Read This and Tell Me What It Says

By A. Manette Ansay

Book Overview

Author of the widely acclaimed novel Vinegar Hill, A. Manette Ansay returns to the fictional town of Holly's Field, Wisconsin, and the midwestern landscape that surrounds it in her first full-length story collection, Read This and Tell Me What It Says.

Here are the lives of rural people struggling to make sense of the isolated and often intensely religious worlds in which they live. Marie, a young wife and mother, recalls the effects of a statutory rape trial on her small community. Stuart, a devout teenage boy, dares to rename himself "Start," the only significant thing he has ever done without first consulting God. Widowed Eliza discovers her husband's ghost in the bathroom, flipping through pages of the Popular Mechanics magazines she had thrown out after his death.

With grace and compassion, Ansay reveals the extraordinary interior lives of ordinary people. The result is a rare glimpse into the complex human equation of spiritual loneliness, desire, and hope.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870239880
• ISBN13: 9780870239885
• Release Date: October 1995
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

I usually read a lot of nonfiction--memoirs but..

This book was discussed on either Public Radio or Oprah had the author on to discuss this book--I can't remember. I read this book all in one day. It is a collection of stories that aren't very long but the characters have depth which allows the reader to feel like you have read a short book after each story. I shared this book with my Mom and my really good friend and they agree; it is a very good book.

Read This and Weep

I have read all of Ansay, and like her work alot. I never just read her work, I feel it. This collection shows that short stories are her strength. My favorites were the title story, Lies, and Spot Weaknesses. No one who's been a girl or had a daughter should miss Spot Weaknesses. It captures perfectly the pain of adolescence and the mother/daughter dance. Evolution is wonderful, too. Ansay has a way of crystalizing details and exposing emotional truths that we all intuit but rarely articulate. She manages to consistently get things "right", including the snapshots of animals which inhabit virtually all of her stories. I got this book from the library, but plan to buy it to reread and share.

I love this author!

OK, I have now read pretty much everything written by A. Manette Ansay! I am hooked on her books! I have loved every single one of them, and this one is no exception. She has such a wonderful way of describing regular, down-to-earth people! I liked all the stories in this book. Sure, they may be sad or depressing, but they're written in such a wonderful way!

a good read

I enjoyed reading this book of short stories so much that I bought a copy for my mom. She enjoyed it too. It's definitely not an uplifting collection, but the pieces feel honest and real.

Best of Ansay

This is a collection of Ansay's finest work as a writer. Sadly, Ansay has abandoned the short form, but these stories represent some of the finest fiction of the late twentieth century. In the course of five years, I believe Ansay published over thirty amazing short stories. Fans of her novels will be stunned by this collection. "Sybil" is the most disturbing short story of the 1990's.