Set mostly in the wilds of Alaska, these stories take on the shifting legend of a lost father. In "Ichthyology," a young boy watches his father spiral from divorce to suicide. The story is told obliquely, often through the boy's observations of his tropical fish, yet also reveals his father's last desperate moves, including quitting dentistry for commercial fishing in the Bering Sea. "Rhoda" goes back to the beginning of the father's second marriage and the boy's fascination with his stepmother, who has one partially closed ...
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Set mostly in the wilds of Alaska, these stories take on the shifting legend of a lost father. In "Ichthyology," a young boy watches his father spiral from divorce to suicide. The story is told obliquely, often through the boy's observations of his tropical fish, yet also reveals his father's last desperate moves, including quitting dentistry for commercial fishing in the Bering Sea. "Rhoda" goes back to the beginning of the father's second marriage and the boy's fascination with his stepmother, who has one partially closed eye. This eye becomes a metaphor for the adult world the boy can't yet see into, including sexuality and despair, which feel like the key initiating elements of the father's eventual suicide. "A Legend of Good Men" tells the story of the boy's life with his mother after his father's death through the series of men she dates.In "Sukkwan Island," an extraordinary novella, the father invites the boy home-steading for a year on a remote island in the southeastern Alaskan wilderness. As the situation spins out of control, the son witnesses his father's despair and takes matters into his own hands. In "Ketchikan," the boy is now thirty years old, searching for the origin of ruin. He tracks down Gloria, the woman his father first cheated with, and is left with the sense of 'a world held in place, as it turned out, by nothing at all.' Set in Fairbanks, where the author's father actually killed himself, "The Higher Blue" provides an epilogue to the collection. Winner of the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction.
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Seller's Description:
This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside. This book has hardback covers. In good all round condition. Dust jacket in good condition. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 450grams, ISBN: 9781558496729.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. 1st Printing. A fine US first edition, first printing in an unblemished dustjacket (not price-clipped) fitted with a protective and removable mylar sleeve-All my books are always securely packed with plenty of bubblewrap in professional boxes and promptly dispatched (within 2-3 days)-SIGNED, LINED & DATED BY THE AUTHOR-Pictures available upon request.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. 1st Printing. A fine US first edition, first printing in an unblemished dustjacket (not price-clipped) fitted with a protective and removable mylar sleeve-All my books are always securely packed with plenty of bubblewrap in professional boxes and promptly dispatched (within 2-3 days)-SIGNED, LINED & DATED BY THE AUTHOR-Pictures available upon request.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Hardcover This item shows wear from consistent use but remains in good readable condition. It may have marks on or in it, and may show other signs of previous use or shelf wear. May have minor creases or signs of wear on dust jacket. Packed with care, shipped promptly.
