Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories

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Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 706 ratings · 168 reviews

In this sumptuous offering, one of our premier storytellers provides a feast for fiction aficionados. Spanning four decades and three prize-winning collections, these 21 vintage selected stories and 13 scintillating new ones take us around the world, from Jerusalem to Central America, from tsarist Russia to London during the Blitz, from central Europe to Manhattan, and fro...more

Paperback, 373 pages

Published January 11th 2011 by Lookout Books/Publishing Laboratory of UNC-Wilmington

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National Book Award 2011 Fiction Shortlist

2nd out of 5 books — 6 voters

National Book Critics Circle Award Winners (Fiction)

15th out of 38 books — 8 voters

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Nov 04, 2012 Laysee rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read Ann Patchett’s “Introduction” to Edith Pearlman’s Binocular Vision and was seized by a desire to begin reading this collection of short stories and by a conflicting desire to savor it later like a dessert on some desert island. I have never heard of Edith Pearlman. Of course, I could not wait. I started reading slowly, making sure I had stories left to tie me over on a recent vacation. I read one story at a time and I was loathe to finish the last.

This turned out to be an amazing collecti...more I read Ann Patchett’s “Introduction” to Edith Pearlman’s Binocular Vision and was seized by a desire to begin reading this collection of short stories and by a conflicting desire to savor it later like a dessert on some desert island. I have never heard of Edith Pearlman. Of course, I could not wait. I started reading slowly, making sure I had stories left to tie me over on a recent vacation. I read one story at a time and I was loathe to finish the last.

This turned out to be an amazing collection of short stories. Binocular Vision is the Winner of the 2011 PEN/Malamud award for excellence in short fiction and the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award. It contained 3 prize-winning collections of stories set in many cities and countries around the world: Godolphin a fictional suburb in Boston (mostly), New York, Central America, central Europe, London, Russia, and Jerusalem.

Pearlman’s stories reflected a keen observation of the human condition. The observations were borne out of the wisdom of lived experience. Married people may find this true - "although one may never get over a failed marriage, the rage and sorrow will cease" (“Settlers”). Pearlman’s characters were fleshed out with surprising intricacy. Stories were told of exceptional children (giftedness, Down syndrome, autism); aging folks confronting illness, mortality, death of friends; couples in love, couples in crisis; unlikely friendships and unions. The titular story offered a perspective of a child peering naively into adult life and her sudden apprehension of the complexities beneath placid adult domesticity. In this and many of Pearlman’s stories, there were moments of epiphany: a piece of history that illuminated the present or a startling denouement of reality.

In “Inbound”, we observed how the lives of the families were “melded together like gumdrops on a window sill’ on account of a disabled child. Pearlman captured a sense of dislocation and displacement of people: Jews in a dusty sun beaten barrio in Central America (“A Day of Awe”) or an Asian immigrant serving as a domestic help in foreign climes (“ALLOG”). In the latter, one rejoiced over friendships that were formed in a community of vulnerable individuals. How apt that we all “live in a kind of mutual burrow” (“Aunt Telephone”). In “The Little Wife” it was touching to read about a 60-year-old visiting for the last time his old college buddy who was dying and to learn of friendships that cannot be severed in death.

One of my favorite stories is “Vallies”, about Val, a nanny much loved for her bedtime stories. Coined “vallies” by her young charges, they were not the run-of-the-mill fairy tales but rather Medieval interactive dilemmas which engaged the children in seeking solutions. How clever! As it turned out, there was more to “vallies” that surprised even the reader.

Patchett was incisively accurate in her commentary on the beauty of Pearlman’s prose: "The rhythm of the language carried the reader forward as much as the plot." There were lines that were so picturesque, I read and re-read them. I heard voices that "tingled like glass droplets" and was mesmerized by the New York sky at 5 o’clock, "royal in December, slate in March, turquoise in June, cornflower in September". I love these phrases an old gentleman alluded to while contemplating new interests and pursuits: "flowers in your wilderness, stars in your night" (“Relic and Type”).

