The Bigness of the World: Stories

The Bigness of the World: Stories

Winner of the Flannery Oâ€™Connor Prize, the Edmund White Award, and the California Book Award, Lori Ostlundâ€™s â€œheartbreaking and wonderfulâ€ (Pulitzer Prizeâ€“winning author Richard Russo) debut collection of stories about men and women confronting the unmapped and unexpected.

In Lori Ostlundâ€™s award-winning debut collection, people seeking escape from situations at home venture out into a world that they find is just as complicated and troubled as the one they left behind.

In prose highlighted by both satire and poignant observation, The Bigness of the World contains characters that represent a different sort of everymanâ€”men and women who poke fun at ideological rigidity while holding fast to good grammar and manners, people seeking connections in a world that seems increasingly foreign. In â€œUpon Completion of Baldness,â€ a young woman shaves her head for a part in a movie in Hong Kong that will help her escape life with her lover in Albuquerque. In â€œAll Boy,â€ a young logophile encounters the limits of language when he finds he prefers the comfort of a dark closet over the struggle to make friends at school. In â€œDr. Deneauâ€™s Punishment,â€ a math teacher leaving New York for Minnesota as a means of punishing himself engages in an unsettling method of discipline. In â€œBed Death,â€ a couple travels Malaysia to teach only to find their relationship crumbling as they are accepted in their new environment. And in â€œIdyllic Little Bali,â€ a group of Americans gather around a pool in Java to discuss their brushes with fame and end up witnessing a manâ€™s fatal flight from his wife.

â€œOstlund constantly delights the reader with the subtlety of her insights as well as the carefulness of her proseâ€ (San Francisco Chronicle), revealing that wherever you are in the world, where you came from is never far away. â€œEach piece is sublimeâ€ (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Country USA
Brand Scribner Book Company
Manufacturer Scribner
Binding Paperback
ReleaseDate 2016-02-16
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781501117879

Country	USA
Brand	Scribner Book Company
Manufacturer	Scribner
Binding	Paperback
ReleaseDate	2016-02-16
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781501117879

The Bigness of the World: Stories

You might also like...