Temporary Shelter: Short Stories

by Mary Gordon

A book of profound and candid stories by one of America’s best novelists

Temporary Shelter is a collection of twenty expertly crafted short stories by Mary Gordon. The characters here are of diverse ages, classes, and nationalities, yet all are alike in their desperate need of safe harbor. A crippled girl must contend not only with disability, but also with her toxic mother and aunts, who block her on the path to maturity. Elsewhere, a woman afflicted by a fearful anxiety that has given her a “death in life” grapples with how not to pass the same curse on to her daughter.

As in Gordon’s acclaimed novels, these stories dissect fraught relationships between men and women, from the shattering effects of divorce to marriages turned numb and cold. Skillfully and empathetically plumbing her characters’ depths, Gordon yields rare catharsis with Temporary Shelter.

Temporary shelter --
The imagination of disaster --
Delia --
The only son of the doctor --
The neighborhood --
Watching the tango --
Agnes --
The magician's wife --
Out of the fray --
The thorn --
Eileen --
Now I am married --
The murderer guest --
The other woman --
Billy --
Safe --
The dancing party --
Violation --
Mrs. Caddidy's last year --
A writing lesson

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

213 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Mary Catherine Gordon is an American writer from Queens and Valley Stream, New York. She is the McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard College. She is best known for her novels, memoirs and literary criticism. In 2008, she was named Official State Author of New York.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

What i love about mary gordon is that she's not afraid of exposition in a story. It was nice for me to read a story that wasn't so spare, like many of the shorts published today. Her work feels full, like a good meal.

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a fan of Mary Gordon so it pains me to admit that I read about two thirds of this book and put it down. The writing is excellent but the stories were so sad and depressing and the endings so.....uneventful. I think the book should have come with a warning label plus it's January........not the time for a sad/depressing book. Oprah would love it!

[Carol Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good stories but the title story is by far the best!

[Gail Kennon]

mostly people living sour,cramped lives locked mercilessly in their egos by an author who seemingly despies them. "She'd brought her daughters here for the long exhausting summers of the single mother. Watched their feuds, exclusions, the shore life of children on long holiday, so brimming and so cruel." lines from "the dancing party" encapsulate the general tone.