"In an ambitious narrative structure reminiscent of Robert Altman's classic film Nashville, Larry Brown weaves together the stories of a sprawling cast of eccentric and lovable characters, each embarked on a quest for meaning, fulfillment, and love -- with poignant and uproarious results. Set in Memphis and North Mississippi, The Rabbit Factory follows the colliding lives of, among others, Arthur, an older, socially ill-at-ease man of considerable wealth married to the much younger Helen, whose desperate need for satisfaction sweeps her into the arms of other men; Eric, who has run away from home thinking his father doesn't want him and becomes Arthur's unlikely surrogate son; and Anjalee, a big-hearted prostitute with her own set of troubles who crashes into the lives of the others like a one-woman hurricane. Teeming with pitch-perfect creations that include quirky gangsters, colorful locals, seemingly straitlaced professors, and fast-and-loose police officers, Brown's spellbinding and often hilarious story is about the botched choices and missed chances that separate people -- and the tenuous threads of love and coincidence that connect them. With all the subtlety and surprise of life itself, the story turns on a dime from comical to violent to moving. Masterful, profound, and full of spirit, The Rabbit Factory is literary entertainment of the highest order."
"'In 1875 or '76, when very young, in the Gulf of Mexico, I heard the story of some man who was supposed to have stolen single-handed a whole lighter full of silver, somewhere on the Tierra Firme seaboard during the troubles of a revolution.' From these slim details Conrad builds one of the great novels of our language and creates one of its most enigmatic central characters: Nostromo."
"'This is America ... its Main Street is the continuation of Main Streets everywhere ...' With the first line of his novel, Sinclair Lewis captures an America on the brink of change. Main Street vividly draws the lines of tension between tradition and progress in ways that make them timeless, yet still new. Carol Milford, educated, sophisticated, and energetic, has ambitious plans for her life. Her studies have prepared her to join an enlightened, progressive society. But after she becomes Carol Kennicott, the wife of a small town physician, she quickly learns that she is to be nothing more than a gracious wife. Frustrated and torn between the challenge of social change and the comfort of personal security, she begins to understand the cost of conformity-and rebellion. Sinclair Lewis' perceptive tale has been a milestone in American literature since it was published in 1920. Conveying all the hope and optimism of a generation who sought to use their education and prosperity to make a more perfect country, his heroine still stands for the youthful exuberance of our nation."
"Mansfield Park is the chronicle of the trials of Fanny Price. Sweet, innocent, sensitive, and thoroughly proper, Fanny is taken from her family and raised by wealthy, but selfish relatives. All her qualities are tested when she becomes the object of the unwanted attentions of an insincere rake."
"The title story of this collection of short stories features the tale of the 'most honest and upright' town of Hadleyburg, whose residents boast of their unsmirched moral character. A stranger, offended by the pious reputation of the town, devises a plan to bring its honored residents to shame. Is there even one righteous man in Hadleyburg?"
"An extraordinarily popular author during his lifetime, W. Somerset Maugham created a literary legacy that includes such classics as The Moon and Sixpence and The Razor' s Edge. Maugham' s first novel, Liza of Lambeth is the story of 18-year-old Liza Kemp, a London factory worker near the beginning of the 20th century who falls deeply in love with a 40-year-old father of nine children. As the affair escalates, Liza pays little mind to the damage her reputation is suffering. But society becomes increasingly troubled by the relationship."
"From the massively talented Gish Jen comes a barbed, moving, and stylistically dazzling new novel about the elusive nature of kinship. The Wongs describe themselves as a 'half half' family, but the actual fractions are more complicated, given Carnegie's Chinese heritage, his wife Blondie's WASP background, and the various ethnic permutations of their adopted and biological children. Into this new American family comes a volatile new member.Her name is Lanlan. She is Carnegie's Mainland Chinese relative, a tough, surprisingly lovely survivor of the Cultural Revolution, who comes courtesy of Carnegie's mother's will. Is Lanlan a very good nanny, a heartless climber, or a posthumous gift from a formidable mother who never stopped wanting her son to marry a nice Chinese girl? Rich in insight, buoyed by humor, The Love Wife is a hugely satisfying work"
"Diane Johnson, critically acclaimed author of Le Mariage, has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize during her distinguished career. The best-selling Le Divorce, a witty and insightful look at clashing cultures, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Isabel Walker has flown to Paris to offer moral support for Roxy, her pregnant stepsister. Roxy's husband Charles-Henri, favorite son of a powerful French family, is having a love affair. Divorce seems imminent. When her entire family arrives to help with legal issues, Isabel feels intense pressure to keep everything from falling apart. And in the background, the unstable husband of Charles-Henri's lover lurks menacingly. A resident of both America and France, Diane Johnson infuses this shrewd comedy of manners with keen observations about cultural differences. Narrator Suzanne Toren creates a stylish, smart, and sexy Isabel who strives to stay grounded amidst everything Paris has to offer."
"American Book Award-winning author Edwidge Danticat earned a National Book Award nomination for this brilliant collection of stories, which includes Pushcart Prize winner 'Between the Pool and the Gardenias.' A 'remarkably gifted writer' (Publishers Weekly), Danticat examines the brutality of her native Haiti, particularly as it affects women, in tales that soar with raw emotion. 'Spare, elegant and moving, these stories cohere into a superb collection.' -Publishers Weekly"
"One of Faulkner's comic masterpieces, The Reivers is a picaresque that tells of three unlikely car thieves from rural Mississippi. Eleven-year-old Lucius Priest is persuaded by Boon Hogganbeck, one of his family's retainers, to steal his grandfather's car and make a trip to Memphis. The Priest's black coachman, Ned McCaslin, stows away, and the three of them are off on a heroic odyssey, for which thy are all ill-equipped, that ends at Miss Reba's bordello in Memphis. From there a series of wild misadventures ensues--involving horse smuggling, trainmen, sheriff's deputies, and jail."
"A storyteller in the very best southern tradition, Lee Smith pens unexpected plots vibrant with luminous prose. Her powerful short stories in Me and My Baby View the Eclipse capture those extraordinary moments in everyday life when greatness and tragedy shimmer through the surface. This collection was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Richly satisfying, each tale portrays ordinary people meeting trouble head on with courage and compassion: a teenaged girl coping with her father's nervous breakdown, a housewife filling her humdrum days with an eccentric lover, and a single mother struggling to hang onto her wayward son. With narrators Linda Stephens' and Tom Stechschulte's brilliant performances, these lyrical stories-made to be read aloud-will linger long in your memory. The collection includes: Bob, a Dog; Mom; Life on the Moon; Tongues of Fire; Dreamers; The Interpretation of Dreams; Desire on Domino Island; Intensive Care; and Me and My Baby View the Eclipse."
"America's first psychological novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a dark tale of love, crime, and revenge set in colonial New England. It revolves around a single, forbidden act of passion that forever alters the lives of three members of a small Puritan community: Hester Prynne, an ardent and fierce woman who bears the punishment of her sin in humble silence; the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a respected public figure who is inwardly tormented by long-hidden guilt; and the malevolent Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband-a man who seethes with an Ahab-like lust for vengeance. The landscape of this classic novel is uniquely American, but the themes it explores are universal - the nature of sin, guilt, and penitence, the clash between our private and public selves, and the spiritual and psychological cost of living outside society. Constructed with the elegance of a Greek tragedy, The Scarlet Letter brilliantly illuminates the truth that lies deep within the human heart."
