rivecca shouldn't have her "disaffected Catholic midwesterners" (her words). Of course that's not even what's behind the criticism; it's the idea of victimization and its role in the lives of women that is somehow seen as being more offensively or shallowly specific than categories like "Catholic" and "Midwestern" (which are accepted as universal). The funny thing is that these stories are very sensitive to the state of identity politics in general and seem aware of how they might be perceived, in the same way that the characters themselves possess an awareness (to differing levels) of how much the details of their lives define who they are as people. The salient point being that if you don't bother to distinguish between opportunistic fiction based purely on subject matter and literary fiction that happens to make use of the same material, you are going to miss the real thing when it happens, as it is happening here.

What I was largely able to appreciate about this collection is that it was both weighty and addictive, leaving me with the overall feeling that the author really cared about what she was writing. It's brilliant character fiction that at the same time often sustains a feeling of old-school Poe-ish suspense, thereby acknowledging the reader and making the journey from beginning to end genuinely fun. As an aspiring writer myself, I appreciate the fact that there is stuff like this out there. The only detail I will offer as criticism is that the stories written in the second and first person did not seem as realized as those written in the third. However, I would ultimately not want to see them replaced; I like the way the collection fits together as a whole. I also have to applaud the risks of using the second person, as well as other stylistic and subject-based risks taken in this collection that have pitfall written all over them but never materialize as such. In fact, it's the risks that make this book exciting and worth the time to read. It makes me reflect, with relief, that writing and reading fiction is not only still relevant but extremely necessary for some.

8 people found this helpful

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pancake_repairman

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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 12, 2012

suzanne rivecca eschews cliche. that's the strongest and most relevant summation i can give of why this work for me stands head and shoulders above 99% of other published writers. on that basis i'd recommend it highly to fans of david foster wallace and henry rollins. i don't really see the need to get into the specifics of what makes each story tick or even summarize the subject matter or perspective. i just want to make the statement that if, like me, what you ultimately look for in art is that artist who makes a conscientious effort to eschew cliche and succeeds, this is one such rare example. someone who is genuinely not a conservative or a product of the literary establishment, who writes because they have something to say that would otherwise go unsaid. if only these kinds of writers could be categorized accordingly so i wouldn't have to wade through 99 cliche peddlers, some better disguised than others, for every one real writer i stumble across.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Good book bad quality

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 26, 2019

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I like the writing but I bought a new book and the one i received was scratched up and covered in marks with a big dark smear on the cover and the back page was bent and ripped in multiple places.

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Death Is Not an Option: Stories Hardcover – July 5, 2010

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Editorial Reviews

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Suzanne Rivecca

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