The World Is the Home of Love and Death: Stories - Hardcover

Brodkey, Harold

3.71

49 ratings by Goodreads

9780805055139: The World Is the Home of Love and Death: Stories

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805055134 ISBN 13: 9780805055139

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1997

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A final volume of short stories includes "Car-Buying," "What I Do for Money," and other tales that examine everyday, mundane suburban life, the vicious nature of cocktail-party conversations, sexual strength, and other issues, in an anthology that discovers the language of power, love, and intimidation. 15,000 first printing.

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Review:

The literary world waited a long time for Harold Brodkey's first novel, The Runaway Soul, and perhaps that 25-year wait raised expectations much too high; published in 1991, the 800-page book received mixed reviews. Though The Runaway Soul eventually came to an end, the life of its protagonist, Wiley Silenowicz, goes on in this posthumously published collection of short stories, The World Is the Home of Love and Death.

All of Brodkey's considerable strengths and occasional weaknesses are on display in these stories: brilliant language and an acute understanding of character illuminate tales of orphaned Wiley and his adopted family, the Silenowiczes: his mercurial father, S.L.; seductive mother Ida; and vengeful sister Nonie. But if the writing and characterization are brilliant, Brodkey's penchant for dragging out the tiniest moment through incessant examination can be trying for readers hoping for some forward motion in the narrative. Plot is not one of Brodkey's strong points, but the beauty of his writing renders readers willing to be swept along on the sheer force of his prose.

About the Author:

A staff writer for The New Yorker since the early 1950s, Harold Brodkey died in 1996. He was the author of two novels, including The Runaway Soul (Owl Books, 0-8050-5503-7, $17.00), three short-story collections, and a memoir, This Wild Darkness (Owl Books, 0-8050-5511-8, $12.95), My Venice (Metropolitan, 0-8050-4833-2, $20.00), and The World is the Home of Love and Death.

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