A More Perfect Union: Poems and Stories about the Modern Wedding

By Virginia Hartman

Book Overview

It's easy to fall for the Cinderella fantasy of marriage, sketched as it often is with black-and-white strokes: the pledges of undying love, the white dress, the happily-ever-after that the wedding... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031218526X
• ISBN13: 9780312185268
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.4" x 1.1" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Love and Disenchantment in Marriage

Publishers Weekly: The 44 entries in this collection seem equally divided between traditional avowals of love and the disenchantment, panic and sorrow expressed by those frightened by or disappointed in the marriage bond. They range in tone from light-hearted to poignant and in quality from lightweight to excellent. Selections from the novels of Alice McDermott, Anne Tyler and Carson McCullers, and short stories from Alice Munro, Stephen Dixon and Francine Prose have the complexity and incisiveness one expects from these masters of the craft. Poems by Sharon Olds, Anne Sexton and Jonathan Galassi are tender and moving. Among standout stories by less well-known writers is "Presents," in which Faye Moskowitz lends a merciless eye to her protagonist, a pregnant 19 year-old unable to accommodate her new body and status to the cynical expectations of the other guests at a bridal shower. The jilted bride in Karla Kuban's striking "Cold Feet" feels a sudden affinity with sharks. Jauntier in tone, Peter Turci and E. Shaskan Bumas each depict a man's bemused point of view in the midst of prenuptial madness. The collection as a whole nicely covers the gamut of contemporary attitudes about tying the knot.