Download The Brutal Language of Love: Stories by fb2, epub

by Alicia Erian

ISBN: 0375760334
Author: Alicia Erian
Language: English
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (June 11, 2002)
Pages: 224
Category: United States
Subcategory: Literature
Rating: 4.7
Votes: 489
Size Fb2: 1293 kb
Size ePub: 1740 kb
Size Djvu: 1178 kb
Other formats: lit docx lrf rtf

Alicia Erian United States English

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Her characters-flawed, brave, disarming, the not-so-very-wide space between a good intention and a bad outcome. There were some stories which I found particularly powerful, and I suspect the standouts would differ wildly person to person, depending on their life experiences.

Alicia Erian explores that peculiar part of the psyche and the complications of the heart that make you do things when you know better. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Collects nine stories that examine how love and emotions can make an individual do things that might be considered out of character in such works as "Lass," about a newlywed bride who finds herself drawn to her father-in-law.

Alicia Erian y and struck Brigitte as a sort of absentminded type who needed looking after. Mostly Brigitte thought things like it would be nice to do Shirley Mayer’s laundry, or help her with her taxes. Occasionally she imagined kissing Shirley Mayer, but only occasionally, for it was a little overwhelming to feel so pleased by something so unfamiliar

Alicia Erian's characters are brave, disarming, affectionate, and deeply flawed. They inhabit the not-so-very-wide space between a good intention and a bad outcome

Alicia Erian's characters are brave, disarming, affectionate, and deeply flawed. They inhabit the not-so-very-wide space between a good intention and a bad outcome. In "Alcatraz," we meet a middle-school spelling champion who spends her afternoons taking baths with the boy next door. In "On the Occasion of My Ruination," a college-bound student plots to lose her virginity to a pizza parlor waiter.

Alicia Erian explores that peculiar part of the psyche and the complications of the heart that make you do things when you know better

Alicia Erian explores that peculiar part of the psyche and the complications of the heart that make you do things when you know better. From the first sentences of these nine stunning stories, Alicia Erian has you firmly in her grasp. In "Alcatraz" we meet a middle-school spelling champion who spends her afternoons taking baths with the boy next door. In "Almonds and Cherries," a young woman turns an unexpectedly arousing bra-shopping experience into a short film, with ramifications for everyone around her.

A remote disciplinarian prone to explosive rages, Jasira's father is unable to show his daughter the love she craves - and far less able to handle her feelings about her changing body. Bewildered by extremes of parental scrutiny and neglect, Jasira begins to look elsewhere for affection.

Alicia Erian's characters are brave, disarming, affectionate, and deeply flawed.

Erian has a unique and somehow genuine way of entering other people's lives, carefully and forgivingly. Her tone is reminiscent of Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff, her tales of . Salinger and Skeeter Pullman. She is at once literary and colloquial. This makes for some very compelling reading.

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This is her first novel. More books from this author: Alicia Erian. Thank you for signing up, fellow book lover! Tell us what you like and we'll recommend books you'll love. Audiobooks Book Club Newsletter Biography & Autobiography Business & Personal Finance Children Christian Cooking. eBooks Entertainment & Pop Culture History New Releases Mystery Politics Romance. Science Fiction Self-help Sports Teen Thriller & Suspense Tips on Life & Love Fiction.

Alicia Erian, whose work has appeared in The Iowa Review, Zoetrope, and Nerve, casts aside traditional notions of right and wrong and conjures up situations that are at once familiar and unsettling. Her characters—flawed, brave, disarming, affectionate—inhabit the not-so-very-wide space between a good intention and a bad outcome. In “Alcatraz,” we meet a middle-school spelling champion who spends her afternoons taking baths with the boy next door. In “Almonds and Cherries,” a young woman turns an unexpectedly arousing bra-shopping experience into a short film, with ramifications for everyone around her. These surprising, provocative, and deeply resonant stories mark the emergence of a major new talent.

Comments:

Whitecaster

This wasn't about farm animals which is what I was expecting so I'm a little disappointed.

Micelhorav

I'm always wary of short stories, especially since sometimes it feels like the author is just being random in hopes that we'll see the "bigger picture" and declare them a genius. The Brutal Language of Love actually has some very good (and very brutal!) short stories, most of which won't leave you scratching your head going, "...There was a plot, right?"

Thetalas

"Brutal" is right! I have to admit that the stories in this collection are well written, but the stories themselves are not only unhappy, I found them disturbing. The protagonists are primarily women or girls who have warped ideas of what love is. They allow themselves to be used and abused, emotionally, by the men they encounter. To be clear, these are not stories depicting unconventional sex between consenting parties, they don't depict rape nor do they contain graphic descriptions of sexual encounters. I simply found the characters so sad, and the stories so consistently dark, that it wasn't pleasant reading. Other reviewers described the women as strong but I simply didn't see it that way.

Anaginn

It is brutal, beautiful and moving. I couldn't get enough of her gorgeously damaged characters. The stories are so compelling and the writing utterly fearless.

FailCrew

I am not a great fan of most contemporary short stories, which tend to be literary to a fault or edgy and cynical to the point of tedium, but I picked up this collection because I loved the title and it gave me great pleasure from beginning to end. Yes, I often wanted to hit the characters over the head, but I always had to find out what happened next, and it always satisfied. The writing is clean and lively and very funny without ever losing its heart, and Erian has a remarkable talent for ending stories on the perfect note. I look forward to reading more from her.

Reighbyra

let me start by saying that this is the only book i have ever felt compelled to review on this site, and probably will be the only one for quite some time. picking up this book was an impulse buy, as i violated two main rules in purchasing it: firstly, i don't buy authors i haven't heard of; and secondly, i shy away from women in contemporary fiction because i have gotten burned way too much in the last few years. that being said, this collection is one of the finest that i have read in my life. the protagonists are all empowered females, so the book has a feminist flair, but what is most interesting about the presentation is the decidedly anti-feminist undercurrent. erian never leaves things clear cut. when her characters makes conscious decisions that empower them, that allow them to flaunt their power and their sexuality, i found myself cringing because while these are powerful decisions, they are not exactly the right ones, and the characters know it. there is a self-destruction in the exercising of their femininity that is at once wholly new, unexpected, admirable, and tragic. erian's prose is economic and careful, and her stories taunt the reader with abrupt endings and open interpretation. she will end a story right as she leads up to a confrontation that has been building for fifteen pages, and it is here that she empowers her reader, by allowing them to take an active role in ending the story. based on what we have read, we know in our hearts how the story will end based on what we drew from the body of the prose; but our endings will all be different. erian's voice is immediate and achingly contemporary...it makes fare like the canon of oprah's book club seem inept and maudlin. this is power in storytelling. i can't wait for her upcoming novel.

Blacknight

This book is definitely worth reading. The story about the girl losing her virginity absoulutely killed me. I was almost embarrassed while reading it, it felt so real, I felt as though I were intruding on a real person's privacy. For me that is a sign of really good writing. Looking forward to more by the author.

Left to their own devices the women of Alicia Arian's first collection of short stories often willfully set down the wrong path as a way to feel more alive, even if the consequences are dire. Her heroines are self absorbed, masochists but somehow we, as readers, are compelled to stick with them through the ugliness that is all too familiar. Arian delves into the shameful moments that all of us share without moral proselytizing. She engages us through her acerbic wit and an assured hand. One after the other, each of her stories is a tart treat. Damged goods never were so prized.