Self Portraits: Fictions
Author | : Frederic Tuten |
Publisher | : W. W. Norton & Company |
Total Pages | : 249 |
Release | : 2010-09-13 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780393079050 |
ISBN-13 | : 0393079058 |
Rating | : 4/5 (50 Downloads) |
Download or read book Self Portraits: Fictions written by Frederic Tuten and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by the stories the author read to his possibly illiterate Sicilian grandmother as a child, these nested narratives are told by couples traveling through hallucinatory, romantic landscapes. As the traveler in "Self Portrait with Sicily" rides a train through the Bronx, boundaries between worlds, geography, and generations blur, transporting him through Sicily and the rural landscape of his Nonna. On a honeymoon in Spain, the narrator of "Self Portrait with Bullfight" decides that "forbearance" is the key to a lasting marriage and proceeds to try the patience of his new bride with a long-winded tale of the "frisson of rivalry" between two youths vying for the attentions of a Gypsy woman. In "Self Portrait with Cheese," an allegory about a family of bears that flees the circus only to languish, bored, in their freedom, offers a convoluted fable about the needs of artists. Tuten's (The Green Hour) polished stories of beauty, longing, and loss are relatable, yet strange enough that they constantly pique--Publisher's Weekly.