Some of Her Friends That Year: New and Selected Stories

by Maxine Chernoff

Highly regarded for her deft and humorous portrayals of the dark side of modern living, Maxine Chernoff’s latest collection is a droll, poetic field guide to the endearing and troubling aspects of human behavior. Chernoff fans will relish the sixteen new stories, and new readers will discover a wonderful assemblage of Chernoff’s likeable and contemplative characters. Chernoff continues to establish herself as a master of the short story genre with this excellent collection.

Marketing Plans:
National Author tour will include AWP Conference, New York, Chicago, and California
National publicity
Co-op available

Born in Chicago in 1952, Maxine Chernoff has published several collections of poems, short stories, and novels, including Signs of Devotion, which was a New York Times Notable Book. She edits the long-running literary journal New American Writing and is chair of the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University.

Also Available:
Bop TP $9.95 0-918273-19-6 CUSA
American Heaven TC $21.95 1-56689-041-1 CUSA

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

360 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and insightful stories, many of them about growing up in/living in a Jewish neighborhood in Chicago. Family stories. Pretty delightful. My interest is in the growing up/coming of age stories set in Chicago, which I really enjoyed. If any of you know other stories about growing up in Chicago, let me know, thanks. I am putting together a book of stories from a variety of neighborhoods/ethnicities/identities/etc.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm back to reading short stories because I'm back to writing short stories and am studying endings. Chernoff stops me short because she ends the story two paragraphs early which leaves it "open." Reader imagination takes off. I learned about writing from reading her.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very uneven. Some stories were great, other stories seemed to focus on awful people and I felt like I was wasting my time reading about them.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. The stories that had been previously published were better, but still not very compelling. I like at least one of the recurring characters, but felt that maybe he wasn't really recurring, but was unfinished in one of his appearances.