Publishers Weekly
08/03/2015
In her fourth collection, Tallent (In Constant Flight) explores the spaces between people through 10 expertly crafted stories. Mostly set in California with forays into Iowa, the book features characters with strong ties to place, whether they’re navigating the wilds of academia or of nature. This is perhaps most evident in the title story, whose protagonist seeks to protect California’s wildlife by living in a 500-year-old tree. In “Tabriz,” a man wonders if a rug he dug out of the trash catalyzed the unraveling of his marriage. “Eros 101,” a sharp, affecting look at longing, academia, and office politics, reveals a woman struggling to reconcile intellect and emotion. And “Nobody You Know” subverts expectations of a narrative that seems at first to be about a lover’s revenge. Taken as a whole, these stories examine love in its many forms, with the most successful probing the realm of romantic love, where Tallent addresses emotional conflicts with a refreshingly light touch. Tallent’s collection offers a smart, thought-provoking study of desire and disappointment. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
[Tallent] brings an immense complexity and dimension to the domestic affairs of the heart. At times, these stories almost veer toward the epic, emotionally speaking, and are reminiscent of the muscular, sharp-eyed narratives of the late Robert Stone.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Elizabeth Tallent is, and always has been, a vivid, meticulous, and astutely inviting writer. These new stories vitally tell us how things are for us, in the most acute and memorable ways. Her ear is perfect; her gaze searing and unmistakable.” — Richard Ford
“Enchanting. . . . Immediately engaging. . . . The ability to create characters who force us to withhold judgment and leave us gasping at their absolute, solid reality isn’t the result of any special kindness or goodness on the part of the author. — New York Times Book Review
“Elizabeth Tallent’s style is so distinctive, and it’s the kind of writing I so enjoy, never obvious, full of complex thought and perception, so boldly ambitious.” — Tessa Hadley, author of Clever Girl
“In her fourth collection, Tallent explores the spaces between people through 10 expertly crafted stories. . . . Tallent’s collection offers a smart, thought-provoking study of desire and disappointment.” — Publishers Weekly
“Tallent’s assured voice is a pleasure to follow through this book. . . . An ambitious and wide-ranging set of stories that creates empathy for most of its characters due to Tallent’s generous imagination.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Driving, furious, erotic, gilded, the sentences flying at you like arrows...Her book is a meditation on the state of marriage.” — Tin House
“Mendocino Fire throws sparks.” — Vanity Fair
“Tallent’s characters are most nearly themselves, because of or in spite of love, and that is the rich truth of this book.” — Oregonian
“[Tallent writes] with a keen, quicksilver appreciation of her characters’ inner lives and with a poet’s eye for the luminous, skewed details of everyday life.” — New York Times
“Everything about Tallent’s work speaks of its delicacy and precision...brilliant.” — Chicago Tribune
“Excellent. . . . In these stories, [Tallent] continues to explore relationships on the brink of transformation.” — San Jose Mercury News
“A good short story is a visceral thing, but it is rare to find stories as elegant, as perfectly made as Elizabeth Tallent’s, that put a scare into us. Tallent is a magician: her characters get sawed in half by life and stand up whole.” — Valerie Trueblood, author of Search Party and Seven Loves
“The characters in these stories have been around the block a few times. They are often exes. But they are no match for Tallent, who, in a finely articulated style, shows herself to be quite deft at throwing monkey wrenches into the machinery of complacence.” — Carol Anshaw, author of Carry the One
“The first pleasure here is the glitter and darkness of the prose only Tallent can produce; but the profounder gift in these stories is the author’s empathy, a tireless empathy, her knowledge of her characters’ peculiar entitlements and pangs and assumptions.” — Louis B. Jones, author of Innocence and Ordinary Money
Oregonian
Tallent’s characters are most nearly themselves, because of or in spite of love, and that is the rich truth of this book.
Tessa Hadley
Elizabeth Tallent’s style is so distinctive, and it’s the kind of writing I so enjoy, never obvious, full of complex thought and perception, so boldly ambitious.
