The Cornelius Arms

by Peter Donahue

Charm and setting reminiscent of early-90s Seattle.... The fourteen stories in this powerful new collection create a vivid, often startling portrait of contemporary Seattle. Set throughout the city's varied and colorful neighborhoods, the stories focus on the residents of a downtown apartment building: from an aging tenant organizer to a breeder of butterflies, and emigre artist to a deluded newspaper pressman, an alcoholic Mormon woman to a disillusioned college professor, a lonely secretary to a lovelorn delivery boy, a pair of roommate junkies to a gang of skinheads, an evicted Indian maskmaker to an octogenarian husband and wife. These prize-winning stories depict working and out-of-work people in conflict with themselves and their urban surroundings--struggling to preserve their dignity and, with any luck, pay the rent.

262 pages, Paperback

First published June 20, 2000

Reviews

[Mary]

I was preparing for a trip to visit Seattle for the first time, and I wanted to read something about or based in the city. The Seattle Public Library's website has a great list of suggestions. The Cornelius Arms was exactly what I was looking for: a collection of stories based in the recent past about several tenants of a downtown Seattle apartment building. The stories examine all kinds of aspects of what living in that city has been like over time, and what it has and could become. Reading it was like sitting down to dinner every night for weeks with different locals, and learning about the place through their conversations.

Also, since it's based on a real building (at 3rd and Blanchard, it is now used as student housing for the Art Institute), it was a nice bonus to be able to see it and put it in context.

[Tana]

Wonderful descriptive stories of seattle folks living in a pre-war apartment building in the Denny Regrade (aka Belltown) in the 80s. A must read for any fans of historic Seattle, and when downtown had lots of grit and character.
The Cornelius Arms