As Ann Patchett predicted, by the time I got to the end of several of Pearlman’s stories, I found myself turning to the front cover and starting over. The stories are so rich with nuances they offer new insights when revisited. Binocular Vision is a literary treasure.
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Apr 22, 2013 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: shortstory-shortstories-novellas, published-2011, spring-2013, radio-4, fradio, north-americas, period-piece, lifestyles-deathstyles, incest-agameforallthefamily, families

19:45 Sunday R4

"These stories are an exercise in imagination and compassion.. a trip around the world.." ANN PATCHETT, author of Bel Canto

Blurb: Edith Pearlman has been writing stories for decades and is in her mid seventies. Recognition duly arrived in America with various awards, but only recently has her collection, Binocular Vision, been acclaimed in Britain. Now there's chance to hear three of the tales on radio, and be acquainted with a voice that is compelling and new to us...

Reader Lydia...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Alan by: short review

Shelves: short-stories

Believe the hype. A seemingly unspectacular writer who builds the lightest trap around you and you are caught in the elegant depiction of a world of love and irritation, humour and spiciness. Complex, exquisite, resonant stories of - mainly - middle class citizens of Godolphin (a fictional suburb of Boston), usually Jewish, and their various mis/adventures in love, family and work (mainly academic, sometimes political). Following or suppressing an erotic impulse; dealing with the needs of childr...more

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May 16, 2013 Carl Brush rated it 5 of 5 stars

If anyone can prove to me there's a better short story writer than Edith Pearlman, I'll eat my keyboard. Why I haven't stumbled on to her long ago is as big a puzzle to me as why I've missed all the other people and things that have zipped by behind my back over the years. Don't trust my assessment? How about Ann Patchett who says in her introduction to Binocular Vision, "Put her stories beside those of John Updike and Alice Munro. That's where they belong." Amen, I say, Amen.

When you have such...more If anyone can prove to me there's a better short story writer than Edith Pearlman, I'll eat my keyboard. Why I haven't stumbled on to her long ago is as big a puzzle to me as why I've missed all the other people and things that have zipped by behind my back over the years. Don't trust my assessment? How about Ann Patchett who says in her introduction to Binocular Vision, "Put her stories beside those of John Updike and Alice Munro. That's where they belong." Amen, I say, Amen.

When you have such a treasure chest of gems in front of you, you're tempted to pick favorites. At least I am. So I tried. Hmmm. How about the linked stories of Sonya and her work in the WWII refugee camps and subsequent efforts to reintegrate into American society? Or perhaps the story of brother-sister incest that makes the taboo seem almost normal, or at least not a cause for stoning. I could go for the one about the American toy company executive trying to set up a division in a European city where everyone speaks a bewildering array of languages and his hosts' daughter seems to have vanished without explanation. Oh, how about the one about the love affair between the transportation minister and the artist, the one where a one night stand turns into a "love-of-my-life" kind of thing, except they see each other only once every ten years or so, and that from afar.

So, no, I give up, no favorites. In a way, each one is my favorite because Pearlman fashions them all with exquisite care, every sentence a gem--gems within the larger gem of the story within the larger gem of this whole brilliant collection. (Bad metaphor, I know, unless you're in a paranormal universe.) Here are a couple of sample passages I chose not only for their craftsmanship but to illustrate her geographic, cultural, and linguistic range:

Señora Marta Perera de Lefkowitz, minister of health, listened and memorized. Her chin was slightly raised, her eyelids half lowered over pale eyes. This was the pose that the newspapers caricatured most often.

My god, how much is revealed, how much suggested, how much concealed in that passage. You could make a long list.

Or from "Purim Night" (lots of Judaic themes in Pearlman's stories) when Ida's trying to explain to a young German boy how Esther saved the Jews way back when.

