| From Publishers Weekly The 1998 Mary McCarthy Prize-winner for short fiction is a promising first collection of 13 stories that tread the fine line between sweet reflection and bittersweet sentimentality. The title story is one of the shorter pieces in the collection; its cool， palpable rhythm translates an infant's unintelligible but soulful cooing and sighing into exhilarating song. The cadence of this piece conveys Slater's potential to undergird her pretty prose with a solid， deeper beat. In "The Bride's Lover，" Slater juxtaposes the moony grief of a brooding man， invited to be the photographer at his ex-lover's wedding， with quick images of the less-than-perfect scene: the vicious cat preying on hummingbirds， the ravaged buffet table， a tipsy and bleary-eyed relative. Anyone who has tried to daydream out of a windowless office or a cramped cubicle will appreciate the suggestion， in "Soft Money，" of how to decorate one's working space to the hilt. Forget about mauve ergonomic chairs: why not luminescent blue walls， a wrought-iron four poster bed for comfy reading and a reflecting pool with goldfish? Other jovial but whimsical tales include one about a therapist who takes her own advice and winds up trading places with one of her patients. Imaginative， humorous and showing an impressive range of styles and insights， Slater only occasionally verges into mawkishness， and usually only when she's depicting the romantic regrets of her lonely characters. Innocent， yearning young girls; clumsy， hard-drinking buddies; and workaday women coping with solitude or loveAall come to life with Slater's offbeat humor， subtle touches of irony and compassionate storytelling. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information， Inc. From Kirkus Reviews paper 1-889330-35-3 A debut collection of 13 stories by academic Slater (Univ. of Nebraska/English)， whose efforts won her the 1998 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Slater has a light touch， which lends a grace to her work that's as welcome (in its lack of pretense) as it is rare. The standard contemporary themesdomestic and social lifepredominate， but Slaters characters have a sense of humor and enough of a sharp ironic edge to keep them from sinking into the quicksand of self-absorption. The title piece， for example， is an interior monologue of a new mother who tries， as all new mothers do， to envision the life of the baby whose future has suddenly eclipsed her own. Nuanced and extremely subtle， it makes good use of the classic pattern of parental affections played against actual reality， as does Pretty Night， which portrays a middle-aged fathers sympathetic pain in the face of his daughters social unease at a school dance. Other pieces have a decidedly fantastic edge to them: Our New Life offers an amusingly literal take on the process of transference that occurs between a psychologist and her patient， while Soft Money shows the effect of environment upon attitude through the adventures of an a man who redecorates his office and actually creates a new world. The Things We Find depicts two unhappy teenage baby-sitters who rummage through the homes of their clients looking for evidence that all domestic life is as flawed as their own， while Sandra Dee Ate Here is about a young waitress trying to start over again after the collapse of her marriage. The restraint with which Slater handles her characters overwhelming melancholy is remarkable. It is exactly this understatement that makes her fiction so poignant and striking. Memorable and rich: Slater brings an extraordinary precision to the delineation of everyday sorrows and the indomitable hopes they generate. -- Copyright ©1999， Kirkus Associates， LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. See all Editorial Reviews |
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