The Man from Kinvara: Selected Stories

by Tess Gallagher

Book Overview

The Man from Kinvara presents selected stories from a renowned poet and prose writer "who savors the elegance of simplicity and whose stories resonate and linger" ( The New York Times Book Review )... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555975372
• ISBN13: 9781555975371
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Graywolf Press
• Length: 249 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The Man from Kinvara

Tess Gallagher's writing seems to have two main influences: a violent family tragedy early in her life, and her marriage to short story master Raymond Carver. Both of these influences act as touchstones in The Man from Kinvara Gallagher's volume of selected stories. Gallagher has gathered the stories from two earlier volumes, The Lover of Horses and At the Owl Woman Saloon, to make up this book. The selections from The Lover of Horses are vibrant, arresting visions of blue collar life tinged with depression and violence, as in the title story, where an immigrant family loses their breadwinner to a circus, and a young descendant struggles with her inheritance of that wildness. The stories in the second half are more distant from the action, often told from a bystander's perspective. This may cause an unfortunate disconnect for readers, unless they are familiar with Carver's work. Many of the pieces from At the Owl Woman Saloon are responses to some of Carver's most famous stories, and are a touching homage to a loved husband. Reviewed by Katie Capello