"A girl with good looks and a beautiful hat can work miracles," Ida said, "Witholding the fuck. And that word, Ludwig, is improper ... Ludwig ran away.

The whole legend of Esther and the kernel of the story itself lies in that short passage.

And the whole art form of the short story is contained and explained in this stunning collection. Buy it. Read it. Be inspired and amazed.(less)

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Jan 23, 2013 CarolineFromConcord rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't usually read short stories. I like to get lost in the same story for months. But I saw that Edith Pearlman was an older writer. living not far from me, who had won awards, so I thought I'd try her out. Her stories turned out to be good--each one a perfect little gem with an unexpected but, in retrospect, thoroughly logical ending. They covered a wide range of topics. Twenty-one were "selected" -- from her past publications. Thirteen were new. The "selected" had primarily, but not exclusi...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Jack Urquhart rated it 5 of 5 stars

Binocular Vision, by Edith Pearlman: "Cautious words make the story convincing."

I have been trying to fathom what it is about Edith Pearlman’s marvelous Binocular Vision (Lookout Books, January 2011) that makes this story collection such a treasure. That is why it was almost a relief to stumble upon the “cautious words” quote attributed to her and referenced in the title of this review. In truth, there doesn’t seem to be a single recklessly placed word in the 34 stories—13 of them previously unp...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

An immensely beautiful and crafted collection of short stories. Short stories require tight control on the writer's part - one step down from poetry. A poem cannot afford to have one word off or the poem is ruined. Short stories must be similarly crafted. But Pearlman demonstrates that "crafted" does not mean boring or lacking illumination. Her wit is masterful and she provides magnificent "aha" moments. In a world dominated by blockbuster fiction - so much of it written in the first person narr...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Bob Mustin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I get where Pearlman gets the name from this collection, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
The short story as an art form is more wide open than most readers – and writers ¬– realize. Short fiction can depict characters at a depth that makes some novels look amateurish. And the form can tell the most audacious of tales, or portray culture in ways that inform as much as does history. All this in 300 words or in 20,000. When an author and an editor compile a collection such as this one, you can ex...more I get where Pearlman gets the name from this collection, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
The short story as an art form is more wide open than most readers – and writers ¬– realize. Short fiction can depict characters at a depth that makes some novels look amateurish. And the form can tell the most audacious of tales, or portray culture in ways that inform as much as does history. All this in 300 words or in 20,000. When an author and an editor compile a collection such as this one, you can expect connecting threads – tenuous ones, or threads so thick and interwoven they all but approach a novel. Or, in Pearlman’s case here, the stories are a montage, the connections cultural, and stylistic.

A good many of these stories are of Jewish culture, with the Holocaust and Jewish diaspora looming like thunderclouds. Pearlman’s approach is to people her stories in impeccably taut, almost masculine prose – the sort that would make Hemingway sit back and take note.
The collection’s name? Clearly, she bores into singular moments of her characters’ lives, using nondescript things as metaphors for aspects of these lives. In doing so, Pearlman must leave hazy the grander context of her characters’ lives: place, many degrees of family nuance, history. In this sort of story, the reader must follow the author into an almost microscopic view of her characters’ lives, their moments of story. The down side for readers of this most artful type of fiction is that he/she must grasp for context, must survey the blurred corona surrounding this microscopic vision in order not to feel lost is space.

I understand this sort of approach, but it isn’t easy from the reader’s standpoint – in fact, when, in the case of this collection, the structure and approach to characterization are so similar from story to story, it’s hard to want to finish them. I kept turning pages, wanting something to change, to make me breathe refreshed at story’s end and look forward to the next, unexpected literary adventure. Sadly, I didn’t find that here.
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Feb 11, 2013 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was one of the richest, most rewarding reading experiences I've had in a long time. I have to admit that I had a hard time getting into it at first -- maybe I wasn't in the right mood, maybe the first few stories didn't "click" with me -- so I put it aside for a bit; when I picked it up again, the next story I read was wonderful and I never looked back. There is a cumulative power to the stories -- so deftly crafted and beautifully observed, nothing showy in content or style, layering...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Jan Rice rated it 4 of 5 stars

Edith Pearlman has been writing for 40 years but got "discovered" in the last couple of years. She has been winning awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award last year. I discovered her this month when I went to a book club discussion of Binocular Vision.

