The Clouds in Memphis: Stories and Novellas

By C.J. Hribal

Book Overview

The late Raymond Carver wrote of Matty's Heart, C. J. Hribal's first book, "our literature is healthier, and wiser with the publication of this collection of short fiction." Commenting on the same volume, Anne Tyler wrote, "some of these pieces are real masterpieces." Now Hribal is back with a new collection that charts both the recesses of the human heart and the resiliency of the human spirit. In three novellas and two short stories, Hribal traces the arcs of emotion and action that can follow on the heels of calamity. In the title novella, a divorced woman whose oldest son is hit and killed by a reckless driver struggles to come to terms with both her grief and the wreckage of her life since her marriage ended. In "War Babies," the sister of a woman killed in what may or may not have been an industrial accident tries to imagine the circumstances leading up to her sister's death, believing that in knowledge there can be solace. A different tack is taken by the central character in "Consent," a real estate developer who has to deal with a drowning that occurs in his newest subdivision: his reconstruction of the event carries him into dangerous moral territory. But not all the territory here is dangerous. The novella "And That's the Name of That Tune" features a narrator who recalls his father's escapades in a bar when the son was his seven-year-old companion. Tender, compassionate, bewildered, the son strives to understand the havoc his father inflicts on his family. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly wrote that Hribal "establishes an American landscape in the tradition of Cheever and Updike, though his is a world not of cocktail parties but of trailer parks, bars, and courtrooms. The subtle power of these stories will leave the reader hungry for more."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558492666
• ISBN13: 9781558492660
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

The Clouds in Memphis

These stories and novellas ache with the passions, aspirations, and disappointments of ordinary people in a particular place. The craftsmanship of displaying these emotions is precise and memorable. There is nothing funny going on here, only dedication to living by the survivors in these stories(there is much made of death and dying) and, by the author, a seering, relentless insight into his craft.

masterful writing

Mr. Hribal has written a set of stories that not only show amazing insight into the world and minds of women and children, but also draw powerful male characters. He somehow manages to keep a startling and beautiful prose on the page without ever drawing the reader away from the story. These stories and novellas are all terrific, but the finest of them is "And That's the Name of That Tune." In this novella Mr. Hribal manages to hold an engrossing tension together while adding humor and insight into a dysfunctional family. This is writing at its best, untouched by a need to be a bestseller these stories are allowed to be kept as they are, subtle, page-turning, and deftly wrought.

Publishers Weekly

"Hribal slides the emotional fabric of America under a literary microscope to reveal the lies, betrayals, and yearnings that connect and divide us all, giving his stories extraordinary power. He establishes an American landscape in the tradition of Cheever and Updike, though his is a world not of cocktail parties but of trailer parks, bars, and courtrooms. The subtle power of these stories will leave the reader hungry for more."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)