Big Cats: Stories

By Holiday Reinhorn

Book Overview

Big Cats opens with "Charlotte," in which a young girl with a broken pelvis spies on her voluptuous neighbor during a long, hot summer night, setting the tone of irrepressible curiosity and yearning that is evident throughout the collection. In "Get Away from Me, David," a bank manager tries to overcome his haunted past as he deals with the aftermath of a minor earthquake and the body of a customer who died in the lobby. "Big Cats" pits two teenage girls against each other in an escalating catfight at the zoo where they work, culminating in a blowout in front of the lion cage.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743272943
• ISBN13: 9780743272940
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

So many worlds!

My life has suddenly become crowded with all these wonderful and interesting people. I am so grateful to Ms. Reinhorn for taking me on this devastating roller coaster ride in such a wealth of wisdom and love and exquisite wordcraft. We have been on such adventures together! Her narrative voice is the most clearly and honestly human I have ever read, vaulting high above many who grovel in the vileness of being in an effort to reach her level of honesty. What amazes me again and again is the genderless strength, delicacy, nuance, rawness, humor, ache and triumph in each story. One character, a pregnant woman, read so much like a man half way through that I had to check to see if I were reading the same story. Then, having been in that same "delicate condition", I gloried in that truth of our existence: strength and reality know no gender! I am breathless, but not speechless as I sing the praises of this book from friend to friend. I may even have to collar a few strangers on the street.

A wild ride!

Every once in a while a nugget of gold crops up in the short story collections published each year. My gold nugget is Big Cats by Holiday Reinhorn. Reinhorn writes simply delicious dramas of "real life" and "real people" who are full-bodied, rich, multi-dimensional complex beings with complex stories. It is her talent that makes the complex, simple. She alternates between humor, sadness, poignancy and tenderness in a way that shouts out that she has developed her voice and speaks it with strength and commitment. I love the way her writing seeps into my consciousness and makes me live what she writes. Each story has its own drama to breathe life into the story, capturing its soul. The title story, "Big Cats," of this collection is about two young girls who work at a zoo. They fight, attempting to be the "big cats" they aren't as yet. The author fixes her sights on the girls' minds and captures their spirit. I love "My Name"! It is the story of a Vietnam vet who's lived in his own prison, so he understands and emphasizes with the catatonic woman he cares for and who calls him by her son's name. Though brief it is the connection the lonely man yearns for and is expressed with absolute tenderness. Some years ago Reinhorn wrote the screenplay for the film Last Seen. Being familiar with the film it was wonderful to read the story that birthed it. It is about the mysterious disappearance of high school senior Jennifer Langsam. Read the rest of Reinhorn's collection yourself. I don't want to give anything away. Read it and savor the flavors of life.

Big Cats is purrrrrrr-fection!

I found Ms. Reinhorn's book to be voraciously satisfying! Her characters are original, refreshing, and often times laugh out loud bawdy. She has the ability to write in such a wide variety of narratives that you find yourself flipping to her photo on the back cover to check that she is, indeed, just the one person. There were a few stories in particular, ("Charlotte" above all others) that I mourned the completion of, and I look forward to a full length novel from this thrilling author! I highly recommend this book!

Loved it

I cannot say just how much I loved this story collection. The stories were sad, funny, poignant and very, very interesting. If you like people like Alice Munro you'll like this!

Big Cats

Sometimes you experience quality that is so powerful it uplifts your spirit out of the mundane into another reality that contains magic. This is Ms. Reinhorn's gift. She gently invites you into the interior of her characters and then she honors both of you with intelligence, pathos and uniqueness. I felt richer after each story. She has spoiled me from reading other authors for awhile because now they seem a little heavy handed after absorbing BIG CATS.