She writes short stories. I used to read short stories when I was a child but not so much lately. Why is that? My working theory was one too many New Yorker short stories that left me hanging. But maybe, too, because I like to inv...more

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May 10, 2012 Ruthmgon rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a master storyteller. You get the sense that this collection just taps the surface of the body of work this author has put out. The writing is wonderful, the characters and situations vivid. Some stories I liked more than others, but there is not a bad one in this bunch. I feel like I have read 20+ different novels.

And to top it off, not one of the people I asked who are readers had ever heard of this author.

Several of these stories have a surprising twist at the end, by in large chara...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: unfinished-abandoned

I read about 70 pages. I found the stories tragically boring. Tragically because Ann Patchett's glowing introduction prepared me to be wowed, and I was not. I was so not wowed that I choose to defy reason and review a book that I have not gotten even a quarter of the way through. I acknowledge that I see why people may like Pearlman's prose. It's blunt, yet delicate. It's written kind of matter-of-fact. But it's banal. It is. When I read short stories, I expect punch, or I look for it, anyway, a...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Ally Armistead rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Binocular Vision" is a beautiful yet challenging collection: it is an important read, and yet story after story the reader must be willing to rise to the occasion, connect the dots, paddle around in a world with little context, and eventually emerge enlightened.

Not surprisingly, this is the structure of the stories themselves: Pearlman begins in media res with little tangible anchoring, and pushes through the day-in-day-out life of her characters until something poignant emerges. I confess: as...more "Binocular Vision" is a beautiful yet challenging collection: it is an important read, and yet story after story the reader must be willing to rise to the occasion, connect the dots, paddle around in a world with little context, and eventually emerge enlightened.

Not surprisingly, this is the structure of the stories themselves: Pearlman begins in media res with little tangible anchoring, and pushes through the day-in-day-out life of her characters until something poignant emerges. I confess: as a reader, this formula (while beautiful in its artful way) is difficult, and one must succumb to this difficulty, or abandon the story entirely. In this way, Pearlman defines her audience immediately: those with a patient temperament, and those in love with the short fiction form.

The collection--just as the title might imply--is a binocular glimpse into a wide array of ordinary people. Pearlman's characters range from Jewish Holocaust survivors, Russian immigrants, American children, marital couples, and WW II nurses. However, just as soon as we have a "handle" on a character or situation, the focus shifts, and what we understood previously (in a limited, magnified frame) dissipates entirely, until we see a new reality in a wider context.

Pearlman, in my opinion, accomplishes this most profoundly in the title story itself (the story of a young boy misunderstanding what he sees when spying on his next-door neighbors), "Inbound" (the story of a young girl who is running away from the responsibility of having a younger sister with Down's Syndrome), "The Noncombatant" (the story of an old war veteran who has a heart condition, but still finds himself chasing after possibilities), "Hanging Fire" (the story of a woman who goes to live with her aunts, and finds herself trapped in life and seriously considering the advances of an older man), and "Lineage" (the story of a Russian woman in a hospital who says she's the daughter of a tsar).

