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THE PUSHCART PRIZE XXXVIII

Name: THE PUSHCART PRIZE XXXVIII
Author: Bill Henderson
ISBN: 978-1-888889-70-3

BEST OF THE SMALL PRESSES 2014 EDITION

edited by Bill Henderson with Pushcart Prize editors ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 6, 2013

Of a piece with previous Pushcart collections, all 37 of them, and a revealing picture of the state of the art in modern...

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The venerable literary annual turns 38, with no signs of slowing down.

The Pushcart Prize volumes, notes chief editor and publisher Henderson, is “one of the last remaining collectives from the 60’s and 70’s,” its crew numbering more than 200 contributing editors (along with guest editors, who this year include the poets Arthur Sze and Patricia Smith). As Henderson also notes, the present collection contains 68 selections, with a table of contents that reads like a well-stocked, if academic, literary conference, featuring the likes of Pam Houston, Amy Hempel, David St. John, Lorrie Moore and Louise Glück. All turn in good work; we would be surprised if it were less than competent, and in any event, none of the pros seem to be breaking a sweat. The surprises, and the best pieces here, are from relative newcomers—save for the best piece in the book, period, which is a nicely savage poem by the 15th-century rapscallion François Villon, translated by Richard Wilbur. Never mind the lame opener (“Not Lauryn Hill, the singer who did that song ‘Killing Me Softly,’ but another Lauren Hill”); most of the newcomer pieces here are topical, well-crafted and often quite funny, some standouts being Steve Adams’ memoir of bodywork and platonic love (“Like a first best friend, a first kiss, a first pet, I would never feel this kind of intimacy again”); Eric Fair’s harrowing post–Abu Ghraib essay “Consequence”; and Sarah Frisch’s lively, long and ultimately strange story “Housebreaking.”

Of a piece with previous Pushcart collections, all 37 of them, and a revealing picture of the state of the art in modern American letters.

Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-888889-70-3

Page Count: 600

Publisher: Pushcart

Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUSHCART PRIZE XLVIII
edited by Bill Henderson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE PUSHCART PRIZE XLVII
edited by Bill Henderson

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PUSHCART PRIZE XLVI
edited by Bill Henderson

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.