The Safety of Objects

By A.M. Homes

Book Overview

The breakthrough story collection that established A. M. Homes as one of the most daring writers of her generation Originally published in 1990 to wide critical acclaim, this extraordinary first collection of stories by A. M. Homes confronts the real and the surreal on even terms to create a disturbing and sometimes hilarious vision of the American dream. Included here are "Adults Alone," in which a couple drops their kids off at Grandma's and gives themselves over to ten days of Nintendo, porn videos, and crack; "A Real Doll," in which a girl's blond Barbie doll seduces her teenaged brother; and "Looking for Johnny," in which a kidnapped boy, having failed to meet his abductor's expectations, is returned home. These stories, by turns satirical, perverse, unsettling, and utterly believable, expose the dangers of ordinary life even as their characters stay hidden behind the disguises they have so carefully created.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143122703
• ISBN13: 9780143122708
• Release Date: January 2013
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Peculiar People

In a series of skillfully constructed short stories, A. M. Homes has unveiled with great élan the frightening underside of suburbia. The characters run the gamut from a disappointed pedophile to a lascivious obese girl, from a responsible mother gone wild on a weekend away from her children to a teen boy who becomes strangely attracted to his sister's Barbie. However, revealing any more about these stories would be unseemly, as the degenerate twists are part of their seductive powers. Despite the shocking premises, the basic situations and feelings evoked are often universal - making this book a somewhat uneasy read. The reader does not want to identify with these characters, but Homes, with laser-like precision, forces the reader to just such apperception. Reading "Safety of Objects" left me alternately paralyzed with laughter and oddly nauseous - a true mark of genius! This book is the first I've read by Homes, but I'm already eagerly anticipating the next.

A book junkie in Florida

A.M. Home's Safety of Objects, is disturbing, and yet has you begging for more. These short stories are like not like any others you've read. Bravo to Ms. Homes and her imagination. You will not be able to put this one down, and will hate when the you come to the last page. It's a wonderfully different book with a number of subjects and stories sure to have you in histerics or on the edge of your seat.

Haunting

Beautiful and arresting, the stories in this collection look at the world sideways and from that vantage point show us much that we try to repress. Ms. Homes has an original way of expressing the ineffable disatisfaction many of us can smell in the suburbs but have a hard time expressing. These stories are a triumph of contemporary North American literature.

Fascinating and disturbing

Tight, well-written short stories about contemporary life. A unique, compelling new voice in fiction.