In each of these, Pearlman gives readers a delightful twist--or "refocusing"--that has us questioning our assumptions and understanding of reality, truth, morality, and love. A gorgeous collection, "Binocular Vision" is a must-read, but one that must be approached with great patience, openness, and hard work. (less)

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Jan 03, 2012 Debra Lowman rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would consider Edith Pearlman a staple in the world of short stories. Binocular Vision was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award in the category of fiction. If you have not read Pearlman before, you ought to not only because it will make you more 'well-read' in the world of quality literature, but also because Pearlman truly chooses her words with care and is able to weave a lot into a very short amount of text. Her stories are about love, marriage, death, and betrayal in various forms t...more

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May 28, 2012 Kristin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Final review: I did enjoy some stories very much but I'm going to stick by my story that some of the stories were obsessively depressing and I really don't find that necessary. The second to last one about Bosky's Zoo, don't have my book in front of me, with snakes eating mice and the sickening treatment of a friend--well, I don't know why one needs to write these things. Seek therapy instead.

She's an excellent writer. Let's get her some happier themes.

++++++++++
Updated review: last night I rea...more Final review: I did enjoy some stories very much but I'm going to stick by my story that some of the stories were obsessively depressing and I really don't find that necessary. The second to last one about Bosky's Zoo, don't have my book in front of me, with snakes eating mice and the sickening treatment of a friend--well, I don't know why one needs to write these things. Seek therapy instead.

She's an excellent writer. Let's get her some happier themes.

++++++++++
Updated review: last night I read two FANTASTIC stories including the title story of Binocular Vision and also Unravished Bride. Wow, okay, now I've changed my whole opinion of her. These were about disappointment and acceptance and wholly different and to me, wholly wonderful. I've moved her up to four stars based on those two stories...yay! Still holding out on Pulitzer quality but I'm amenable...

++++++++++++++
Okay, I admit I am only half-way through this book--at least my Kindle tells me so. I have realized that reading short stories on a Kindle is not rewarding--I like to pick and choose based on titles and it's hard to do on the Kindle.

I picked up the book based on Ann Patchett's editorial about the lack of Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2012. She dedicated an enthusiastic paragraph to Binocular Vision and how it should have been a front-runner, and that it was a finalist for the National Book Award, etc, etc. Now, she failed to mention that she wrote the prologue so I would have appreciated full disclosure there. So I was ready for MAGIC!

The stories are short. They are extremely well-written and the characters are vivid and filled out--a skill in short-story writing that I find unfathomable...I enjoyed a few of them in their description of refuge camps after WWII, the strange relationships in between people who were almost phantom-like in the aftermath.

I am losing patience, however, with the single-minded depressive nature of every story. There is little to be happy about. You would think that I would be in favor of that, given my love of Alice Munro who is not the happiest spark on the planet. These stories make me uncomfortable and deeply unhappy--cancer eating up the body of a man married to a much-younger woman, weird clairvoyance in sex in the back room of the refuge camp...

Bottom line: I would not have Pulitzered this one myself. But I retain the right to change my review after finishing all the stories. Who knows? Maybe there will be light somewhere in this tunnel?(less)

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Sep 25, 2011 Ann Fisher rated it 5 of 5 stars

Finishing this book made me want to go back to my other goodreads reviews and consider knocking them down a star or two so I could make it clear how incredibly wonderful this collection is. Perhaps my favorite book of 2011, and in a year when I also read Cutting for Stone and The Master and Margarita that's saying something.

Unlike many of my friends, I do love short stories, so I didn't have that obstacle to overcome. But this collection is a particular gem. Like some of the earlier reviewers,...more

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May 23, 2012 Elaine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

A master of the form ... And the form is one I don't usually love. But Pearlman packs as much character, plot, emotion and lovely writing into a handful of pages as most writers do in 400. Her meditations on aging, and particularly, solitarinesss are s clear eyed and honest - you feel that she is saying things that other writers daren't say. Her gentle acceptance and understanding of the many many ways that people organize their lives and their affections puts many younger writers to shame. I sh...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Nathan Chadwick rated it 3 of 5 stars

