Alice Adams is considered to be one of the major American writers of the last thirty years. Her stories appeared in The New Yorker from 1969 and 1995, as well as in twenty-two O. Henry Awards collections and several volumes of Best American Short Stories. After the War is her eleventh and final novel--the brilliant coda to a brilliant career. After the War begins where her acclaimed novel A Southern Exposure ended: in the small Southern town of Pinehill during World War II. With all the insight and grace that have marked her writing, she brings us close to Cynthia and Harry Baird, transplanted Yankees who moved south from Connecticut during the Depression to find a simpler world for themselves and their daughter, Abigail. But life in Pinehill has become more difficult since the beginning of the war: with Harry off in London to do his share, Cynthia finds her life complicated not only by her own loneliness but also by a growing awareness of local racism and anti-Semitism, and by the rising national dread of Communism. And as Abigail heads off to college, where she faces all the traditional complications of youth, we are drawn into an America caught between past and future, and two generations forced to determine what they cherish and what they must leave behind. Alice Adams's depiction of her native South--full, rich, affectionate, and always one of her many strengths--is at its most subtle and engrossing in After the War.Amazon.com ReviewIn the South, or at least in Pinehill, North Carolina, the setting of Alice Adams's After the War, "before the war" means before the Civil War. But in this sequel to A Southern Exposure (which introduced the displaced Yankee Baird family, their Pinehill neighbors, and their kaleidoscopic liaisons, and which ended as World War II began), after the war refers to a more modern era: after the bomb, after the various men have come home, when everyone supposes life will begin again as they once knew it. An autumnal, nostalgic quality pervades Adams's posthumously published 11th novel, partly because Cynthia Baird is a little older (her daughter has left for college and her husband is a naval officer in England where bombs drop and ladies with "rose petal skin" who are "good at riding and gardening, cooking roast beef and puddings" threaten danger of another sort) and partly because from our perspective at the beginning of the 21st century we well know that life never will be the same.With her delicate, breathy, gossipy prose, Adams slips among her characters like a hostess at a party. Soon the bits and pieces, confidences and asides, fit together into a mosaic of personalities and events that illuminate the coming political and social upheavals of the late '40s. At Swarthmore, ardent, open-minded Abby Baird falls in love with a Jewish physics major with Communist parents. Melanctha Byrd, traumatized by her body image, drops out of Harvard where her brother discovers he's gay. Out in Texas the poet Russ Byrd, who's contemplating writing a play featuring the secret laboratory at Los Alamos, meets an untimely end in the company of a decommissioned black sergeant, raising suspicions of foul play. Meanwhile, back in Pinehill, "people were more aware of the state of Cynthia's lawn and her flowers, of their own lawns and flowers, than of the terrible but distant war." Cynthia cultivates her garden, spars with poor, silly Dolly Bigelow, and carries on a desultory love affair with a war correspondent, until he replaces her with someone else. Pinehill is, after all, a small and complicated Southern town.With the precise ear and acute observation of a modern Jane Austen, Alice Adams weaves an artful portrait of a town and a time, bittersweet for one generation, perilous and full of potential for the next. Like its predecessor, After the War is a gentle, generous, and enlightening comedy of manners. --Victoria JenkinsFrom Publishers WeeklyReading this posthumous novel is a bittersweet experience. On the one hand, it's wonderful to be back in the Southern town of Pinehill, and to enjoy Adams's inimitable prose and her calm intimacy with the characters introduced in A Southern Exposure. On the other, it's a pity to realize that we'll never know what future lives Adams had planned for these vibrant individuals. WWII is raging as the novel opens in 1944; Yankee transplant Cynthia Baird is now "an actively unfaithful naval wife." Her husband, Harry, is stationed in London, and famed war correspondent Derek McFall is filling his bedDuntil Derek's roving eye takes him to another boudoir. The Bairds' daughter, Abigail, is off to Swarthmore, and her friend Melanctha Byrd will go to Radcliffe. Famous romantic poet Russ Byrd, Melanctha's father and once Cynthia's lover, is now married to luscious Deirdre, who will soon be on the loose to search for another partner. Implacably dignified Odessa, the black housekeeper, is worried about her husband, Horace, on duty in the Pacific. The usual large cast is augmented by the introduction of a New York Jewish couple with Hollywood ties, active members of the Communist Party, and their college-age children. Everybody is still lusting, drinking, filled with inchoate longings and awash with memories of past liaisonsDbut some are becoming aware of new social stresses: changing race relations, a freer sexual climate, the threat of communism. Adams's deep acquaintance with her milieuDSouthern speech, cultural assumptions, casual bigotry and lush landscapeDshines clear in events, dialogue and descriptive passages of almost palpable sensation. Her acuity with period details allows a smooth reference to the atomic bomb and the musical Oklahoma in the same sentence. There are innumerable funny scenes, two deaths, several fraying marriages and a few young romances, one of which culminates in a wedding. Adams knew the hard truths of human life: that people (especially those in the sway of sexual passion) often behave badly, but generally have good intentions; that hardship often prompts compassion in the most unlikely hearts; and that our time on life's stage is brief. Unfortunately, hers was too brief by far. (Sept.) FYI: Adams died in 1997. