Download or read book The Day My Mother Cried and Other Stories written by William D. Kaufman and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2010-09-03 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lasting charm of Kaufman’s stories lies in a delightful mix of personal incidents and observations set against an anchoring backdrop of cultural tradition. His new collection is filled with tales from his parents’ homeland in the Ukraine, his own childhood reminiscences, and his adult travels. We watch the young author forced alongside “every Jewish boy on the block” to emulate Yehudi Menuhin on a ten-dollar violin with a moldy bow until the boy is spared by an innate lack of talent and his father’s judgment of his concert: “Enough is enough is more than enough.” Kaufman is carefully attuned to the awkwardness of adulthood as well as to that of early adolescence. In “Interlude in Bangkok,” his narrator scours the city for a synagogue while pursued by a prostitute. Later he and a friend encounter Greta Garbo in a museum café and are too frightened to approach her. Aware of their intrigue, the mysterious movie star intones, “I am not she”; Kaufman, in his own way, says that of himself in these stories through an autobiographical narrator whose memories take on resonant, literary shapes in their retelling.
Download or read book The Day My Mother Changed Her Name and Other Stories written by William D. Kaufman and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2008-08-18 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Kaufman grew up on his mother’s kugel and his father’s boyhood stories. The son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and the Ukraine and one of five children, he learned how to translate his colorful childhood into tales of his own, regaling audiences of family, friends, and eventually his retirement community with periodic public readings. Now, at the age of 93, Kaufman makes his stories, filled with a sharp wit and telling detail, available to a wider audience for the first time. In the title story a young Jewish boy is shamed by his narrow-minded teacher when she forces him to admit, before the whole class, that his mother cannot read English. His mother’s eventual encounter with the teacher offers a lesson in self-respect with just the right balance of grace and moxie. In “The Search for God in the A & P” a young boy goes on a clandestine mission to compare prices at his father’s grocery competition; the expedition meets with comic results when the young boy refuses to be bullied in this David-and-Goliath-style parable. These semi-autobiographical stories, populated with outsized and magnetic characters, subtly layer the specifics of the Jewish experience with universals dilemmas of childhood, growing up, and old age.
Download or read book The Day They Took My Uncle and Other Stories written by Lionel G. Garcia and published by TCU Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Day They Took My Uncle and Other Stories is a collection of 15 shorts by novelist Lionel Garcia, dealing mostly with working-class and poor inhabitants of the southwestern U.S. Difficulties encountered by Latinos in America are a recurrent theme.
Download or read book The Girl Who Cried Diamonds Other Stories written by Rebecca Hirsch Garcia and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2023-10-03 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Bridging tenderness and violence, and brimming with danger and magic, The Girl Who Cried Diamonds will leave you breathless.” — Anuja Varghese, author of Chrysalis “In these 14 hard-edged and unapologetic stories, debut author Garcia tackles topics ranging from human trafficking and drug abuse to eating disorders and middle-age angst, and in no-frills prose, carves out bizarre and palpable realities, breathing strange life into a horde of depressed, deprived, and abused characters.” — Publishers Weekly The boundaries between realist and fabulist, literary and speculative, are shattered in this remarkable debut collection for readers of Carmen Maria Machado, André Alexis, and Angélique Lalonde A girl born in a small, unnamed pueblo is blessed—or cursed—with the ability to produce valuable gems from her bodily fluids. A tired wife and mother escapes the confines of her oppressive life and body by shapeshifting into a cloud. A girl reckons with the death of her father and her changing familial dynamics while slowly, mysteriously losing her physical senses. Infused with keen insight and presented in startling prose, the stories in this dark, magnetic collection by newcomer Rebecca Hirsch Garcia invite the reader into an uncanny world out of step with reality while exploring the personal and interpersonal in a way that is undeniably, distinctly human.
Download or read book I Saw Your Mother Crying written by Earl Hairston and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 1991-03-24 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1986, a small town in West Virginia was under siege from cocaine and Jamaican posse's. This is the story of my life. I too was under siege to cocaine. A perfect storm of addiction, consuming everything in its wake, including me. It is the story of a mother's love for her son, her family, and her unrelenting efforts to break that siege in their lives. A story of redemption and salvation through a personal awakening and the efforts of a community that refused to watch the continued destruction. A roller coaster ride of blood, pain, tears, and fury. Told through the eyes of a man who found himself deep in the belly of a monster; swallowed whole by the white knuckle grip of addiction. A mother's love and her desperate attempt to break the cycle was the path to redemption, but would he choose to follow it?
