Spark: Stories (Plume Contemporary Fiction) - Softcover

These stories, set before and after WWII, give a real feel for the range of Spark's fiction. They include ghost stories, love stories and politics, all shot through with the author's skeptical view of human worth. Here are jealous lovers, brutish colonials, spoiled middle-class women, curious children and, frequently, the outsider, the young woman who observes and holds her own counsel, the writer's alter ego. In a crisp and delightful Scots accent, Bron complements each story with a skillful and witty reading. She creates individual characters wonderfully and offers a very well-paced and sophisticated interpretation, a good match for Spark's asperity. E.J.M. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

This collection consists of the 21 stories published in Spark's Collected Stories: I (Knopf, 1968) plus six new ones. Several of the stories originally appeared in the New Yorker. The short story is a form well suited to Spark's gifts as a writera delicate touch, a quiet sense of irony, and a vision of existence as a conflict between the temporal and the timeless. Frequently, her characters are involved in slightly sinister experiences that have unnerving effects (``The Twins,''``The Executor,''``Another Pair of Hands''). The situtations range from the development of a shrewd marriage of convenience (``The Fathers' Daughters'') to the depiction of a baby's view of World War I (``The First Year of My Life''). Crafted with impressive skill, the stories reflect a keen perception of human weakness and the possibility of its redemption. Sherrie Tuck, Episcopal Div. Sch./Weston Sch. of Theology Libs., Cambridge, Mass.
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