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Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom
by
Mel Bosworth (Goodreads Author)
Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom is the whimsical, emotional, often reckless love story that we’ve all had or wish we’ve had. The tale follows David and Samantha, two virtual strangers from opposite coasts united for a week in autumn-cloaked Massachusetts, as they experience each other as only they know how. Sometimes shy, nervous strangers, other times merged as...more
Paperback, First Printing , 114 pages
Published
by Brown Paper Publishing
(first published 2010)
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The immediate playful tone to Mel Bosworth's Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom drew me right in. I suspended belief and gave myself over to this sometimes madcap mix of meta-fiction and magical realism. I like how self-conscious this book is--we are always aware this is a story being created and yet the connection forged between our soulful narrator David and his love-interest Samantha is no less powerful because of it. How did Mel Bosworth do that? I think ultimately through vulnerabil...more
Mel Bosworth’s second bound book, Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom, reads like a sequel to the recently released i am here And You Are Gone by Shome Dasgupta. The two books share simplistic linguistic style and an explored relationship that is both as awkward and beautiful as the characters themselves. The hook with this novella, if the somewhat commercial term like “hook” can be used, is the strangely absent origin story of the two characters, David and Samantha. How these characters...more
Mel Bosworth’s Grease Stains, Kismet and Maternal Wisdom is a charming novella about two young people, David and Samantha, who’d hooked up once during David’s cross-country visit to see a Seattle friend, Samantha’s neighbor. Serious sparks formed between the two and the narrative centers on the couple’s reunion when Samantha’s family visits the East Coast.
Bosworth’s writing is snappy and engaging, and relates with humor the relationship of the pair, so blissfully hopeless in love. The dialogue...more
Bosworth’s writing is snappy and engaging, and relates with humor the relationship of the pair, so blissfully hopeless in love. The dialogue...more
A story I would like to have lived, a story everyone would like to have lived at least once in their life is Mel Bosworth’s, “Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom.” Love, lots of love; crazy, drunk, imagined, real, unreciprocated, reciprocated, desperate, blissful, drunken, lustful, unforgiving and the dance all these types of love makes one do. David loves Samantha. This is decided within minutes of their first second meeting after a three month separation after a drunkenly brief first me...more
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I won a copy of this book in a First Reads giveaway.
Quickly explained and set as a grounding point (if there were such a thing in this story), are the facts that David and Samantha met once, during David's West Coast visit a few months prior. Ever since, emotions have been building, and a long distance connection fostered. Finally, Samantha visits the Boston area where David lives.
The story could have gone typically tragic but doesn't. Instead of disappointments and the letdown of built-up hopes...more
Quickly explained and set as a grounding point (if there were such a thing in this story), are the facts that David and Samantha met once, during David's West Coast visit a few months prior. Ever since, emotions have been building, and a long distance connection fostered. Finally, Samantha visits the Boston area where David lives.
The story could have gone typically tragic but doesn't. Instead of disappointments and the letdown of built-up hopes...more
4 stars damit! Really dug Mel's novella. And thanks to him and Brown Paper Publishing for sending this book free. I've spread the word. A really honest love story. And I don't usually dig those.
This story just nails the freneticism, exhilaration, terror, and rapture of a long distance relationship, or more specifically, of a rare in-the-flesh meeting between two people in such a relationship, when everything gets packed into a couple of days. The novel feels packed that way, too: a bit breathless, a bit chaotic, always focused on the details and paying attention but also aware of its own looming finalé. Bosworth doesn't just tell the story straight, but weaves in an ongoing awareness o...more
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There comes a time in a man's life when he comes to, when he begins to understand his role in this great drama. GSKMW is an authentic look into this process; there is perhaps no other story told that so well explores the human condition on its own terms. Mel Bosworth taps into something that few writers do. He has gone deep, in his exploration of the human being, and has gleaned a little piece of something wonderful. Thank you Mel.
steamy, dreamy, urgent, hormonal. I had an idea that might not sell more copies but would get Grease Stains read--passionately--outside the lit crowd: there's a Panera across from the catholic high school that's always clogged with big-legged, whiffy students. I'd like to leave a couple of copies of Mel's book laying around there. Perfect storm.
1 like · like · see review
Jul 24, 2010
Daily s-Press
is currently reading it
i'm into the second chapter and enjoying it. like the narrator in the first chapter, i first wasn’t sure where this was going, and what to expect. then this line: "and unbeknownst, even to me, I’d entered into an alternate universe." -- what a road trip of a book.
This was a very well written and thought out book. Very much a realism to everyday life. Enjoyed it thoroughly and passed it along for others to enjoy!
It's a fine and charming read--filled with characters you'll want to cheer for. Buy it, you'll like it.
1 like · like · see review
I really like this book. I hope you like it too.
Thanks Roxane
Nov 05, 2010
Heather
marked it as to-read
must read this!
Awesome!!
1 like · like · see review
Mel Bosworth is love.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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As David's romantic euphoria rose higher and higher, I fully expected a sudden crash, heartbreak, etc. I was quite pleased with the conclusion.
1 like · like · see review
Funny, aching, seductive and built of pitch-perfect dialog and knowing observation.
I'm not sure I understood this book. But I'm positive I loved it.
1 like · like · see review
May 18, 2013
vee
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Ipsith
marked it as to-read
Feb 07, 2013
Patricia
marked it as to-read
Nov 09, 2012
Jordan
marked it as to-read
Nov 05, 2012
Madeline
marked it as to-read
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mel Bosworth | 2 | 3 | Nov 08, 2010 04:28am |
Mel Bosworth is a writer living in western Massachusetts. His work has appeared in PANK, Annalemma, elimae, New World Writing, and Per Contra, among others. He is the author of the novel Freight (Folded Word, 2011),the novella Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom (Brown Paper Publishing, 2010), and the fiction chapbook When the Cats Razzed the Chickens (Folded Word, 2009).
More about Mel Bosworth...
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