This Is Not Your City

by Caitlin Horrocks

Paperback, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Sarabande Books (2011), Edition: NONE, Paperback, 224 pages

Description

Best Books of 2011,San Francisco Chronicle The Millions' A Year in Reading pick Eleven women confront dramas both everyday and outlandish in Caitlin Horrocks'This Is Not Your City. In stories as darkly comic as they are unflinching, people isolated by geography, emotion, or circumstance cut imperfect paths to peace--they have no other choice. A Russian mail-order bride in Finland is rendered silent by her dislocation and loss of language, the mother of a severely disabled boy writes him postcards he'll never read on a cruise ship held hostage by pirates, and an Iowa actuary wanders among the reincarnations of those she's known in her 127 lives. Horrocks' women find no simple escapes, and their acts of faith and acts of imagination in making do are as shrewd as they are surprising.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Magus_Manders

This Is Not Your City is an itty little book, but packs a punch. I have been having trouble getting into the modern short story of late, but Ms. Horrocks offerings certainly stood their own. Each story gives us a glimpse of a woman lost in her own life. Some are quite conventional in form, while

others delve into magical realism and experiment with format in surprisingly moving ways. A couple, such as the title entry, lose themselves in contrivance, but as a whole we have here some beautiful, dark, and very funny writing.

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LibraryThing member Hebephrene

Debut collection. In most of the 11 stories characters make brief contact with another before receding back into their isolation. Bleaks worlds but with far more range than American Salvage. One a couple on a vacation away from the severely deformed child, another a Finnish mail bride and daughter,

a lawyer, her son and insufferable grandfather, a couple that collects dogs to sell for medical use, in each case the person finds a moment where the veer closer to someone - even if it is only in their thoughts - only to realize or sense the futility. There is little redemption in Horrock's world but she gives us these characters whose bravery stems from recognition that there aren't any other good choices, anyway. Often we are in Michigan or thereabouts but we could be on a vacation in Greece or with a couple in Estonia or on a cruise so it would be unfair to set her down as a regional writer. Strong work.

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LibraryThing member nancyjean19

Really nice collection of stories all hinging on a decision and its aftermath. I liked that the collection contained a range of voices and tones without feeling forced.

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