Faulty Predictions: Stories (Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction)
Author(s): Karin Lin-Greenberg (Author)
- Publisher: University of Georgia Press
- Publication Date: September 15, 2014
- Edition: First Edition
- Language: English
- Print length: 192 pages
- ISBN-10: 0820346861
- ISBN-13: 9780820346861
Book Description
In Karin Lin-Greenberg’s Faulty Predictions, young characters try to find their way in the world and older characters confront regrets. In “Editorial Decisions,” members of the editorial board of a high school literary magazine are witnesses to an unspeakable act of violence. Two grandmothers, both immigrants from China, argue over the value of their treasures at a filming of Antiques Roadshow in “Prized Possessions.” In “A Good Brother,” a sister forces her brother to accompany her to the Running of the Brides at Filene’s Basement. A city bus driver adopts a pig that has been brought onto the bus by rowdy college students in “Designated Driver.”
The stories in Faulty Predictions take place in locales as diverse as small-town Ohio, the mountains of western North Carolina, and the plains of Kansas. Lin-Greenberg provides insight into the human condition over a varied cross section of geography, age, and culture. Although the characters are often faced with obstacles and challenges, the stories also capture moments of optimism and hope.
Review
The stories in Karin Lin-Greenberg’s debut collection are gems. Her characters walk the narrow line between comedy and tragedy, a lean territory thatLin-Greenberg navigates with skill and grace. I loved her curmudgeonly grandfathers, her young parents and college students and recovering alcoholics, her feuding septuagenarian housemates and fading talk show hosts. The range in this book is deep and marvelous. What fierce talent Lin-Greenberg has.
These stories are delightfully contemporary: in their telling, their wit, and their dissections of the way we live. A vivid and refreshing new voice.
The ten luminous stories in Lin-Greenberg’s masterful collection are united by her examination of the various and devious ways people try to put things into perspective. . . . A winner of the coveted Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, Lin-Greenberg deservedly joins such past recipients as Ha Jin, Kellie Wells, and Antonya Nelson as she offers a piquant look at life’s bittersweet moments.
Faulty Predictions is, as the name suggests, about all of the ways we expect more or less than we should from other people—parents, friends, lovers—as well as ourselves. The people who inhabit these stories are complicated, struggling, and often hilarious. Karin Lin-Greenberg offers everything I come to fiction hoping for—engaging narrators, precise observation, surprise, and finally compassion for the ways in which we are, all of us, flawed. Readers, you are in for a treat.This collection of ten short stories announces the arrival of a talented young writer with a distinctive narrative voice. . . . She is a gifted storyteller. . . . Unlike so many story collections today, which tend to the dark and cryptic,
Faulty Predictions pulses with a bemused energy. . . . In these ten stories, Lin-Greenberg displays impressive insight into human nature and empathy for regular people trying to make sense of their lives and circumstances. She also possesses a nicely dry wit and a gift for realistic dialogue that pops off the page. Remember her name; she is a young writer worth watching.Some of the stories in
Faulty Predictions have appeared previously in excellent literary journals, and it’s easy to see why: they range, colorfully and empathically, across a number of worlds and human predicaments. Appealingly, the voices narrating them, whatever the point of view, share a winning, gentle, clear gravity. These are stories you can easily enter and dwell in, but which not only shy away from the difficult – they head straight for it. . . . Faulty Predictions is a delightful debut, worth finding and savoring.Review
Book Description
From the Inside Flap
In Karin Lin-Greenberg s Faulty Predictions, young characters try to find their way in the world and older characters confront regrets. In Editorial Decisions, members of the editorial board of a high school literary magazine are witnesses to an unspeakable act of violence. Two grandmothers, both immigrants from China, argue over the value of their treasures at a filming ofAntiques Roadshow in Prized Possessions. In A Good Brother, a sister forces her brother to accompany her to the Running of the Brides at Filene s Basement. A city bus driver adopts a pig that has been brought onto the bus by rowdy college students in Designated Driver.
The stories in Faulty Predictions take place in locales as diverse as small-town Ohio, the mountains of western North Carolina, and the plains of Kansas. Lin-Greenberg provides insight into the human condition across a varied cross section of geography, age, and culture. Although the characters are often faced with obstacles and challenges, the stories also capture moments of optimism and hope.
From the Back Cover
“Faulty Predictions is, as the name suggests, about all of the ways we expect more or less than we should from other people parents, friends, lovers as well as ourselves. The people who inhabit these stories are complicated, struggling, and often hilarious. Karin Lin-Greenberg offers everything I come to fiction hoping for engaging narrators, precise observation, surprise, and finally compassion for the ways in which we are, all of us, flawed. Readers, you are in for a treat.”
Lori Ostlund, author of The Bigness of the World
“The stories in Karin Lin-Greenberg’s debut collection are gems. Her characters walk the narrow line between comedy and tragedy, a lean territory that Lin-Greenberg navigates with skill and grace. I loved her curmudgeonly grandfathers, her young parents and college students and recovering alcoholics, her feuding septuagenarian housemates and fading talk show hosts. The range in this book is deep and marvelous. What fierce talent Lin-Greenberg has.”
Christine Sneed, author of Little Known Facts and
Portraits of a Few of the People I’ve Made Cry
“These stories are delightfully contemporary: in their telling, their wit, and their dissections of the way we live. A vivid and refreshing new voice.”
Rebecca Makkai, author of The Hundred-Year House
The University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
ISBN 9780-8203-4686-1