Author : Marie-Helene Bertino
Publisher : University of Iowa Press
ISBN 13 : 1609381149
Total Pages : 143 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (93 download)
Book Synopsis Safe as Houses by : Marie-Helene Bertino
Download or read book Safe as Houses written by Marie-Helene Bertino and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2012-10 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The titular story revolves around an aging English professor who, mourning the loss of his wife, robs other people's homes of their sentimental knick-knacks. In "Free Ham," a young dropout wins a ham after her house burns down and refuses to accept it. "Has my ham done anything wrong?" she asks when the grocery store manager demands that she claim it. In "Carry Me Home, Sisters of Saint Joseph," a failed commercial writer moves into the basement of a convent and inadvertently discovers the secrets of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. A girl, hoping to talk her brother out of enlisting in the army, brings Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving dinner in the quiet, dreamy "North Of." In "The Idea of Marcel," Emily, a conservative, elegant girl, has dinner with the idea of her ex-boyfriend, Marcel. In a night filled with baffling coincidences, including Marcel having dinner with his idea of Emily, she wonders why we tend to be more in love with ideas than with reality. In and out of the rooms of these gritty, whimsical stories roam troubled, funny people struggling to reconcile their circumstances to some kind of American Ideal and failing, over and over.