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 29
All of our best dates end up in the emergency room.... I planned the perfect proposal. Plenty of lobster, caviar, champagne and--her favorite--tiramisu. The perfect setting. The perfect woman. The perfect everything. Dad gave me my late mother's engagement ring, platinum and diamonds galore. Shannon wouldn't care if I slid a hard-candy ring on her finger instead of a three-carat diamond designed to impress. But my future mother-in-law, Marie, will pass out when she sets eyes on that rock, and that will give us two minutes of blessed silence. That woman talks more than Kim Kardashian flashes her naked backside on the internet. I was going to make it perfect, from the color of the tablecloth to the freshness of the roses. And it was perfect. Until Shannon swallowed the ring. Views: 29
Between robbing banks and making Isis obey their wickedly dirty commands, the kinky bank robbers seem to have it all. Or do they? The gang's desire for a normal life leads them to start an actual business—a detective agency. But when a drug kingpin hires them to solve a baffling mystery, the gang is driven deep into the Los Angeles underworld—and comes face to face with a dangerous enemy. And the mystery isn’t the only thing unraveling—a sexy and forbidden new game is tearing the gang apart. Can they pull back together before it’s too late? Or is the world’s sexiest four-way doomed to destruction? Views: 29
There's no such thing as Voodoo. At least, that's what most of the Baptists in Bellin tell themselves. But Seven LaVey knows better. In a small rural town just outside of Nashville, Voodoo conjures and curses simmer and seethe under the noses of the many who will never know. Seventeen-year-old Seven romanticizes about the meaning of life while held captive as a zombie under the shell of a kiddie pool. He's counting on the strength - and maybe even love - of a certain redheaded clarinet player to save him. But will she? Filled with betrayal and revenge, two families struggle with a curse that stretches back to Queen of the Voodoos Marie Laveau in this contemporary Southern Gothic adventure. Prepare for a wildly original twist on the paranormal. Views: 28
Book 2 of the Lexi Series. Lexi is in uncharted territory as her steady relationship with Alex develops. Their passion shows no signs of waning, but the road is by no means easy. While Lexi loves Alex, she struggles to retain her individual identity while being a partner in a high profile relationship. On her first international tour as Power Station’s publicist and Alex’s official girlfriend, Lexi is initiated into the crazy lifestyle of life of a rock-star. Despite all the pressure, Lexi realises that their relationship is worth fighting for and she no longer wants to be alone. In order for her to move forward with Alex she needs to reconcile her past and exorcise some demons that she thought were best forgotten. Is their love strong enough to survive the tests that family, distance and time provide? Views: 28
This carefully crafted ebook: "E. F. Benson: Complete Short Stories Collection: 70+ Classic, Ghost, Spook, Supernatural, Mystery, Haunting and Other Tales" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, archaeologist and short story writer. He achieved the big success with his first novel, the fashionably controversial Dodo, and also with its sequels, but the greatest success came relatively late in his career with The Mapp and Lucia series. Benson was also known as a writer of atmospheric, oblique, and at times humorous or satirical ghost stories.Table of contents:The Male ImpersonatorDesirable ResidencesThe Room in the TowerGavon's EveThe Dust-CloudThe Confession of Charles LinkworthAt Abdul Ali's GraveThe Shootings of AchnaleishHow Fear Departed from the Long GalleryCaterpillarsThe CatThe Bus-ConductorThe Man Who Went Too FarBetween the... Views: 28
A young witch-to-be named Tiffany teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, to rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from Fairyland. Views: 28
Sell the cemetery? Over their dead bodies . . . Not many people can see the dead (not many would want to). Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell can. And he's got bad news for them: the council want to sell the cemetery as a building site. But the dead have learnt a thing or two from Johnny. They're not going to take it lying down . . . especially since it's Halloween tomorrow. Besides, they're beginning to find that life is a lot more fun than it was when they were . . . well . . . alive. Particularly if they break a few rules . . . Views: 28
