The first and only short story collection by William Melvin Kelley, author of A Different Drummer, and the source from which he drew inspiration for his subsequent novels.
Originally published in 1964, this collection of sixteen stories includes three linked sets of stories about the Carey, Bedlow, and Dunford families. They represent the earliest work of William Melvin Kelley and provided a rich source of stories and characters who were to fill out his later novels.
Spanning generations from the Deep South during Reconstruction to New York City in the 1960s, these insightful stories depict African American families—their struggles, their…
I've read Moby Dick once or twice before some years ago, but had never heard it read out loud. Listening to it on Audio book read by a brilliant actor, the late William Hootkins, the world of 19th century whaling came alive in all it's gruesome glory. An unforgettable experience.
Melville's tale of the whaling industry, and one captain's obsession with revenge against the Great White Whale that took his leg. Classics Illustrated tells this wonderful tale in colourful comic strip form, offering an excellent introduction for younger readers. This edition also includes a biography of Herman Melville and study questions, which can be used both in the classroom or at home to further engage the reader in the work at hand.
Professor Timofey Pnin, late of Tsarist Russia, is now precariously perched at the heart of an American campus. Battling with American life and language, Pnin must face great hazards in this new world: the ruination of his beautiful lumber-room-as-office; the removal of his teeth and the fitting of new ones; the search for a suitable boarding house; and the trials of taking the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he has yet to master.
Wry, intelligent and moving, Pnin reveals the absurd and affecting story of one man in exile.
Uncommon Weather: Alaska Stories Richard Chiappone University of Alaska Press (Sep 16, 2024) Softcover $19.95 (166pp) 978-1-64642-636-2 SHORT STORIES In Richard Chiappone’s dark and humorous short story collection Uncommon Weather, people battle isolation, boredom, and existential anxiety. These twelve intricate stories are set in Alaska’s small towns and vast wildernesses and explore deep isolation. There are empathetic characters who are flawed and just shy of irredeemable; there are people with fresh wounds whose futures seem dismal. Climate change and infidelity cause existential insecurity too. In the haunting story “Little Wing,” a bush doctor misses her flight out of Anchorage and is left to sit at a restaurant watching the waitstaff try to feed a fallen nestling; thousands of miles away, her daughter’s funeral takes place in Buffalo. In “Time on the Water,” a man moves into his cabin on the Kenai Peninsula to fish his remaining years away in the wake of an amicable divorce and a terminal cancer diagnosis. There, he develops an unexpected appetite for outlaw life. In “Uncommon Weather,” an environmental conservationist, disillusioned after years of dedication without impact, gives herself permission to have an extramarital affair unhindered by shame. The stories’ twists are a vicious combination of unforeseeable and inevitable. Herein, even formidable senses of humor come up short in the face of brutal tragedies and harrowing discoveries. Still, most of the endings skew hopeful, if lonely, with weighted optimism. This configuration is to a large extent shaped by the distance, jobs, and wilderness recreation that’s unique to Alaska’s geography, where relationships take on new stresses and significance. Marked by alienation and a dark sense of humor, Uncommon Weather is a haunting collection of short stories about human burdens in a far corner of the world. BEN LINDER (September / October 2024)