This may be the fault of how I read this, but I found that reading these stories as a book led me more to liking then loving this book. The themes become repetitious and Pearlman's story structure seemed to jump out at as similar with each passing story. There are some wonderful gems in here. I liked "Rules", "Self-Reliance", "Capers", "Bincoluar Vision", "Settlers", and "Toyfolk" more than most. The collection doesn't lack for wit or pathos and I really connected to many of these stories. Overa...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Tess Mertens-Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a book of short stories by Edith Perlman. This is not a light summer read. Her stories deal with Anti-Semitism, birth defects, the Holocaust and people struggling to overcome physical and emotional barriers.
I was especially moved by a story entitled "Tess". It was the story of a two year old with multiple birth defects that was institutionalized. Everyone loved her, except her parents. Her father abandoned her at birth, and her mother tried but did not have the skills. Her beautiful eyes...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Marcy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have not really been a reader of short stories...until now. Edith Pearlman has such insight into people of all ages. She develops her characters so quickly by allowing the reader to hear the characters' inner voices. The variety of stories, from the past and the present, keep the reader engaged. She does not give away all of the endings in each story, which allows the reader to do some reflecting for himself/herself. Edith understands the differences and similarities of cultures, which comes t...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Nicolemauerman rated it 4 of 5 stars

It’s been a while since I read short stories. I usually love them and this collection is no different. Some of these stories are short, just a couple of pages, but are packed with intellect and strong characters. My only complaint with this book is the amount of stories; there were just too many. These were the type of stories that needed time and there were so many that I felt I couldn’t give them the time they deserved. At the end of this collection I felt fulfilled but exhausted. Binocular Vi...more

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Aug 19, 2012 wade rated it 4 of 5 stars

Almost 5 stars but not quite but is more because of me than the book. This book is about as good a collection of short stories as I have ever read but It just hard for me to give short stories 5 stars because there will always be some unevenness in a collection (Some you like better than others). That said. this is a solid group. Many have subject matter dealing with Jewish characters but are entertaining and thought provoking to non Jews. The book was a National book Award Finalist and its eas...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although I have traditionally loved short stories, I have strayed from the genre since I've come to feel many authors exaggerate circumstances to startle and engage their reader in the short period of time they have to tell each story. Many are sad and depressing. But, like Jigs and Reels by Joanne Harris, I really enjoyed these stories. It is not a collection that drags you down and leaves you gasping for air. Ann Patchett says it all in her introduction, which is also worth reading: "It is not...more

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May 20, 2012 Lynne rated it 4 of 5 stars

A wonderful collection of short stories that is best savored, like a drink after dinner or a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning. I borrowed this book from the library and it will be returned late because I couldn't read it within 7 days. I felt as if I was being forced fed. I decided to slow down and return the book late, if only to enjoy the company of the strangers I got to know a little longer. While short, these stories had wonderfully rich and well-developed characters and involving situat...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars

Edith Pearlman, winner of this year’s National Book Critics’ Circle Award, has quietly published dozens of stories over the last forty years in small literary magazines. Although many were selected for anthologies and “best-of” awards, few readers had heard of her until the University of North Carolina Wilmington published Binocular Vision - New and Selected Stories in 2011.

Pearlman mainly writes about women. Most are Jewish. Many are older, smart, and career-minded. Some are refugees. Though he...more Edith Pearlman, winner of this year’s National Book Critics’ Circle Award, has quietly published dozens of stories over the last forty years in small literary magazines. Although many were selected for anthologies and “best-of” awards, few readers had heard of her until the University of North Carolina Wilmington published Binocular Vision - New and Selected Stories in 2011.

Pearlman mainly writes about women. Most are Jewish. Many are older, smart, and career-minded. Some are refugees. Though her style is understated and direct, she captures the subtle changes in her characters’ lives with fresh, well-placed metaphors.

A doctor living in a Central American country, working as health minister for a precarious liberal government, impulsively gives a precious diamond to a poor young mother, despite knowing that she herself will need the money it would bring when she is forced into political exile.

