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The Lone Pilgrim
This collection of stories about love and privacy is serious, funny, tender, and alive with the elegance and spirit that characterize Laurie Colwin's work. In these stories, the reader moves among young men and women: pianists, historians, book illustrators, architects; women who are composed and inimitably sassy; and men who are magnetic, adventurous in love, or fiendishl
...morePaperback, 224 pages
Published
January 9th 2001
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1981)
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Jeanette
rated it
As soon as I finished this collection I wanted to go right back to the beginning and read it all over again. So I did. That's about the best endorsement I can think of for any book. Every one of the stories has something to offer in terms of humor and understated insight into human relationships. If you've ever known any potheads, you absolutely must read "The Achieve of, the Mastery of the Thing." It's the most perfect representation you'll ever find of the happy, harmless, dedicated ...more
Normally I get annoyed with books that focus too heavily on romantic relationships, especially (and I realize it makes me sound like an uncultivated brute to admit this) when they're written by women and from the perspective of women. So here is a collection of short stories, each with a female protagonist and every last one of which is a sort of meditation on love. But Colwin, whose writing I'd never read before, kept me hooked through 13 stories (hardly a clunker in the bunch) that are filled ...more
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All of Colwin's books, several each of short stories and novels, are wonderful and I can't recommend them highly enough. I actually bought many of her books in hardcover, something rare for me! They are all about life and love in Manhattan. She has been described as having "very acute sensibilities," whatever those are and has also been compared to Jane Austen. Her first novel is Happy All the Time, which is about two couples who are related and are friends. My favorite book of short s...more
I'm beginning to think I need to revise my "I hate short stories" position to an "I hate bad short stories, but I kind of like them if they're actually good. It's just that there are so many bad short stories, and Chekhov actually writes novellas. Boring novellas, but still."
These stories are actually short, which gives them a leg up on Chekhov. They're quickly paced/subduedly energetic in the way I'm beginning to expect all Laurie Colwin to be, and that's defi...more
These stories are actually short, which gives them a leg up on Chekhov. They're quickly paced/subduedly energetic in the way I'm beginning to expect all Laurie Colwin to be, and that's defi...more
Excellent collection of short stories on a common theme: intelligent people navigating adult relationships and responsibilities. Sounds mundane, but Colwin has a gift of nailing external and internal dialogue.
My favorite of the bunch is "Saint Anthony of the Desert."
The opening line: "Haphazardness, as a condition of life, has its usefulness but is of fixed duration."
"My education was as hapless as my finances. As I conducted it, it suited me f...more
My favorite of the bunch is "Saint Anthony of the Desert."
The opening line: "Haphazardness, as a condition of life, has its usefulness but is of fixed duration."
"My education was as hapless as my finances. As I conducted it, it suited me f...more
Kate
rated it
Recommends it for:
the charmingly eccentric
Recommended to Kate by:
Best American Short Stories, some years back
Shelves:
short-stories
"Man's spatial relationship to the horse is one of the most confusing and deceptive in the world," I heard myself say. "You are either sitting on top of one, or standing underneath one, and therefore it is impossible to gauge in any meaningful way exactly how big a horse is in relationship to you. This is not," I added with fierce emphasis, "like a man inside a cathedral."
I then shut up. There was a long silence. I meditated on what I had said which ...more
I then shut up. There was a long silence. I meditated on what I had said which ...more
I have no idea how I missed this wonderful book of stories by an author whom I adore. In fact, I missed all three of her books of stories. The other two are on their way to me in the mail. I am sure I will devour them just as I devoured this one!
Colwin takes ordinary people and turns their stories into such interesting pieces. Her stories are all complete, and left me satisfied, the mark of a good short story writer.
Colwin takes ordinary people and turns their stories into such interesting pieces. Her stories are all complete, and left me satisfied, the mark of a good short story writer.
This book has been recommended by past professors and various connections for more than 10 years. I'm finally reading it. "Thirteen stories about women (mostly)...experiencing, often for the first time, the startling, enriching, demented complications of adult life." My initial opinion is favorable-it feels like a much needed recreational/summer read at winter's end.
Amy
added it
I picked this up thinking I had somehow missed it, but it turned out I'd already read it -- but I love Laurie Colwin, so that's ok -- her stories are sort of NYC fairy tales -- everyone is smart and funny and interesting and slightly neurotic, and everything ends fairly well -- smart and entertaining.
Typically, I don't like books of short stories. I did enjoy The Lone Pilgrim though, perhaps because the stories had several common themes, ie: New York City, falling in love, Love, Academic environments, which created a thread of similarity between the variety of characters and situations in the different stories. I'm not sure why the book is called the Lone Pilgrim for in all the stories the main character(s) end up in some kind of relationship and thus are not really alone. That being said th...more
Great writer who died too soon. One of my favorite of her many beautiful books.
Elizabeth
added it
"They do flee from me, who one time did me seek."
hilary
added it
one of the few collections of short stories I have enjoyed
Jsusswein
is currently reading it
Loving it-so glad I'm not finished yet.
Kristin
marked it as to-read
See J aka G's review
I first heard one of Colwin's stories read on NPR's Selected Shorts. It was warm and funny and managed to make characters that I only knew for 30 pages seem real. This collection is filled with such stories. Colwin also wrote for Gourmet (see my entry for Home Cooking). Although she died in 1994 at a fairly young age, she wrote several more short story collections and novels as well as another food collection - all of which I look forward to reading.
Actually, I don't recall most of the stories in this book, but "The Achieve of, the Mastery of the Thing" is one of my favorite short stories of all time. It is hilarious and beautifully written - one of those stories that makes me want to call all my friends and read it aloud to them.
One of these days I'll get around to reading some of her other works.
One of these days I'll get around to reading some of her other works.
"Once upon a time, I was Professor Thorne Speizer's stoned wife..." Another classic first line, from one of the stories in Laurie Colwin's little jewelbox of short stories. About young people beginning to live on their own, I read it and loved it when I was young myself. Funny and sweet without being saccharine.
I heard a reading of one of her short stories and liked the urban theme of contemporary life. So I bought this book of short stories and I wasn't disappointed. You get a glimpse of couples lives-ordinary lives are displayed as intimate and warm and sometimes pleasantly dull and human.
Polly Jirkovsky
added it
I love Colwin's light touch and her world of emotions and simple pleasures. In my perfect day, I would be sitting in a window seat watching the snow, eating oranges and reading these stories.
"The Achieve of, the Mastery of the Thing", is the best stoner housewife, faculty spouse short story ever.
I enjoyed these stories while reading them, but they don't leave a lasting flavor for me.
freaking amazing..heartbreaking...precise...writing.
one of my favorite books
Nuwanda
added it
hillary
marked it as to-read
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Laurie Colwin is the author of five novels: Happy All the Time, Family Happiness, Goodbye Without Leaving, Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object, and A Big Storm Knocked It Over; three collections of short stories: Passion and Affect, Another Marvelous Thing, and The Lone Pilgrim; and two collections of essays: Home Cooking and More Home Cooking. She died in 1992.
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“Fulfillment leaves an empty space where longing used to be.”
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