Download or read book What My Mother and I Don t Talk About written by Michele Filgate and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “You will devour these beautifully written—and very important—tales of honesty, pain, and resilience” (Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls) from fifteen brilliant writers who explore how what we don’t talk about with our mothers affects us, for better or for worse. As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize that she was actually trying to write about how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. This gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers. Leslie Jamison writes about trying to discover who her seemingly perfect mother was before ever becoming a mom. In Cathi Hanauer’s hilarious piece, she finally gets a chance to have a conversation with her mother that isn’t interrupted by her domineering (but lovable) father. André Aciman writes about what it was like to have a deaf mother. Melissa Febos uses mythology as a lens to look at her close-knit relationship with her psychotherapist mother. And Julianna Baggott talks about having a mom who tells her everything. As Filgate writes, “Our mothers are our first homes, and that’s why we’re always trying to return to them.” There’s relief in acknowledging how what we couldn’t say for so long is a way to heal our relationships with others and, perhaps most important, with ourselves. Contributions by Cathi Hanauer, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Dylan Landis, Bernice L. McFadden, Julianna Baggott, Lynn Steger Strong, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Sari Botton, Nayomi Munaweera, Brandon Taylor, and Leslie Jamison.
Download or read book Leaving Russia written by Maxim D. Shrayer and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-03 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Narrated in the tradition of Tolstoy's confessional trilogy and Nabokov's autobiography, Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story is a searing account of growing up a Jewish refusenik, of a young poet's rebellion against totalitarian culture, and of Soviet fantasies of the West during the Cold War. Shrayer's remembrances ore set against a rich backdrop of politics, travel, and ethnic conflict on the brink of the Soviet empire's collapse. His moving story offers generous doses of humor and tenderness, counterbalanced with longing and violence.
Download or read book Shadows in Winter written by Eitan Fishbane and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-16 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March 2007, Leah Fishbane, a promising young graduate student in the prime of her life, was struck down suddenly with a undiagnosed brain tumor. In this deeply evocative memoir, written during the dark time of the first year following Leah’s death, her husband Eitan gives voice to the overwhelming power of grief and to the deep love that underlies such pain. He tells the story of his efforts to be a good father to his grieving four–year–old child and of his discovery of himself as a parent in ways he had not known before. Along this path, Fishbane asks fundamental questions about the meaning of death and life, about the place of God and faith in the experience of tragedy, reflecting on what it means to live with loss. The result is a poetic testament that will resonate with countless mourners and their loved ones. In giving honest expression to emotions that are at once particular and universal, Shadows in Winter offers a luminous window of comfort and hope to those battling the devastation of loss.
Download or read book Bloodlines and other Stories written by Joyce Russell and published by Mercier Press Ltd. This book was released on 2012-08-15 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does a child come wailing into this world with the patterns that define it already beating in the blood? Do daughters ever believe that mother knows best and can a father come to respect the skills of a son? This collection of stories explores the ties that bind the generations together. It dips into the quiet beauty and the horrors of keeping those bonds intact. There’s lust and loyalty, joy and exploitation, innocence and trust, but deep in the heart of each story — from daughter to father perhaps, or mother to son — there is always the spark of love.
Download or read book Small Friends and other stories and poems written by Jane Morris and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2014-04-02 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The short stories and poems in this collection were written by students at King George VI School and centre for physically disabled children in Zimbabwes second city, Bulawayo. HIV and AIDS have had a devastating effect on all the communities of Zimbabwe, and those with disabilities have not been exempt from the effects of the virus, as is reflected in many of the pieces in this collection. The book clearly demonstrates both the talent of the students and their concern about the issues facing their community and wider society. Some of the stories and poems tell the stories of their lives, some come straight from their imagination, and some simply speak of their dreams for a better future.
Download or read book Night Sounds and Other Stories written by Karen Gettert Shoemaker and published by Dufour Editions. This book was released on 2002-05-03 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A woman recalls the freedom and power of childhood games; a surprise anniversary party goes awry when the husband is hospitalized and the fault lines and strengths of a family are laid bare; a teacher rediscovers her calling amidst unthinkable tragedy; a lonely woman recognizes her responsibility to her sister's troubled life-in this collection of stories the prose and passion of life are brought together in ways that show both the complexity and the simplicity of living. Told against a Midwest background, they focus mainly on women's experiences, yet nonetheless reflect universal conditions. This is what makes Karen Gettert Shoemaker's style so affecting and her stories so appealing. These stories show the importance of knowing the preciousness of this life, whatever form it takes. These are simple stories, told with a grace and elegance that belies their joyful art and craft. "Crafted with care and grace. This book establishes Shoemaker as a talented chronicler of rural life and domestic gestures, with an eye for what's funny in grief, and what's sad in humor."-Publishers Weekly "Short stories at their finest can be the ultimate in fiction: compressed gems that in a few words can create memorable people and emotions out of thin air. Shoemaker's first collection contains such, and readers will laugh and cry at her spare portrayals of loss and friendship... . This is a powerful and valuable collection."-Library Journal
Download or read book Madonna Mia and Other Stories written by Clement William Scott and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book That Day It Rained And Other Stories written by Rimli Bhattacharya and published by Bigfoot Publications. This book was released on 2021-02-18 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Call it a collection of stories or a compilation of human emotions, this is the second solo book of Ms Rimli Bhattacharya. The author calls herself a bohemian and travels around the globe in a caravan which is driven by rape, lust, lies, forbidden love, mental illness, homicide and death. This book had been crafted sitting in that caravan lost in myriad textures and flavours, with those mental demons screaming her to stop. She did not listen. The book which unleashes the dark domain of human mind makes it a compelling read.
