Terrarium: New and Selected Stories

by Valerie Trueblood

Overview

Shortlisted for the Pacific Northwest Book Award

"Urgent, unnerving and tightly packed short fiction that covers enough ground for a library of novels." —The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

Valerie Trueblood's writing has been praised by The New York Times as "an exercise in literary restraint and extreme empathy." Selected here are stories from her previous collections—finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award—alongside her newest collection, which lends this book its name.

The new stories collected within Terrarium represent an exciting direction for the author: a condensing of narrative and, in some cases, a departure from it into another state of mind.

It's hard to describe any of Trueblood's stories as "typical." She does not write about people from a single class, or caste, or geographical area. She has not written a single story emblematic of her work. She does not write stories fantastical or eccentric. Ordinary life, her stories may be saying, is fantastical enough. She is more like Babel than Chekhov. In all her writing, it's clear that Trueblood believes that the short story can carry both the lightest and heaviest of loads. Terrarium highlights the achievement of simply living, the stories within often unresolved but in a state of continuation, expansion. Trueblood's stories aren't merely about their subjects, they're inside them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640090743
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	08/07/2018
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Valerie Trueblood is the author of the novel Seven Loves, and the short story collections Search Party, Marry or Burn, and Criminals. She's been a finalist for the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award, a finalist for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and a recipient of the B&N Discover Award. She lives in Seattle.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

From MARRY OR BURN, 2010
Invisible River 6
Choice in Dreams 26
Trespass 39
Phantom Father 62
Luck 74
Beloved, You Looked into Space 99

From SEARCH PARTY: STORIES OF RESCUE, 2013
The Finding 152
The Magic Pebble 159
The Llamas 182
Think Not Bitterly of Me 196
The Stabbed Boy 233
The Blue Grotto 239
Later or Never 258
Who Is He that Will Harm You? 275

From CRIMINALS: LOVE STORIES, 2016
Bride of the Black Duck 301
His Rank 315
Astride 319
Kisses 333
Da Capo 360
You Would Be Good 384
Sleepover 391
Novel of Rose 432
Criminals 437

TERRARIUM, 2018
1. Cherries
Aliens 456
Helen of Troy 458
Dogs of War and Peace 463
The Book Review 465
Mulierculae 471
The Witch 473
Crisco 476
Cherries 481

2. The Infralife
The Tamarins 483
Ghost 486
The Song 489
Stay 491
Tarp 497
Two Dogs 500

3. Earthly Love
Hero 506
Afternoon Tango 513
Two Birthdays 517
Whiteout 520
Forced Entry 523
Seurat 527
The Leopard 533
Raccoon 536
Flag of the Nude 541
The Bull 543
Orogeny 547

4. Chosen
Chosen 554
Where We Grew Up 559
Harvest 560
The Visiting Revivalist 561
The Girl Who Told 563
Advice 564
Freeway Rescues 565
River Boat 566

Editorial Reviews

Trueblood's stories are like the Tardis in Dr. Who. They're small on the outside, but once you've stepped through the door they expand in all directions until, by the end, surely it's a novel you just finished reading.

The New York Times Book Review - Alison McCulloch

06/25/2018
Selections from three previous collections, as well as 30 new stories (also headed “Terrarium”) comprise this excellent volume from Trueblood. The arrangement itself shows Trueblood’s shift to much shorter stories, particularly in the new selections. In “Phantom Father,” young Michele’s obsession with her mother’s first husband, Alonzo, who committed suicide and whom Michele never met, shadows her well into adulthood. The strangeness of obsession and family dynamics also figure prominently in the newer stories “The Tamarins” and “Helen of Troy.” In the longer stories, Trueblood’s direct and emotional prose draws the reader in, while the recent shorter pieces have a punchy, declarative flavor. In “Sleepover,” grandmother Angie, recently recovered from a heart attack, muses over decades as she chaperones a teenager’s birthday party that gets out of control. Some of the same themes recur in the newer stories, “Aliens: Saving the Child” and “Two Birthdays.” Across these 49 stories, Trueblood provides breadth, depth, and something even more—a window into her evolution as a writer. The earlier stories bear resemblance to Alice Munro’s, while the later are reminiscent of Lydia Davis’s; but throughout, Trueblood projects her own unique voice. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice
Shortlisted for the 2019 Pacific Northwest Book Award
1 of 10 Books to Read in August (BBC Culture)

