false 12366 7 In <I>The Whore's Child</I>, Richard Russo's first collection of short fiction, the 2002 Pulitzer Prize-wining author of <I>Empire Falls</I> explores difficult emotional territory while retaining the assured wisdom and humor of his best work. Infidelity, self-reflection, and the fallibility of memory come into consideration in this entertaining and perceptive collection. The book's titular story sets the tone for the whole: an elderly nun crashes a college writing workshop and composes her own life story, sharing the details of her childhood growing up in a convent as the abandoned daughter of a prostitute. As her troubling story unfolds, the class realizes the fictions she has unknowingly imposed upon it. Other stories examine familial relationships and responsibility: the bittersweet "Joyride" follows the desperate road trip of a mother and son, each running from troubles they won't admit to. The collection's best and most lighthearted story, "The Mysteries of Linwood Hart," explores the daydreaming, curious mind of 10-year-old Linwood as he ponders the self-defeating behavior of his family, the desires of inanimate objects, and his perceived place at the center of the universe. Russo surveys these subjects with skilled ease and accuracy, communicating a quiet understanding of his characters and their personal yet universal concerns. Russo, like Flannery O'Connor, has a gift for conveying the absurdity and severity of everyday life with brutal honesty, humor, and compassion: <blockquote>It was an awful place, but Lin understood it was as perfectly real as every place else in the world, which was large beyond imagining, containing every single place he himself had ever been or never would see in his entire life.</blockquote> Uncommon in its natural insight, <I>The Whore's Child</I> recognizes the often unwelcome realities of experience and is all the more exceptional for it. <I>--Ross Doll</I> 3007258 2002 The Whore's Child total:715|5:108|4:306|3:249|2:50|1:2| 715 2613 969 82 4 1 false false Sun Jul 01 08:22:06 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 01 08:22:06 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 09:43:27 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 30 09:48:07 -0800 2009 why does anyone write short stories? why not write a whole novel? Isn't this copping out? And then, in the penultimate story of the book, a character chastises another - isn't writing short stories just cowardice? Isn't it copping out?

I laughe...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 16 01:46:39 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 16 01:48:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 14:56:43 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 00:34:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 17:41:26 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 19:29:41 -0700 2009 once "The Whore's Child" was a great start--highlighting the naivety of the elderly nun was somewhat revealing to me--about my own naivety, that is.
"...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jan 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 09:37:45 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 09:44:44 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Oct 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 08:46:07 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 07 19:16:32 -0700 2009 1
Overall, it was a good bo...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 06 20:00:22 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 20:03:25 -0700 2009
"We're all liars here. The whole purpose of our enterprise is to become skilled in making things up, of substitutinmg our own truth for the truth."

". . . there's no big gash you can show anybody, nothing they'd believe would really hurt. But the...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 08:28:21 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 25 08:36:39 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 24 19:50:48 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 24 19:51:57 -0700 2007
The Whore's Child - really really liked this story about a nun who enrolls in a college fiction writi...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 01 16:40:50 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 18:32:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 16:21:42 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 16:28:11 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Nov 10 10:43:30 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 10:43:30 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 08:27:54 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 09:55:30 -0800 2009 Well, I really enjoyed The Whore's Child and some of the other stories. A couple of ot...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jun 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 08:54:32 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 07:07:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Feb 11 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 03 17:19:09 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 09:51:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 15:28:14 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 15:34:07 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 02 05:47:29 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 05:49:13 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Fri Aug 21 07:37:43 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 07:38:56 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Feb 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 21:33:22 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 12:06:06 -0800 2009