A young American teenager observes a poker game between her parents and their rabbi the night before her synagogue receives a Czech torah, and she begins to comprehend the delicate ramifications of chance in all of their lives.

A doctor confronts a fatal illness and takes her life into her own hands.

An Asian man immigrates to Israel as a caretaker and brings hope and life to the downcast residents of a poor apartment complex.

These stories don’t startle or shock; they build to a soft boil with detailed observation. In “Hanging Fire,” for example, Nancy, a plain twenty-one-year-old “whose long chin had been designed as a bookmark,” returns home to Maine after graduating from college and attending a friend’s wedding. In the long dull summer she comes to terms with the choices in front of her after being rejected by the local tennis pro for whom she carries a flame:

“Nancy soared. She felt detached, exalted. To be defeated, she realized, is also to be disburdened. One travels lighter. Nevertheless…Leo’s cough drop eyes shone.” She imagines the passionate encounter that will never happen. Still, she’s strong enough and wise enough to turn down a pale suitor from college whom she doesn’t love.

In Pearlman’s stories, there is a frank acknowledgment of changes beyond the individual’s control, of life leading to sadness, grief and death. What illuminates each is Pearlman’s respect for the dignity of life, the defiant gesture and, ultimately, the acceptance of what is.
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Jun 15, 2012 Heidi rated it 5 of 5 stars

this is from my review on Michele Berger's Fantastic blog on Creativity and Writing. http://micheleberger.wordpress.com/20...

I’ve just fallen into literary love with a writer I assumed was brand new, Edith Pearlman.When I finished reading her short story, “Tess,” I put down my iPad and sat still for a moment with the intense feeling it left me. It’s a difficult sensation to describe to those who haven’t yet learned to love the short story. The sensation feels as though an important truth about...more this is from my review on Michele Berger's Fantastic blog on Creativity and Writing. http://micheleberger.wordpress.com/20...

I’ve just fallen into literary love with a writer I assumed was brand new, Edith Pearlman.When I finished reading her short story, “Tess,” I put down my iPad and sat still for a moment with the intense feeling it left me. It’s a difficult sensation to describe to those who haven’t yet learned to love the short story. The sensation feels as though an important truth about one corner of the whole world has been encapsulated in an exquisite, but simple, jewel that I have just held in my hands, and I want to know how it is possible the author could have constructed something so precious there.
Anyone who wants to know how to write, or even read, a short story would wisely begin with Pearlman. One reason her stories are so remarkable is Pearlman writes amazing sentences; these are sentences that tell a story as much as the plot itself conveys meaning. For instance, in “Rules,” Donna, a woman who works at the day-shelter, hands Ollie, a mother, diapers. Donna knows she urgently needs them; as soon as she hands them to Ollie, she knows that a couple of diapers cannot possibly fill the gulf of need, so then she just hands Ollie the whole box. The narrator explains: “Donna gave Ollie both money and Pampers, and was rewarded by a mammoth embrace that made her grin—it was so easy, so emphatic, so momentarily sincere, so ultimately meaningless” (190). Within a single sentence, we understand the subtleties of an emotionally complex transaction that another writer might take a paragraph to describe.
For those of us who want to emulate Pearlman, it is important to know that this kind of writing does not happen in an afternoon: Great sentences are hard won. Pearlman told interviewer Daniel Jaffee of BiblioBuffet, “Each short story takes several weeks (five days a week, about four hours a day) to write, in many, many drafts, all on the typewriter. The nth draft then marinates in a drawer while I work on the next story or piece. [...] So each story takes about a month and a half in total time.” I will post this timeline near my computer, so I remember not to rush my creative process so much. Pearlman is a great example.
Pearlman’s plots are also worthy to emulate. “Tess,” a first-person account from the point of view of the mother of a severely disabled two year-old child in the hospital on life support is complex. The mother describes circumstances around Tess’s birth and her own life difficulties: “When I had to leave the Sea View a month before the baby because of some law about lifting and stuff, Billie said not to worry. I could come back whenever I was ready” (95). In alternate passages she describes the services Tess requires from her many different health care providers: “[H]er friends know she cannot hear, but they talk to her anyway, for to see faces in action, lips moving, is instructive for Tess, according to the neuro-audiologist” (97). The action leads up to our being convinced that Tess’s mom is a deeply caring parent, who, though she may not be well educated, is doing the best she can to advocate for a daughter who may not have much hope of recovering. Pearlman is masterful at developing the roomful of characters who manage Tess’s care, and at building tension; plainly, Tess is going to die. What is not clear is what will be resolution of the story when the mother goes to the windowsill to retrieve the toy she thinks is Tess’s favorite: “The red floppy dog. They always forgot it. I put it in a corner of the crib.Then I unscrewed the end of the heart tube from the aqua clothespin and slipped it under the blanket so the blood would pool quiet and invisible like a monthly until there would be no more left” (105). It is an emotional ending, but one that causes the reader a genuine heart-stopping moment, a mixture of grief, disturbance, and reliefs
This precise feeling brought me immediately back to the title page of Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories, and I wondered how I could have missed being a fan of this writer who has been publishing award-winning literary fiction for three decades. Then I knew I wanted to share her with everyone I could. What better occasion than Women’s History Month?
Just this month, on March 8, 2012, Pearlman’s short story collection won the National Book Critics Circle award for fiction. Binocular Vision also won the 2011 PEN/Malamud prize for outstanding short fiction and was nominated last fall for the National Book Awards. Individual stories have won numerous awards in the past as well.
Edith Pearlman is a true gem, a woman writer worth modeling oneself on.

