The Winter Without Milk: Stories

By Jane Avrich

Book Overview

Jane Avrich explores the perils of desire in these fifteen brilliant stories. Here are characters irresistibly attracted to excess -- material, emotional, spiritual -- who must in the end choose between a life of self-indulgence and a life of self-control. The results are both disastrous and uplifting, and often wickedly funny.
Throughout The Winter Without Milk are reimagined characters from literature and history -- Oedipus, Lady Macbeth, Scheherezade, for example -- as well as everyday people who want more. Avrich's writing ranges from whimsical to cerebral. She pays homage to everyone from Kafka to Keats to Sophocles but is very much an original and a major new talent in contemporary fiction.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618251421
• ISBN13: 9780618251421
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A brilliant, beautiful collection

I forced myself to read these stories as slowly as possible, wanting the book to last forever. Avrich is as gifted a writer as they come.

Wow!

Borges meets Shirley Jackson meets Virginia Woolf meets Italo Calvino! These wacky and delightful stories sparkle. Exuberant prose combines with an offbeat, playful worldview to offer an uncommonly satisfying reading experience. Brava!

Beautiful and funny writing

I adored this collection of playful and original short stories. Characters as diverse as Oedipus and Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter make appearances, but you don't have to reread your high school English books to know what's going on. The author has an amazing command of language and a rich, impressive imagination. I laughed out loud countless times, and was left with a lot to think about. Highly recommended.