In the Gloaming: Stories - Hardcover

Dark, Alice Elliott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684865211 ISBN 13: 9780684865218

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2000

Synopsis

The gloaming is the hour when dawn or dusk works its spell, making all the world as purple as the Scottish highlands on a summer night. In Alice Elliott Dark's heart-catching title story, a loving mother shares this favorite time of day with her dying son, all the while realizing that for him it is already dark. "In the Gloaming" is populated by characters yearning for twilight moments, existing as they do in indeterminate emotional states not easily defined. Their hearts twist, making our own rush toward them. In "The Secret Spot," Helen dodges the knife of confession during a chance encounter with an old rival. In "Maniacs," two sisters unexpectedly see a man they have both loved. In "Dreadful Language," Frannie follows in her mother's footsteps by marrying for security rather than love. In austerely beautiful prose, Dark lays bare the emotional core of her subjects with almost surgical precision. As they go about the business of living -- caring for ailing family members, spending a lonely, sleepless night in a hotel far from home, or reminiscing in an airport coffee shop -- they reveal the ache of adoration and devotion that so poignantly marks our inner lives.

About this title

Review:

George Saunders author of "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" In these eloquent and compassionate stories, Alice Elliott Dark accomplishes that most difficult of storytelling feats: she creates living, breathing, three-dimensional characters who, though sorely tried, err in the direction of Goodness. The stories achieve, in their style and beautiful detail, a wonderful clarity -- one feels the words slip away and the world step forward.

About the Author:

Alice Elliott Dark is the author of a much-praised collection of short stories, Naked to the Waist. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker and Harper's and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Short Stories of the Century.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0684865211
• ISBN 13: 9780684865218
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304