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Includes analyses of Sherwood Anderson, Frank Swinnerton, Mary Webb, and others.
From a writer who's on a roll, fourteen stories that range freely through the historical past and contemporary life, touching on longing and love, loss and friendship, and a great many passions in between. It's the strongest collection yet from Julian Barnes. From an imperial capital in the eighteenth century to Garibaldi's adventures in the nineteenth, from the vineyards of Italy to the English seaside in our time, Julian Barnes finds the "stages, transitions, arguments" that define us. A newly divorced real estate agent can't resist invading his reticent girlfriend's privacy, but the information he finds reveals only his callously shallow curiosity. A couple comes together through an illicit cigarette and a song shared over the din of a Chinese restaurant. A widower revisiting the Scottish island he'd treasured with his wife learns how difficult it is to purge oneself of grief. And throughout, friends gather regularly at dinner parties and perfect the art of cerebral, sometimes bawdy banter about the world passing before them. Whether domestic or extraordinary, each story pulses with the resonance, spark and poignant humor for which Barnes is justly heralded.
This unprecedented anthology asks thirty-six leading literary and cultural critics to elaborate on the nature of their profession. With the humanities feeling the pinch of financial and political pressures, and its disciplines resting on increasingly uncertain conceptual ground, there couldn't be a better time for critics to reassert their widespread relevance and purpose. These credos boldly defend the function of criticism in contemporary society and showcase its vitality in the era after theory. Essays address literature and politics, with some focusing on the sorry state of higher education and others concentrating on teaching and the fate of the humanities. All reflect the critics' personal, particular experiences. Deeply personal and engaging, these stories move, amuse, and inspire, ultimately encouraging the reader to develop his or her own critical credo with which to approach the world. Reflecting on the past, looking forward to the future, and committed to the power of productive critical thought, this volume proves the value of criticism for today's skeptical audiences. Contributors: Andrew Ross, Amitava Kumar, Lisa Lowe, Vincent B. Leitch, Craig Womack, Jeffrey J. Williams, Marc Bousquet, Katie Hogan, Michelle A. Massé, John Conley, Heather Steffen, Paul Lauter, Cary Nelson, David B. Downing, Barbara Foley, Michael Bérubé, Victor Cohen, Gerald Graff, William Germano, Ann Pellegrini, Bruce Robbins, Kenneth Warren, Diana Fuss, Lauren Berlant, Toril Moi, Morris Dickstein, Rita Felski, David R. Shumway, Mark Bauerlein, Devoney Looser, Stephen Burt, Mark Greif, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Mark McGurl, Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Judith Jack Halberstam
Boston, 1976. Daniel Fitzsimmons is just sixteen years old and totally on his own—his parents are long dead, and his beloved brother, Harry, is off at Harvard, the star of the football team. When Harry is murdered, Daniel wrestles not only with inconsolable grief but with strange new powers he never knew he possessed. Powers he’s not sure he can control. Detectives William Barkley “Bark” Jones and Tommy Dillon are assigned to Harry’s case. The veteran partners thought they’d seen it all, but they are stunned when Daniel wanders into the crime scene. Even stranger, Daniel claims to have known the details of his brother’s murder before it ever happened. The investigation leads the detectives deep into the Fitzsimmons brothers’ past. They find heartbreaking loss, sordid characters, and metaphysical conspiracies. Even on the rough streets of 1970s Boston, Jones and Dillon have never had a case like this. Pulse is laced with real danger and otherworldly twists—a stunningly original and mind-bending novel that stretches the boundaries of the crime thriller.
‘With precise and beautiful prose, the short stories in Jennifer Down’s Pulse Points carry an emotional clarity and intensity that is truly impressive.’ Books+Publishing The characters in Jennifer Down’s Pulse Points live in small dusty towns, glittering exotic cities and slow droll suburbs; they are mourners, survivors and perpetrators. In the award-winning ‘Aokigahara’, a young woman travels to the sea of trees in Japan to say goodbye. In ‘Coarsegold’, a woman conducts an illicit affair while her recovering girlfriend works the overnight motel shift in the middle of nowhere. In ‘Dogs’, Foggo runs an unruly gang of bored, cruel boys with a scent for fresh meat. In ‘Pressure Okay’ a middle-aged man goes to the theatre, gets a massage, remembers his departed wife, navigates the long game of grief with his adult daughter. Jennifer Down, whose first novel, Our Magic Hour, was commended in the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, is a masterful stylist whose sharp eye has been compared to that of Helen Garner. Pulse Points is a gutting collection that showcases her singular voice, and reminds us once more that this is a writer of great talent. Jennifer Down was born in 1990. Our Magic Hour was highly commended in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her writing has appeared in the Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday Paper, Australian Book Review, Kill Your Darlings, Lifted Brow, Best Australian Stories and Blue Mesa Review. She is one of Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year, 2017. ‘Jennifer Down is a subtly extraordinary writer, and Pulse Points is one of the best Australian literary offerings we’ll see this year.’ Good Reading ‘Pulse Points is fluid, graceful and shocking. Down serves life up ruthlessly to us, in small, heart-wrenching packages, overturning expectations swiftly from story to story, but leaving us faintly uplifted in the end.’ Overland ‘This is a finely crafted collection that reminds us how sad and beautiful it is simply to be alive. Down’s debut novel, Our Magic Hour, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award for New Writing and she was named a 2017 SMH Best Young Australian Novelist. It’s probably insulting to comment upon how young she is, but the emotional depth of her writing displays a gift that will no doubt continue to unfold as her body of work grows.’ Saturday Paper ‘Taking the reader from Melbourne to the USA, each beautifully crafted story is a fascinating escape into someone else’s life.’ Sunday Life ‘Down is exemplary at drawing whole characters and quickly giving them depth. Stories are heavy with atmosphere, and words are chosen with care...She has a knack of talking honestly about the nature of contemporary life, and I look forward to more.’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘Pulse Points is an impressively poised and even collection...Down’s stories are alive with psychological acuity and technical dexterity. They offer thoughtful, sometimes heartbreaking, insights into our anxieties and desires...Readers of her intelligent, subtle, and affecting prose clearly have much to look forward to.’ Australian Book Review ‘[Down’s] back with a collection of stories, cementing her status as one of Australia’s finest literary talents.’ Marie Claire ‘Jennifer Down is going to be a major part of the future of Australian literature. The quality of her writing, as well as her ability to tap into the loves, fears and anxieties many of us experience guarantee this.’ Readings ‘All of the stories in this collection are examples of the extent to which empathy can be employed in fiction—Down looks at human emotion under a microscope in each of these stories, but always does so with care and compassion.’ Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2018, Judges’ comments ‘This young Australian writer was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists of 2017. Here she shows off her impressive skill as a short story writer...Jennifer Down shows great insight into human vulnerability.’ Good Reading, Best Fiction Books of 2017 ‘Jennifer Down’s Pulse Points is full of perfectly crafted miracles of storytelling.’ Kill Your Darlings, Best of 2017 ‘The stories are both paradigms and gentle subversions of the short-story form...Down draws on the ordinary and everyday to deconstruct the myth of class mobility in this haunting and resonant collection.’ Judges’ comments, 2018 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists ‘Down writes about love and friendship with an emotionally resonant sparseness...Rather than offering answers to life's big questions, the stories offer glimpses into people tackling them...A collection pulsing with emotion; a writer crackling with potential.’ Kirkus Reviews
Set in a cinematic world where telekinetic powers dominate, Quake is the pulse-pounding finale to an epic story of love and revenge for fans of I Am Number Four and The Maze Runner. Faith and Dylan may have stopped the Quinns from destroying the Western State the last time but now the twins have joined forces with Hotspur Chance—the lethal mastermind behind Intels and pulses—and there’s no telling what he is capable of now. Caught in the middle of a deadly war, Faith and Dylan fight in hair-rising battles while their Intel friend Hawk works to discover the secrets of the States. But the answers Hawk finds are bigger and more mind-altering than anyone expected…and if Faith and Dylan want to finish what they started, they will need to harness their pulses in a way no one has ever done before. Can Faith and Dylan’s love save the world with a quake that is big enough to change the course of history?
An epistolary novel set on a fictional island off the South Carolina coastline, 'Ella Minnow Pea' brings readers to the hometown of Nevin Nollop, inventor of the pangram 'The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog'. Deified for his achievement in life, Nevin has been honored in death with a monument featuring his famous phrase. One day, however, the letter 'Z' falls from the monument, and some of the islanders interpret the missing tile as a message from beyond the grave. The letter 'Z' is banned from use. On an island where the residents pride them-selves on their love of language, this is seen as a tragedy. They are still reeling from the shock when another tile falls. And then another... In his charming debut, first published in 2001, Mark Dunn took readers on a journey through the eyes of Ella Minnow Pea, a young woman forced to create another clever turn of phrase in order to save the islanders’ beloved language.
The theme for Synapse 2018 is Pulse. A pulse is a rhythmical throbbing of the arteries as blood is propelled through them. The theme explores what makes the heart race, examining both instantaneous and long term ramification. The work is divided into two categories. They are, Palpitation and Arrhythmia. Palpitations: Explores what makes the heart race, thump or skip a beat. Everyone has experienced a palpitation in their life at some point, these include feelings of exhilaration. Arrhythmia: Explores the disturbed rhythm of the heartbeat. They are perilous; if left untreated they can cause hypo-tension (dizziness), shortness of breath, faintness, serious heart problems and in some cases - fatalities. In this collection of original poetry and prose, young, emerging writers explore the heart of the matter with strong metaphors, imagery and all that it means to be alive.
For Kaia, setting foot outside can be deadly. Climate change has made Earth too dangerous for people to live anywhere but inside the City. Run on the energy created by its Citizens and sustainable in every way, the City uses microchips, called pulse points, to control the energy its inhabitants use. When Kaia's pulse point malfunctions, she experiences freedom from the strict City rules for the first time in her life. With unlimited energy, she doesn't need to run for hours on a sensor mat, and she can share energy to hide her grandmother's failing health. But a shocking discovery makes her question what goes on inside the City walls and sets her on a journey to discover the world outside them.