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Calisher involved her closely investigated, penetrating characters in complicated plotlines that unfold with shocks and surprises in allusive, nuanced language with a distinctively elegiac voice, sometimes compared with Eudora Welty, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Henry James. Critics generally considered Calisher a type of neo-realist and often both condemned and praised for her extensive explorations of characters and their social worlds. She was definitely at odds with the prevailing writing style of minimalism that characterized fiction writing in the 1970s and 1980s and that emphasized a sparse, non-romantic style with no room for expressionism or romanticism. As an anti-minimalist, Calisher was admired for her elliptical style in which more is hinted at than stated, and she was also praised as a social realist and critic in the vein of Honore Balzac and Edith Wharton.]]> female New York, New York 1911/12/20 2009/01/13 753251 0156027453 9780156027458 5 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178049184m/753251.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178049184s/753251.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/753251.Sunday_Jews 2.47 15
Told with wit and deep acuity, Sunday Jews is a tour de force from a writer whose fiction has justly been compared with that of Eudora Welty and Henry James, and whose ability to delineate our lives is unparalleled.
</div>]]> 398396 3.62 136 24 2002 1014162 0679602496 9780679602491 1 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180243464m/1014162.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180243464s/1014162.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1014162.The_Novellas_of_Hortense_Calisher 4.40 5     The novellas are characterized by their unfailing intelligence and by the technical sure-handedness and acuity of the writing. Each has a strong sense of place--New York City, the Hudson Valley, Saratoga Springs--and an eclectic cast of characters who inhabit regions where our most acute hopes, fears, and anxieties coexist. The respectable lawyer of "Tale for the Mirror" attempts to oust an unconventional Hindu healer from his community, only to wonder whether the doctor's trickery is any different from his own. In "The Railway Police," a journey by train occasions a social worker's sudden break with past pretenses and her kafkaesque rebirth as a vagabond. And in "Saratoga, Hot," a sharply observed tale set amid the fabled world of horse racing, a man and woman discover new strength in a love touched by tragedy. Included as well are "Extreme Magic," "The Man Who Spat Silver," and "The Last Trolley Ride."
    "Calisher hits at her targets at a point more vital than the usual marksman knows to exist," wrote novelist and critic Angus Wilson. And The New York Times Book Review commented, "Seen through her eyes the real world is not prosaic. Placed in lyrical, poetic spaces, it is thick and rich with implication." The Novellas of Hortense Calisher, an edition exclusive to the Modern Library, is a major collection from one of America's finest literary voices.

The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hard-bound editions of important works of liter-ature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.]]> 398396 3.62 136 24 1997 1256502 0877950105 9780877950103 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1256502.Queenie_a_Novel 3.67 3 398396 3.62 136 24 1982 1256506 0877951152 9780877951155 2 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1256506.The_collected_stories_of_Hortense_Calisher 3.00 2 398396 3.62 136 24 1975 6440344 1 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6440344-in-the-absense-of-angels 5.00 1 398396 3.62 136 24 1948 3849702 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3849702.Textures_of_Life 5.00 1 398396 3.62 136 24 2008 2940683 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2940683.Tale_for_the_Mirror 4.00 1 398396 3.62 136 24 1962 1342089 1555841945 9781555841942 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1342089.Kissing_Cousins_A_Memory 3.00 1 398396 3.62 136 24 1988 1014164 0877950423 9780877950424 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1014164.Herself_An_Autobiographical_Work 3.00 1 398396 3.62 136 24 1972 1014165 015101096X 9780151010967 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180243465m/1014165.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180243465s/1014165.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1014165.Tattoo_for_a_Slave 2.00 1
Calisher traces her family's years in the South and their transformative move up north, beautifully evoking the mood and texture of the early twentieth century. Her family was an eccentric combination of Jewish and Southern traditions and tragedies. Her Virginia-born father, a perfume manufacturer, was twenty-two years older than her German-born mother. Marked by longer-than-normal gaps between the generations and conflicts between the mercantile and the scholarly, the "American" and the émigré, her family is characterized by Calisher as "volcanic to meditative to fruitfully dull, and bound to produce someone interested in character, society, and time."


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