Asking for Love

by Roxana Robinson

Book Overview

Called "John Cheever's heir apparent" by the New York Times Book Review, Roxana Robinson, the author of A Glimpe of Scarlet, chronicles the carefully hidden realities of WASP family life in this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679439021
• ISBN13: 9780679439028
• Release Date: March 1996
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 275 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Master of the Short Story

These stories are about what the title suggests -- love. So if you have love on your mind, read them! Many of the stories in this collection are seamless and technically flawless. My favorites in this collection are "Slipping Away," a hilarious story about a woman who is cheating on her husband; "The Nightmare," about a step-mother's visition of herself through the eyes of her step-daughter; and "The Nile in Flood," about a woman who has married a man for material comfort only to learn that "this courtly man, her husband, would never touch her body. She had not known that his tumult was over, that ... the line at the end of passion would be so clearly marked, that the life that lay before her would be so pale." Every story is so wry and observant, that it is impossible to come away from any of them without feeling a little more enlightened than when you started. If you are someone who loves to read or write stories generally, you have to read Robinson's. She is one of the great explorers of the modern American short story. "The Nile in Flood" is a small masterpiece.

Master of the Short Story

These stories are about what the title suggests -- love. So if you have love on your mind, read them! Many of the stories in this collection are flawless. My favorites are "Slipping Away," a hilarious story about a woman who is cheating on her husband; "The Nightmare," about a step-mother's vision of herself through the eyes of her step-daughter; and "The Nile in Flood," about a woman who has married a man for material comfort only to learn that "this courtly man, her husband, would never touch her body. She had not known that his tumult was over, that ... the line at the end of passion would be so clearly marked, that the life that lay before her would be so pale." Every story is so wry and observant, it is impossible to come away from any of them without feeling a little more enlightened than when you started. If you are someone who loves to read or write stories generally, you have to read Robinson's for that reason alone. She is one of the great explorers of the modern American short story. "The Nile in Flood" is a small masterpiece.

Not A Bad Little Collection...

These are rather nice little stories about the upper crust and their troubles. Some stories are more like character sketches. The people are either middle aged, or are the children of same, and they are all rich, but the reader's nose is never rubbed in this fact. They are the "old, discreet rich" rather than the brash, gaudy "new rich". These stories are well written but on the bland side, not what you'd call passionate or engrossing, but gentle and introspective. Romantic dilemmas and stepchildren figure highly in these stories. I prefer the stepchildren stories which point out that although the children suffer in a divorce, their parents aren't exactly having a day at the beach, either. I really enjoyed this book and will seek out Ms. Robinson's other book of stories, "A Glimpse of Scarlet", which sounds from th e description as if it wlll be equally enjoyable.