Download or read book The Psychiatrist and Other Stories written by Machado De Assis and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1963.
Download or read book The Eighth Continent and Other Stories written by Alba N. Ambert and published by Arte Publico Press. This book was released on 1997-06-30 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This powerful and enriching collection of nine stories explores and illuminates the fusion of intimate and public dramas. Focusing on the persistence of personal memory amid political and historical upheaval, the tales in The Eighth Continent portray the impact of broad political and historical events on individual lives, success in the face of low expectations and the humor that redeems everyday struggles. In rich evocative language, award winning author Alba Ambert invokes strong characters and demonstrates the cool detachment of modern life. Populating the stories are engrossing individuals: underground revolutionaries faced with fear of betrayal; a woman who looks back at a massacre she witnessed as a child and the wrenching consequences of this event on her life; a linguist who makes a dangerous trip to a tropical island and finds a language on the verge of extinction; and a young woman in a mental hospital who challenges our perception of truth and lies, sanity and insanity.
Download or read book The Skyscraper that Flew and Other Stories written by JesÏs Salvador TreviÐo and published by Arte Publico Press. This book was released on 2005-09-30 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ñArroyo Grande is an ordinary town where unusual things sometimes happen,î Choo Choo Torres tells his friends. Indeed, this little West Texas town proves to be a place where unusual things often happen. From an enormous crystal skyscraper that mysteriously appears in the middle of the Arroyo Grande SluggersÍ baseball fielda midnight media shower that inspires a pachanga, complete with music and concessions in an abandoned parking lota sudden shift in the whole townÍs circadian rhythms, keeping everyone up at night and asleep during the daya repair shop in town that boasts ñWe Fix Anythingî in the window and even extends the offer to broken heartsthis collection of short stories brims with offbeat events. In this, the sequel to The Fabulous Sinkhole and Other Stories, JesÏs Salvador TreviÐo once again populates his hamlet with a lively community. ThereÍs Chicas Patas, a zoot-suited newcomer who speaks a 1940s-era slang; Yoli Mendez, a spunky teen who steals the show by performing quadratic equations in her head; Ed Carillo and Mayor Al Snyder, local politicians who seize every opportunity to campaign; and, a bevy of other interesting and unique citizens of Arroyo Grande.
Download or read book The Family Terrorist and Other Stories written by J. L. Torres and published by Arte Publico Press. This book was released on 2008-09-30 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the story ñA Natural Thing,î Eric and MonicaÍs lovemaking is interrupted by an odd sound. Eric has a sinking feeling that it has something to do with his grandfather. HeÍs mortified when he sees what has entered the room: A full-grown rooster, its wattles cut, the feathers trimmed except the wings; its legs plucked to pimpled skin, strutting and bobbing its head like it owned the place. Instantly, Eric realizes that Don Epifanio has converted the basement into a cock-fighting ring. When Don Epifanio offered to renovate the basement it seemed like a blessing, something to keep him busy. Why did he bring the old man to New York City from the island, Eric wonders. Now Don Epifanio complains about everything: the cold weather, the even colder disposition of gringos, the difficulty of finding guayabas and other tropical delicacies. What will the neighbors say when they hear and worse, smell the roosters? How can he bring business associates home? What will Monica think about his family? This is the Bronx, not Puerto Rico! In this stirring collection of eleven stories set in Latino communities in the northeast, J.L. Torres crafts deft reflections of Puerto Ricans living on the mainland. A son who follows his fatherÍs wish to be buried in his beloved isla but canÍt seem to meet his fatherÍs other wish to not be covered with the American flag, a right he has as a veteran of World War II and Korea. A Nuyorican visiting his aunt in Cayey is fascinated with a run-down shack where a mysterious woman lives, surrounded by conflicting stories about her life and loves. In the Bronx, Ralph and Lou are unnerved by a spooky sight: eight red kerchiefs tied equidistantly apart on a cyclone fence. TorresÍ characters reveal the circumstances that shape their lives in these thought-provoking stories that explore machismo, family relationships, love, and even santeria.
