Necessary Fictions

By Barbara Croft

Storytelling and art are the major themes of this collection. The stories centre on the need for expression, the pain of failing and the ways in which we construct imaginative representations of our lives, the necessary fictions that allow us to live.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822940787
• ISBN13: 9780822940784
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Univ of Pittsburgh Pr
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

Sly and almost poetic, but not too much so

Some books? You can smell the attempt to dominate or be coy with the reader. Not Croft. Her voice is strong and instantly engaging, but not pretentious or faux-English like so many of her contemporaries. The way the stories inside unfold is almost lyrical, but not in the sweeping, Jeannete Winterson way, and not as dense as Boyle, though fulyl as engaging. Croft's style is earthy and warm even when the story is not pleasant, and this book is like a blanket of ideas and just the right words at all the right places. Simple, but always digging into you slyly.My only ocmplaint about the book is the overly-long last piece, the novella. It's still in that great voice, but the story isn't as engaging as the others. There are other stories and characters in earlier stories that I would have liked to seen treated to this length outside of this particualr one, so I don't think the problem actually lies with her, but with me as Engaged Reader: we always want more of the right thing when we find it.Read the 4 stars as more of a 4.5 and get this book. You'll burn through it, but you'll do so again and again.