Summary
Summary
For All the Obvious Reasons is Lynn Stegner's superb collection of nine, remarkably distinct tales of passion, clear-eyed wisdom, and honesty honed to a cutting edge. These are stories the reader can't shake: A woman living a marital shadow-life realizes that her long compensating heart has begun to ominously decompensate. An affluent New Yorker becomes a hoarder to escape a future he cannot bear to take up. A baby dies in a miasma of sibling resentments and from that, the secrets of culpability unravel. A construction worker and a bereaved young neighbor together find a way to be in a broken world. And in the beautifully moving narrative that closes the volume, a story about the depth of goodness and duty, and of the profound love they both define and prevent. From the wild rivers of British Columbia to the cement jungle of Manhattan, Stegner pulls us from our own worlds into her own. With luminous particulars and in richly orchestrated language, these stories sound the vibrant, sometimes anguished music that composes human lives.
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Author Notes
LYNN STEGNER is the author of three novels, a collection of novellas, and various stories and essays. Her work has received numerous awards including the Faulkner Award for Best Novel (for Because a Fire Was in My Head )--also a New York Times Editor's Choice, a Book Sense Pick, and a Literary Ventures Selection. Over the years, fellowships from the NEA, the Fulbright Society, the Western States Arts Council have recognized the literary distinction of her work. Currently teaching novel and fiction writing at Stanford University, she divides her time between San Francisco and Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.
Reviews (1)
Booklist Review
Betrayal and confusion, denial and grief, new beginnings and old scores all coalesce in Stegner's (Because a Fire Was in My Head, 2007) incandescent collection of short fiction, in which she mines the uncharted territories of human vulnerability and strength. In the title offering, a young wife reconsiders the state of her marriage in the wake of a violent episode, while in Rogue, a bullied wife gives herself over to the power of nature to escape her unhappy life. In Mona's Coming, the dissipation of a man's prosperity in the aftermath of his marriage is witnessed by an old college classmate, while a young woman's start in business is jeopardized by the family friend in charge of her mother's estate in In the Not-Too-Different Future. Leaving an indelible impression on the reader's memory, Stegner's stories vibrate with a hint of danger, a discernible foreboding that the circumstances of her otherwise unremarkable characters are about to take a momentous turn. A fitting recommendation for fans of Lorrie Moore, Emma Donoghue, and Karen Russell.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2016 Booklist