Product Description

A collection of often humorous short stories by the prize-winning American writer, each of which is an account of contemporary domestic life in crisis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67764 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
Five short stories and a novella by the author of Duplicate Keys (1984) and At Paradise Gate (1981), all celebrating, in one way or another, what Smiley in the novella dubs "The Age of Grief" - that time in middle age, "after all that schooling, all that care," when coming around to you is "the same cup of pain that every mortal drinks from." The protagonist here is a 35-year-old dentist, a husband and professional partner of a dramatically achieving wife, a father of three young daughters, and a contented tinkerer with "tiny machines, itsy bitsy pieces of cotton" - small things for a small life? He enters the Age of Grief when he becomes aware that his wife has a lover, and the future he'd always counted on "walking into" drops away. He probes the ties and trivia of family, and his own unexamined psycho-physical being, which erratically transmits grief and rage, and he confronts mortality in the terrifying illness of a child. As for marriage, it is "a small container" that two "inner lives" can burst or deform. The short stories, meanwhile, evolve some sad little truths. A cherished frienship with a married couple upends as careless exploitation. In "Lily," another hapless, unwitting intruder in a marriage pays a price. A reluctant visitor to his brother's Christmas celebration comes to recognize, in the failure' and fading of a long-distance love affair, his own "permanent smallness." Even a maker of bombs for a radical group admits - now that she's quit - that looking at the other side of the "firm shape of my life" reveals motives "trival, unimportant." "Jeffrey, Believe Me" is an amusing burlesque, poking fun at the female-seducer stereotype - here it's very hard work indeed, all for a swim in the gene pool. Smiley writes with a sound emotive control that shapes into firm tone and meaning the widely browsing meditations of her characters. And there is that memorable and sobering perspective - when vision changes from the far distance to the near reality of a life suddenly grown shriveled and, alas, permanently small." (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Hit-and-miss collection of six character stories
"The Age Of Grief" is the title of the novella that makes up the second half of this book. The first half comprises five short stories; "The Pleasure Of Her Company", "Jeffrey, Believe Me", "Lily", "Long Distance" and "Dynamite". There are a few loose themes running through each of the stories- for example a secret being kept from a lover, or unhappiness in everyday life- but in some respects this does feel a little like a 'leftovers' collection.

This may sound a little ignorant but in the five short stories, not much really *happens*. They are principally character pieces, short vignettes of mostly unhappy or unresolved middle-class Americans, with little drama and no resolution. They are very delicately written, but I found them a bit hit-and-miss in terms of engagement. However "Jeffrey, Believe Me" is a bit different and is particularly good.

The novella "The Age Of Grief" is a story told from the point of view of a man who suspects his wife of having an affair, though he hasn't any proof. In particular it's about his and her struggles to cope with their three pre-teen children, each of whom is very different and in their way take their parents' behaviour to extremes.

While it's not especially eventful Smiley is very thorough in bringing life to all five key characters. It's told with resonsance and is carefully balanced so that you aren't sure who to side with or believe. However I felt it could have been taken a lot further, and needed to have been if I was to have been moved or challenged or surprised by it. There is a resolution (I won't spoil it) but in a way, I felt like I had read the first third of a full novel, and wondered what may have happened next.

Dave's grief
The first few stories in this collection are of a good standard but rather disappointing, given what I know about Jane Smiley's writing powers, but in the last story, the longest one, The Age of Grief, patience is rewarded.
This recounts six or eight months of a rocky patch in the marriage of Dave and Dana who met at dental college and subsequently married and set up a dental practice together. They are well-off, happy, and have three daughters - Lizzie, Stephanie and Leah. During this time Leah becomes fixated on her Dad (she is two) and won't allow Dana to do anything for her. Dave is the sort of man who is tolerant and loving to his children and he and Dana ride out this mini-crisis equably. But gradually Dave becomes aware that Dana is having some kind of affair. Wisely, he keeps silent about his suspicions. He loves Dana passionately and realises that to give her the opportunity to bring this out into the open would be death to the marriage. The story recounts their daily lives together - a trip to their new weekend chalet, a bout of flu which affects everyone and is serious in the case of Stephanie, a choir event that Dana takes part in and that Dave suspects also involves her lover. It is riveting. Family life can be a matter of routine and dull in the recounting, but Jane Smiley brings every moment of it alive - each of the children have distinct personalities and become as familiar to the reader as they are to their parents.

It is such a gift, this gentle unravelling of people's lives, so sure and so subtle that you are weaved within the story and feel a bond growing between you and these people. The story is told entirely from Dave's perspective and you believe in him absolutely. His decency, his moments of rebellion, his memories and his pain and grief - all come alive on the page.

I feel Jane Smiley needs the longer length of story to really get to grips with her characters - and she does this even better in a novel. This was a very satisfying and enlivening read.