Delicate Edible Birds and Other Stories

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Lauren Groff presents nine stories of astonishing insight and variety, each revealing a resonant drama within the life of a twentieth-century American woman.In "Sir Fleeting," a Midwestern farm girl on her honeymoon in Argentina falls into lifelong lust for a French playboy. In "Blythe," an attorney who has become a stay-at-home mother takes a night class in poetry and meets another full-time mother, one whose charismatic brilliance changes everything. In "The Wife of the Dictator," that eponymous wife ("brought...
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More About This Book

Overview


Lauren Groff presents nine stories of astonishing insight and variety, each revealing a resonant drama within the life of a twentieth-century American woman.In "Sir Fleeting," a Midwestern farm girl on her honeymoon in Argentina falls into lifelong lust for a French playboy. In "Blythe," an attorney who has become a stay-at-home mother takes a night class in poetry and meets another full-time mother, one whose charismatic brilliance changes everything. In "The Wife of the Dictator," that eponymous wife ("brought back...from [the dictator's] last visit to America") grows more desperately, menacingly isolated every day. In "Delicate Edible Birds," a group of war correspondents—a lone, high-spirited woman among them—falls prey to a brutal farmer while fleeing Nazis in the French countryside. And in "Lucky Chow Fun," Groff returns to Templeton, the setting of her first book, for revelations about the darkness within even that idyllic small town.In some of these stories, enormous changes happen in an instant. In others, transformations occur across a lifetime—or several lifetimes. Throughout the collection, Groff displays particular and vivid preoccupations. Crime is a motif—sex crimes, a possible murder, crimes of the heart. Love troubles occur in every story—love in alcoholism, in adultery, in a flood, even in the great flu epidemic of 1918. Some of the love has depths that are understood too late; some of the love is shallow and also understood too late. And mastery is a theme—Groff's women swim and twirl batons, become poets, or try and try again to achieve the inner strength to exercise personal freedom.Overall, these stories announce a notable new literary master. Dazzlingly original and confident, Delicate Edible Birds will further Groff's growing reputation as one of the foremost talents of her generation.
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Groff follows up The Monsters of Templeton with this innovative and beautifully written collection that covers a wide swath of humanity, from east coast resort towns, to the early 20th century flu epidemic, to WWII Europe. In "Lucky Chow Fun," the narrator, an ungainly but wise 17-year-old girl, watches over her younger sister after their father leaves and their mother tunes out. In "Watershed," a woman reunites with a man and moves back to her hometown, but their happiness is short-lived when a freak accident leaves her husband comatose. Not all stories are gems-the supernatural elements in "Fugue," about a couple tending to a semi-abandoned hotel, don't quite work, while "Blythe," about a housewife who befriends a bipolar eccentric in a poetry class, feels half-baked. Even in the less successful stories, Groff's prose is lovely, and when she nails a story-like the title story about journalists fleeing Nazi-occupied Paris-the results are sublime.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Library Journal

Nine stories. Nine wildly unique, exquisitely symphonic tales, full of beauty, tragedy, and the sudden horror of shocking images-this is Groff's gift to readers. And what a gift it is. The title story takes us back to Templeton, scene of Groff's debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton, recounting how a sex-slave scandal has stained the town's movers and shakers. Families are leveled; the economy tanks as shamed sinners flee. Meanwhile, the girls themselves are saved by one desperate act of courage. In "L. DeBard and Aliette," Groff updates the doomed romance of 12th-century lovers Abelard and Eloise, setting the story in 1918 New York City, which is reeling from the devastation of the plague. Shotgun teen marriages, mental illness, a promiscuous woman journalist in a war zone, childhood sweethearts who reconnect, a dictator's wife-Groff moves among these wholly unrelated worlds with a vision that happily traps the reader. Highly recommended.
—Beth E. Andersen

Kirkus Reviews
Tales of ordinary transformations and everyday occurrences are made magical in a collection of nine stories by Groff (The Monsters of Templeton, 2008). The details make the difference in this sophomore effort. They range from specific realities, as when a lonely teen swimmer watches her breath rise in "a great silver jellyfish-bubble of air" before her small town falls apart in "Lucky Chow Fun," to dreamlike metaphor, as when another young woman feels her depression as "this black sack filled with cobras" in "Majorette." "Lucky Chow Fun," which returns to Templeton, the fictionalized Cooperstown, N.Y., of the author's debut novel, was previously published, as was the vivid "L. DeBard and Aliette," a retelling of a tragic romance, set in New York during the flu epidemic of 1918. As a collection, the stories are loosely connected by their themes of metamorphosis, as girls grow up, lose their illusions and, often, find unexpected happiness. Images of water and fire run through these tales as well: Aliette, the Heloise substitute, regains her strength after polio via swimming lessons with the handsome L. DeBard, and, in "Watershed," a diver tells of an elderly couple who end their pain by diving into a waterfall. "There is no ending, no neatness in this story," the narrator offers. "There never really is, where water is concerned." The "wild, febrile, kind, ambiguous" nature of the elements may serve to explain the power in these stories, which could have faltered in the hands of a lesser writer. Groff's skill makes commonplace occurrences seem compelling. Agent: Bill Clegg/William Morris Agency
From the Publisher
"Groff's skill makes commonplace occurrences seem compelling." —-Kirkus
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781401340865
  • Publisher: Hyperion
  • Publication date: 1/27/2009
  • Pages: 320
  • Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.40 (h) x 1.20 (d)

Meet the Author

Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff is the author of The Monsters of Templeton, which was short-listed for the Orange Prize for New Writers. Her short stories have appeared in the anthologies Pushcart Prize XXXII, The Best American Short Stories 2007, and Best New American Voices 2008, as well as a number of journals, including the Atlantic, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and Five Points. She lives in Gainesville, Florida. Susan Ericksen is an actress who performs on stage and television. An Audie Award and AudioFile Earphones Award winner, Susan has recorded many audiobooks, including Naked in Death by J. D. Robb and Savannah Blue by Mary Kay Andrews.

Good To Know

Many-if not most-of my ancestors are Mennonite or Amish, all Pennsylvania Dutch-my grandfather still can speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and there's a Groffdale in Lancaster County filled with people who look curiously like me.

I spent a year between high school and college as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in Nantes, France-mostly in the house of a family with a catering business (when I returned from France, I'd gained so much weight that my parents didn't recognize me at first in the airport).

My sister Sarah is an elite triathlete, fourth in the US, trying to make the an Olympic berth for Beijing this summer. She's definitely my hero.

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    1. Hometown:
      Gainesville, FL, USA
    1. Date of Birth:
      July 23, 1978
    2. Place of Birth:
      Cooperstown, NY, USA
    1. Education:
      BA English and French Literature, Amherst College, 201: MFA in Fiction, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006
    2. Website:
      http://www.laurengroff.com

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 6 )
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Sort by: Showing all of 6 Customer Reviews

  • Posted July 25, 2009

    Wow

    I loved this collection of women's stories. I was impressed with how different they each were, and I was drawn in by each one. I could not put this book down. I look forward to reading Lauren Groff's other works.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 30, 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    The Graveyard Book
    The Edible Woman
    Cat's Eye
    The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

    Talented New Feminist Fiction Author on the Scene

    Lauren Groff has rendered a surreal, disturbing and provocative collection of short stories in Delicate, Edible Birds. Listen closely for the water trickling through each - a common, mysterious thread amidst very different settings, plots and characters...

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 12, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

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    Posted January 3, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 19, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 17, 2011

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