"Trueblood's stories are like the Tardis in Dr. Who. They're small on the outside, but once you've stepped through the door they expand in all directions until, by the end, surely it's a novel you just finished reading . . . Urgent and unnerving." --The New York Times Book Review

"Terrarium [is] a career-spanning collection that brings together her classic work and dozens of new stories. It's a statement piece, a book that seems to be intended to mark her as a real American master of the short story." --The Seattle Review of Books

"The 49 stories here . . . speak to Trueblood's mastery and the spaciousness of her vision." --BBC Culture, 1 of 10 Books to Read in August

"If you're unfamiliar with Seattle author Valerie Trueblood, her new book, Terrarium: New and Selected Stories, offers a fine introduction. It handpicks tales from her three previous collections, Marry or Burn, Search Party: Stories of Rescue and Criminals: Love Stories, and rounds them out with new and more experimental pieces . . . Trueblood is at her best when deciphering ambiguities of the heart. She makes uncertainty luminous. She's also wonderful on the geography of Seattle, where many of the stories are set." --Crosscut

"In the meantime, there's more to Trueblood than her word count. Even her short-short stories--mere fragments of a feeling or memory . . . underline the most distinctive quality of her work. Even the longest stories go light on plot and read more like meditations that flow downstream, carrying with them the remembrance of things past, the mysterious alchemy of relationships and the elusive nature of love . . . In total, Terrarium is a compendium of thoughtful and often insightful pieces that deal with the most incomprehensible parts of our being." --The Seattle Times

"Urgent, unnerving and tightly packed short fiction that covers enough ground for a library of novels." --The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

"This big collection gives readers--whether new to Trueblood's work, or not--a great overview of her accomplished, varied style." --Omnivoracious, One of Four New Story Collections from Innovative Women Writers

"Selections from three previous collections, as well as 30 new stories (also headed "Terrarium") comprise this excellent volume from Trueblood . . . Across these 49 stories, Trueblood provides breadth, depth, and something even more--a window into her evolution as a writer. The earlier stories bear resemblance to Alice Munro's, while the later are reminiscent of Lydia Davis's; but throughout, Trueblood projects her own unique voice." --Publishers Weekly

"A new collection from one of our finest short story writers, preceded by condensed versions of her last three books . . . There are indeed some great stories here, praised for their unsettling combination of empathy and ruthlessness, for their elegant, uncommonly quick development, for their diverse, unexpected subject matter . . . She is still a cleareyed and compassionate reporter of the complexities and contradictions of human nature." --Kirkus Reviews

"Terrarium offers a landmark collection of stories from a distinguished author . . . Closing out the collection is a substantial set of new stories and vignettes, which feature notably succinct ruminations that manage to capture the nuance of her earlier works . . . Trueblood's stories question, explore, and expose as they offer unexpected connections and deeply human realizations." --Booklist

From the Publisher

2018-05-15
A new collection from one of our finest short story writers, preceded by condensed versions of her last three books.The assumption must be that, despite the prize nominations, critical picks, and good reviews, most readers have missed Trueblood's last three books and that her latest is insufficient to win them on its own. Because why else would her new collection be published as the fourth element in an omnibus of selected stories from each of its predecessors, all of which were relatively recent (Criminals, 2016; Search Party, 2013; Marry or Burn, 2010)? The problem is that since "Terrarium"—this is the name of the section of new stories within the book—contains a fair amount of flash fiction and stories that require a lot of attention and mulling from the reader, the publisher is not doing it any favors by sticking it at the tail end of a collection of the strongest (and, among them, the longest) stories Trueblood has ever written. There are indeed some great stories here, praised for their unsettling combination of empathy and ruthlessness, for their elegant, uncommonly quick development, for their diverse, unexpected subject matter. Stories like "Invisible River" and "Sleepover" doubtless deserve the widest possible audience. As for the grab bag of pieces in "Terrarium," it's hard to know how they would seem if they were not read at the tail end of the line. Trueblood's interest in calamity persists—kidnapped babies, battered wives, terminal diseases. And she is still a cleareyed and compassionate reporter of the complexities and contradictions of human nature. Maybe if the collection had been allowed to become a book on its own the short pieces would seem less like fragments. Trueblood has had an unusual career, having first published at age 60. Nonetheless, what seems intended to be a "rediscovery" feels a little rushed.Sometimes more is less.

Kirkus Reviews