Sources:

Jaffee, Daniel. “Talking Across the Table. Edith Pearlman: An Interview.” (11-13-2011). BiblioBuffet.com. http://www.bibliobuffet.com/archive-i.... (3-15-2012).
Pearlman, Edith; Ann Patchett (2011-01-11). Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories (p. 190). Lookout Books. Kindle Edition. (3-16-12).
Pearlman, Edith reading at the 2011 National Book Foundation Awards.

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Sep 25, 2012 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Each of these short stories stand on their own: poetically written, genuine, intriguing, thought-provoking. At the same time, the details and locations reappear in different contexts, forming surprising connections and inviting the reader to think again. I was not, however, initially as enthusiastic about this collection. It took me a story or two to fall in love with Edith Pearlman's style and characters. Eventually I did fall in love. I don't think it will be long before I re-read this book.

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Aug 29, 2010 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars

These are stunning short stories: a very happy discovery. I'm selling this for John Blair, who are distributing it for UNC Wilmington. The quotes (from TC Boyle, Ann Patchett, Alice Mattison) on the cover almost oversell this book. Ann Patchett says in the introduction "To that great list of human mysteries which includes the construction of the pyramids and the persistent use of Styrofoam as packing material let me add this one: why isn't Edith Pearlman famous?" Enough said.

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Feb 11, 2013 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: grown-up-books

Short stories are the neglected stepsister of novels. I've never been sure why they aren't more popular: whole worlds in a few pages! Pearlman is masterful in the best of these stories. Her finest, most striking ability is her capacity to execute a perfect turn ( one that alters the way one reads the entire story) often in the very last line. This can leave one dizzied, even breathless.
The only thing holding me back from a five star rating: while I like the thin strands linking several stories...more

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Jul 06, 2012 SEY rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-group

This was some of the best writing I've read in a long time! The stories are exquisite and Ms. Pearlman has arranged them beautifully. Some have appeared before, some are new but her wide range of experience, everything from post war angst to Jewish life and set in places like contemporary New England, Central America and Eastern Europe in the 50's to name but a few. READ THIS BOOK! I feel like Oprah, I never say that but I'm passing along the secret handshake, now you know!

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