Now You See It . . .: Stories from Cokesville, Pa

By Bathsheba Monk

Book Overview

It's pretty much a straight shot from the upstate New York towns of Richard Russo's books to Bathsheba Monk's Cokesville, PA. This is coal and steel country. The sort of place where an inch of soot on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312426100
• ISBN13: 9780312426101
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Author's Debut Novel is a Real Find

Bathsheba's, Now You See It, is a collection of short stories with a common thread. People you meet in one story, occasionally have ancillary roles in a later story. The format of short stories with a common thread gives us the best of both worlds--at first we are relieved that we are only committed to reading a few pages; then, when we regret that the story is over, we look forward to the possibility of hearing more about the same people in a later chapter. The characters are all from the same dying community. The residents want to continue on with their parochial lives, but life changes. Some of the characters plod on in misery; a few were brave enough and smart enough to leave, while some simply committed suicide. Bathsheba has an amazing talent for telling captivating stories about ordinary people. She only needs a few words to nail down the essence of her characters. You just feel like you know these people, you care about them and are charmed by them and affected by their fortunes and misfortunes. At times you wish you could knock some sense into them, yet you know them well enough to realize that it would be impossible for them to change. I loved these stories! It's hard to choose my favorite, but I loved, "Mrs. Herbinko's Birthday Party." She dies and heaven hands her a frustrating bureaucratic snafu-- but with a happy ending. Another favorite is "Mrs. Szewczak and the Rescue Dog." In a life and death situation, Mrs. Szewczak finds that the people she has always feared are worthy of her trust. And, the trustworthy learn once again, that no good deed goes unpunished. Now You See It reminds me of The Last Days of Dogtown, the latest novel by Anita Diamant (best known for the Red Tent). The books are similar because both are about the ordinary lives of the people in a dying community. Of the two books, I enjoyed Now You See It, the first novel by a new writer, over the work of a well-known writer. What a pleasure to find a new writer who can tell a great story without relying on a serial murderer to hold our interest!

bygone era

I grew up in a small steel town outside of Pittsburgh. I read this book and I knew these folks! I learned to bowl, polka, and drink beer with them. The mills are gone now, some made it out, some didn't. Ms. Monk's stories filled me with bitter sweet memories of a bygone era. Insightful, tragic, funny, and revealing are her characters. Thank you Bathsheba Monk.

The Return of the Native

Like, I suppose, many readers, I bought this on the strength of the wonderful New York Times magazine piece. In that piece an uppity ex-pat returns to her decaying native rustbelt town, confidently believing that "home-keeping youths have ever homely wit" and tactlessly attempts to instruct the local yokels in ways of escape.. That clash remains a theme of this book. It also displays the same mordant wit. The humor is black and bitter and often has death as a topic. The steel mills and coal mines that are closing down were hideously dangerous, but the close-knit ethnic Slavic community suffers from their passing. It's a collection of inter-related stories containing the ghost of a novel. The novel would have been about the Gojuck and Kusiak families. Their daughters, Theresa and Annie escape from Cokesville, Pennsylvania to Los Angeles and Boston, and hook up with Jews and Episcopalians, but keep getting reluctantly pulled back to their roots. Some of the stories that were not about members of the two families were brilliant but distracted from what could have been an even better novel.. I suspect that Bathsheba (love that name) Monk could not bear to leave out her best bits, which is understandable because some of them are very good indeed.

Bathsheba Monks Enlightens and Delights

Bathsheba Monk's "Now You See It... Tales from Cokesvillem PA" is one of the finest story collections that I've ever read. She portrays the citizens of a decaying rust belt city--those who stayed and those who left--with compassion and intelligence, charm and sensitivity, grace and wit. This is a book that will make you both laugh and cry. A must.

Splendid Surprise, A Gift From a Friend

I was stunned as I read this new voice, whose stories of Cokesville and its inhabitants thrilled me with laughter, tears and hope for us all. I remember a guy yelping about how Italians weren't anything like the Sopranos on TV. The mope totally missed the poetic journey of Tony and the gang. As the Sopranos is about the great large family under the tragic duress of societies forces, we are all from Cokesville, every one of us, and the life of it is the life of America, perhaps beyond. I am moved by this author's humanity and her powerful way with the page.