My Body to You (Iowa Short Fiction Award)

By Elizabeth Searle

Book Overview

In the thirteen stories of "My Body to You, " thirteen women or girls pilot their own bodies through a shifting universe of lovers old and young, parents devoted and destructive, sisters of different... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087745387X
• ISBN13: 9780877453871
• Release Date: February 1993
• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

A distinct, individual voice rich with personality & emotion

Through the fresh poetry of her words, Searle draws the reader into the literal lives of her powerful imagination in this award winning collection of short stories. These stories engage your senses - hearing, sight, taste, smell - through objects, images, and sensations that cause immediate, sometimes visceral, reactions in the reader. Frequently, an image in one story will further develop a theme that Searle explored in one of the other stories, enhancing the experience of reading the collection. Searle captures raw female sexuality, genuine passion, complex family dynamics, and the often rocky emotional terrain of our lives. She tends to write about women who are underdogs and outcasts (or feel that way), flawed and painfully honest - more honest than most of us could be outside our own heads. Whether the story spans a lifetime at the dinner table or the time it takes to travel to the airport, Searle's narrative slips along to a satisfying conclusion. Along the way, the reader is treated to intensely personal, sometimes painful, details of an everyday life. You can almost taste the ice cream. Searle never puts distance between the reader and the character, she holds nothing back. Perhaps this you-are-there style may deter some readers but those of us who love language will find these varied stories most rewarding. Searle's stories feel true!