American Innovations: Stories

Marc Notes: ; 8; This is a short-story collection from one of America's young talents. In one of the intensely imaginative stories in Rivka's Galchen's book, a young woman's furniture walks out on her. In another, the narrator feels compelled to promise to deliver a takeout order that has incorrectly been phoned in to her. In a third, the petty details of a property transaction illuminate the complicated pains and loves of a family. The tales in this collection are secretely in conversation with canonical stories, reimagined from the perspective of female characters.. Biographical Note: RIVKA GALCHEN is the recipient of a William Saroyan International Prize for Fiction Writing and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, among other distinctions. She writes regularly for "The New Yorker," whose editors selected her for their list of "20 Under 40" American fiction writers in 2010. Her debut novel, the critically acclaimed "Atmospheric Disturbances," was published by FSG in 2008. Table of Contents: CONTENTS1. The Lost Order2. The Region of Unlikeness3. Sticker Shock4. American Innovations5. Wild Berry Blue6. The Entire Northern Side Was Covered with Fire7. Read Estate8. Dean of the Arts9. The Late Novels of Gene Hackman10. Once an EmpireAcknowledgementsPublisher Marketing: A BRILLIANT NEW COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES FROM THE "CONSPICUOUSLY TALENTED" ("TIME") RIVKA GALCHENIn one of the intensely imaginative stories in Rivka Galchen's "American Innovations," a young woman's furniture walks out on her. In another, the narrator feels compelled to promise to deliver a takeout order that has incorrectly been phoned in to her. In a third, the petty details of a property transaction illuminate the complicated pains and loves of a family. The tales in this groundbreaking collection are secretly in conversation with canonical stories, reimagined from the perspective of female characters. Just as Wallace Stevens's "Anecdote of the Jar" responds to John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Galchen's "The Lost Order" covertly recapitulates James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," while "The Region of Unlikeness" is a smoky and playful mirror to Jorge Luis Borges's "The Aleph." The title story, "American Innovations," revisits Nikolai Gogol's "The Nose." By turns realistic, fantastical, witty, and lyrical, these marvelously uneasy stories are deeply emotional and written in exuberant, pitch-perfect prose. Whether exploring the tensions in a mother-daughter relationship or the finer points of time travel, Galchen is a writer like none other today. Review Citations: Quill & Quire 05/01/2014 pg. 28 (EAN 9781443425919, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2013 pg. 68 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) Publishers Weekly 03/03/2014 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2014 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Library Journal 04/15/2014 pg. 81 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Booklist 05/01/2014 pg. 76 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) Shelf Awareness 05/16/2014 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) New York Times Book Review 05/25/2014 pg. 26 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) New York Times Book Review 05/18/2014 pg. 12 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) Kirkus Best Fiction 11/15/2014 pg. 19 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/07/2014 pg. 26 (EAN 9780374280475, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Galchen, Rivka Rivka Galchen received her MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, having spent a year in South America working on public health issues. Galchen completed her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Robert Bingham Fellow. Her essay on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics was published in "The Believer", and she is the recipient of a 2006 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Galchen lives in New York City. She is the author of the novel "Atmospheric Disturbances."