Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories

by Lore Segal

Overview

The thirteen interrelated stories of Shakespeare's Kitchen concern the universal longing for friendship, how we achieve new intimacies for ourselves, and how slowly, inexplicably, we lose them. Featuring six never-before-published pieces, Lore Segal's stunning new book evolved from seven short stories that originally appeared in the New Yorker (including the O. Henry Prize–winning "The Reverse Bug").

Ilka Weisz has accepted a teaching position at the Concordance Institute, a think tank in Connecticut, reluctantly leaving her New York circle of friends. After the comedy of her struggle to meet new people, Ilka comes to embrace, and be embraced by, a new set of acquaintances, including the institute's director, Leslie Shakespeare, and his wife, Eliza. Through a series of memorable dinner parties, picnics, and Sunday brunches, Segal evokes the subtle drama and humor of the outsider's loneliness, the comfort and charm of familiar companionship, the bliss of being in love, and the strangeness of our behavior in the face of other people's deaths.

A magnificent and deeply moving work, Shakespeare's Kitchen marks the long–awaited return of a writer at the height of her powers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595583468
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	04/01/2008
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,079,302
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Lore Segal was born in Vienna and educated at the University of London. The author of Other People's Houses, Her First American, and Shakespeare's Kitchen (all published by The New Press) and other works, she is a regular contributor to the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, the New Republic, and other publications. Between 1968 and 1996 she taught writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts, Princeton University, Bennington College, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Ohio State University, from which she retired in 1996.

Table of Contents

An Introduction
Money, Fame, and Beautiful Women     3
Cousins
An Absence of Cousins     25
The Talk in Eliza's Kitchen     46
Crime
Garbage Thief     71
At Whom the Dog Barks     83
A Gated Community     98
Deaths
Fatal Wish     105
Other People's Deaths     137
The Howling
Reverse Bug     151
By Joy Surprised
Picnic     169
Mistral     179
Leslie's Shoes     186
An End
Yom Kippur Card     205

Editorial Reviews

Lore Segal is an astute and gentle observer, and Ilka Weisz (née Weissnix), for worse and for better, has made it through another of her books. It’s hard not to wonder what will become of her now.
— The New York Times

Sue Halpern

The cumulative power of Shakespeare's Kitchen lies in Segal's dazzling ability to merge the mundane details of life -- a missing pencil sharpener, a tipped-over garbage can -- with the arc of human emotions. Take, for example, a group of Concordance fellows stumbling into a summer evening after viewing a friend's corpse: "They stood a moment, they talked, not accounting to themselves for the intense charm of the summer hill rising behind Ilka's house, of standing, or breathing -- of the glamour of being alive."
— The Washington Post

Caroline Preston

What began as seven interrelated short stories published in the New Yorker(including the O. Henry Prize-winning "The Reverse Bug") is now a full-length collection of 13, the first major work of fiction in 20 years from the acclaimed author of Her First American. Filled with all the pomp and depressed glory of a modern-day Great Gatsby, each installment delivers an entertaining glimpse into the dysfunctional lives of a group of hoity-toity Connecticut think tank intellectuals as they philosophize over wine and cheese, fall in and out of love, and go about their daily lives with reckless abandon. Most of the action takes place (or is retold, properly discussed and drunkenly digested) in the kitchen of the institute's director, Leslie Shakespeare, while Leslie's wife alternatively entertains and lambastes their friends. Although the plot centers on nothing more than everyday comings and goings, Segal gives readers a peek into the sausage factory of daily routine, in which humdrum but necessary minutiae belie the intrigue and angst stirred up in her self-absorbed characters' internal monologues. When stacked together, these vignettes are hilarious and telling. Segal exhibits a rare insight into the human character that is at once humbling and shamelessly enjoyable to behold. (Apr.)

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Publishers Weekly

A surprising and gratifying treat for literary fiction readers, Segal's (Other People's Houses) collection of 13 stories includes the O. Henry Prize-winning "The Reverse Bug," as well as several never-before-published pieces. All are vignettes from the life of Ilka Weisz, a teacher of college-level ESL. The first story sets the scene: Ilka is a newcomer to the Concordance Institute, a Connecticut think tank made up of a tight-knit group of academics. While she struggles to be accepted into the exclusive staff clique, she manages to charm institute director Leslie Shakespeare and his wife, Eliza, beginning a lifelong friendship as well as an affair. As Ilka is welcomed into the institute's fold, she becomes privy to her colleagues' little secrets and struggles and they to hers. The writing style is spare, leaving out exposition during conversations so that the characters' spoken words regulate the story's ever-changing tone. Fans of modernist works will enjoy the free-flowing stream of conversation; postmodern devotees will appreciate being able to fill in the lacunae between stories. Highly recommended for literary fiction collections.
—Amy Ford

Library Journal