The Point: And Other Stories
by Charles D'Ambrosio
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Description
"From the winner of the 1993 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction comes a literary debut that marks the arrival of a striking new voice in American fiction. Charles D'Ambrosio's work is full of light and humor even in its darkest visions: these are stories of sorrow and mercy, of people struggling to wrest meaning from the tragedies that hover over their lives. All have reached a point from which there can be no true return, and it is in this moment of destruction and renewal - with the world they've show more known collapsing eerily behind them - that D'Ambrosio's characters begin their perilous crossing from knowledge into forgiveness." "The wise-beyond-his-years narrator of the title story guides a drunk woman home along the beach and confronts the violent legacy of his father's suicide. In "Her Real Name," a young man navigates the tired and forgotten allegory of the American West and manages a moment of ceremonial dignity as he buries a young girl at sea. In "Jacinta," a woman mourns her baby girl, who drowned in a tub of water left behind by evening rain. "American Bullfrog" and "Open House" are unforgettable stories of self-discovery and loss, detailing with simplicity and grace the loneliness of looking for a home in the world, or of pretending that you've found one. D'Ambrosio's fictions are packed with incident and bold in narrative sweep; in richly textured and often magnificent prose, they reveal a landscape of suffering and surprising beauty, of grief and restless hope. With the publication of The Point, Charles D'Ambrosio takes his place among the most interesting and exciting writers at work today."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
D'Ambrosio's colection of essays, [Loitering], is wonderful. So, I wanted to try his fiction. The writing is workmanlike but doesn't have the same flashes of greatness as the essays. The most memorable story features a boy who frequently is left to escort drunk men and women home from his mother's parties. The boy ends up a collector of all the rumors and gossip of these people's lives. Another stand out was the tale of a young couple's grief after the loss of their child. But, on balance, the stories didn't resonate near as well as D'Ambrosio's more personal non-fiction.
3 bones!!!
3 bones!!!
All but one or two of these stories is ultimately plotless, but still worthwhile, each delving vividly into a mood, a place or a single striking situation. Worthwhile writing. I'd hate to hear about this author's actual family. I bet it's BAD.
I enjoyed reading this collection of short stories. Charles D'Ambrosio has a way of immersing the reader into his stories with the most evocative of narratives while using the most simplest of words. His stories are of a genre called "Slice of Life Realism." I can feel these stories and the characters within them and they stay with me. My favorites in this collection are "Her Real Name" and "Open House." If you are looking for a short story collection, I recommend you give this one a try.
Col rischio di apparire scontato, 'La punta' è effettivamente un gran bel racconto, ma bello davvero. Chissà perchè non da il titolo all'edizione italiana. Mah.
Sharp short stories
"The Point" is one of the best short stories I've read in a very long time. Awesome collection.
One of my favorite contemporary short story writers.
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Author Information
Charles D'Ambrosio was born in 1960. After growing up in Seattle, D'Ambrosio graduated with a degree in English. D'Ambrosio took on many odd jobs until he enrolled in the Iowa Writer's Workshop. D'Ambrosio's short stories appeared in The New Yorker, Story, Best American Short Stories, and the Pushcart Anthology. He also published The Point, a show more collection of his short story works. D'Ambrosio's story, "Her Real Name" won the Aga Kahn Prize of the Paris Review. He has also received the HenfieldTransatlantic Award and a James Michener Fellowship. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Le cap
- Original title
- The Point
- Original publication date
- 1990 (1e édition originale américaine) (1e édition originale américaine); 2000-01-04 (1e traduction et édition française, Du monde entier, Gallimard) (1e traduction et édition française, Du monde entier, Gallimard)
- Original language*
- Anglais (Etats-Unis) (Etats-Unis)
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- 156
- Popularity
- 209,898
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (4.20)
- Languages
- 5 — Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
