First, Body: StoriesIn praise of her first story collection, Girls in the Grass, the New York Times wrote, " Melanie Rae Thon belts out her short stories in a tone and style reminiscent of classic blues singers . . . The reader is swept along not only by her remarkable characterizations but also by the taut, magic current of her prose, which carries an exhilarating rhythmic punch. " Thon brings to her new collection all the emotional intensity and vibrant lyricism that marked her first, in stories that are both dazzling and unsettling. In the title story, chosen by Jane Smiley for The Best American Short Stories 1995, a 326-pound woman in a Seattle morgue pins a Vietnam vet to the floor. A young girl in Florida reveals the secret dangers of her privileged life: alligators and furious ducks, a crippled grandfather, a burning car. Taking us from the cobblestoned streets of Boston to a deserted Montana road, Thon's stories transport us to the borderlands, to the places where sudden accidents and misguided pa |
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afraid arms barbed wire blood blue body bones boy's breath burned camisole chest child cigarette Clare close clothes cold Daddy dark dark hand dead door Dora Dora's drink Elena Emile Enos Estrelle eyes face father feel fingers floor glass Gloria Luby gone hair hands hard head hear heard heart hurt imagined Impala inside Iris Jamaica Plain Kalispell kiss knees knew legs light Listen live look lover Luby's lungs Mama MELANIE RAE THON Missoula mother mouth never night NOBODY'S DAUGHTER orange juice pulled rain remember remember Mama road Roseland Roxanne says scared shit sin-eater skin sky's gone sleep slipping smell smoke snow soft sound stop tell There's thighs thin things thought tiny told Tonight touch truck veins Vincent Blew voice wanted watching whispered wind window woman