New York Times Book Review
Enchanting. . . . Immediately engaging. . . . The ability to create characters who force us to withhold judgment and leave us gasping at their absolute, solid reality isn’t the result of any special kindness or goodness on the part of the author.
San Francisco Chronicle
[Tallent] brings an immense complexity and dimension to the domestic affairs of the heart. At times, these stories almost veer toward the epic, emotionally speaking, and are reminiscent of the muscular, sharp-eyed narratives of the late Robert Stone.
Richard Ford
Elizabeth Tallent is, and always has been, a vivid, meticulous, and astutely inviting writer. These new stories vitally tell us how things are for us, in the most acute and memorable ways. Her ear is perfect; her gaze searing and unmistakable.
New York Times
[Tallent writes] with a keen, quicksilver appreciation of her characters’ inner lives and with a poet’s eye for the luminous, skewed details of everyday life.
Vanity Fair
Mendocino Fire throws sparks.
Tin House
Driving, furious, erotic, gilded, the sentences flying at you like arrows...Her book is a meditation on the state of marriage.
San Jose Mercury News
Excellent. . . . In these stories, [Tallent] continues to explore relationships on the brink of transformation.
Chicago Tribune
Everything about Tallent’s work speaks of its delicacy and precision...brilliant.
Louis B. Jones
The first pleasure here is the glitter and darkness of the prose only Tallent can produce; but the profounder gift in these stories is the author’s empathy, a tireless empathy, her knowledge of her characters’ peculiar entitlements and pangs and assumptions.
Valerie Trueblood
A good short story is a visceral thing, but it is rare to find stories as elegant, as perfectly made as Elizabeth Tallent’s, that put a scare into us. Tallent is a magician: her characters get sawed in half by life and stand up whole.
Carol Anshaw
The characters in these stories have been around the block a few times. They are often exes. But they are no match for Tallent, who, in a finely articulated style, shows herself to be quite deft at throwing monkey wrenches into the machinery of complacence.
San Francisco Chronicle
[Tallent] brings an immense complexity and dimension to the domestic affairs of the heart. At times, these stories almost veer toward the epic, emotionally speaking, and are reminiscent of the muscular, sharp-eyed narratives of the late Robert Stone.
Oregonian
Tallent’s characters are most nearly themselves, because of or in spite of love, and that is the rich truth of this book.
Chicago Tribune
Everything about Tallent’s work speaks of its delicacy and precision...brilliant.
Kirkus Reviews
2015-07-29
This collection of stories in the American realist tradition has an adventurous, untethered feeling, with wide-ranging locales and points of view. The first thing you notice about Tallent's first book in more than 20 years (Honey, 1993, etc.) is its breadth of subject matter. Set on university campuses, in the hardscrabble backwoods, or among much-divorced families, these stories feature emotionally wrenching situations and dramatic landscapes. Tallent probes different points of view—a young man struggling with his dad in a working-class California fishing community; an academic having an erotic encounter with her female student; an aging activist dealing with his multiple-ex-wives problem. These stories explore different genders, sexualities, and settings with skill and subtle intelligence. Next you notice Tallent's, er, talent as a prose stylist—she writes in long sentences pulsing with images and insights. In a story about a woman painfully and suddenly divorced, Tallent describes the woman's thoughts when scrutinizing a photograph of her husband's lover: "The mouth is done in a lipstick of a crude, carnal, trashy red, a third-world mouth, a Cuban mouth, and Ximena can't help wondering if the lover feels the need to mitigate her whiteness, if the ethnification of her mouth is owed to competitiveness with Ximena, about whom [her husband] must tell stories...." Or an academic observing her student, for whom she's developed an overwhelming attraction: "Under Clio's hot gaze the knot of passionate hair at the Beloved's nape, screwed so tight in its coil, releases red-gold strands flaring with electricity." Tallent's assured voice is a pleasure to follow through this book. Occasionally, she tries to cover too much ground within one story, and the reader loses the thread, as confusing gaps of time occur and important characters recede. But mostly, Tallent is in control as she navigates her shifting landscapes. An ambitious and wide-ranging set of stories that creates empathy for most of its characters due to Tallent's generous imagination.
