Starting Over: Stories [Paperback]

Since her remarkable debut in 1948, Elizabeth Spencer has transfixed readers with her uncanny ability to portray how twisted, chafing, inescapable, and life-supporting (Alice Munro) the ties are that bind families and marriages. Here, with nine new stories, Spencer maps the murky territory between our obligations and our desires (David L. Ulin,There seems to be nothing this extraordinary writer cant do& Spencer recounts the details and doings of her characters in such spare, unfussy, almost conversational prose that she sounds at first like nothing so much as a shrewd family storyteller&. Spencers great gift is her ability to take ordinariness and turn it inside out, to find focus in a muddle&Dazzling&a work of genius.Spencer has a special gift for the nuances in ordinary human relationships; she creates suspense via anticipation more than through interactions themselves&. Spencers strength lies in highlighting human truths in captured moments.Spencers elegant stories are more about what doesnt happen than what does&. Quiet and spare prose ferries tiny but explosive clues which point to powerful insights lurking between the lines&. In Spencers world, the emotional debt ceiling is always on the rise.Spencers first work of fiction, a novel titledSpencer [is] an elegant and subtle writer.& Like Chekhov, the moments of most acute miserythose achingly common things that nearly kill us allare offstage.& There are nine stories here, all wonderful, subtle and complexwhich makes the cumulative effect all the more alarming.Spencers stories dance with the illusion of happiness but swell with unspoken sadness. Humor bubbles to the surface in the most unexpected ways &but that humor, too, is fragile&.She is, as she ever was, one of Americas best short story writers, with her invention and craft undimmed. Next time they bring out SpencersWinner of the Rea Award for Short Fiction